Volunteer orchard tree planting day at Eastbrookend Country Park
- Celia Wain-Heapy
- Nov 28, 2019
- 2 min read
Thank you to all ClimateYouChange members and volunteers who helped to plant the apple orchard at Eastbrookend Country Park in the East London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.
We really appreciate Jerome Scorer, community ranger for Barking and Dagenham Council, giving us this opportunity to contribute to the 64-tree orchard he has been creating, with a tree planting event laid on for our group.
It was a fantastic opportunity to have hands on tree planting experience!
Group members and volunteers, Hanan, Soha, Stewart, Shiraz, Chris and Celia headed out to the Eastbrookend Discovery Centre, an environmentally friendly visitor centre, designed to demonstrate best practice in environmental construction. For information on the energy efficient and sustainable building practices used in the centre, please see the link. (Information can be found near the bottom of the corresponding page)
Once outside Jerome guided us through key aspects of tree planting:
allowing enough space for the root balls
staking to safeguard against high wind speeds
using tree guards to protect bark from rabbits
mulching for moisture retention and weed prevention
suitable spacing.
Between us we planted a row of apple trees in the ground. They were already about six feet tall, so they should get a strong start in their new home.
This was a fantastic first activity for ClimateYouChange, given the huge role which trees have in carbon sequestration and community fruit-bearing trees have in lowering food miles for local people, alongside providing much needed help for pollinators and other beneficial insects.
We aim to make this the first of many sustainability initiatives which we work on, including further ecological measures which achieve climate change mitigation and support the natural world!
