All things wild and wonderful as trees flourish at Kielderhead Wildwood project

For the first time in three years, due to the coronavirus pandemic, there was no planting on the site through April, May and June and, with 18,000 trees still needing to be planted, the return to a semblance of normality couldn’t come soon enough.

Returning to the site after lockdown, Steven Lipscombe, Kielderhead Wildwood officer reports that along the Scaup Burn, the young alder and birch trees, planted over the past three years are beginning to emerge from the tops of their plastic tubes, in some cases, three or four foot above.

In 10 years, they will create thickets of woodland among the heather clad hillside and will continue to mature over the next 100 years.

Over the course of five years, the partnership project between Northumberland Wildlife Trust and Forestry England, made possible thanks to a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, will have helped to establish a low density, native upland woodland on the site.

Steven said: “So much of conservation is about trying to protect what we have and trying to make sure we don’t lose things; this project is about trying to create things and taking a look at what we’re missing, what we could have in the future and taking the opportunity to put something back out there.”

By the end of 2019, 12,000 trees had been planted on site.

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