Become a volunteer at our tree nurseries

Restoring woodland and hedgerows, re-connecting fragmented habitats, combating climate change and reducing flood risk are just some of the reasons to plant more trees in our landscape. And these are the key aims of our Woodlands for Water Project. Based at our Aberduna office, project manager Jonny Hulson and project officer Sarah Ellis have developed an extensive nursery of over 20,000 trees.

Tree species currently include sessile oak, alder, hazel, downy birch, crab apple, Scots pine, willows, hornbeam, cherry, Aspen, hawthorn, black thorn, rowan, silver birch and more. Some of the rarer species been grown from seed or cuttings include black poplar, small leaved lime, Wych elm and wild service.

These trees will be used in a variety of ways. This includes for no fence tree planting for niche habitats on slopes and in gorse; hedgerow planting for gapping up or re-establishing an old hedge or creating a new hedgerow; enrichment planting in woodlands to increase diversity of species; riparian coppice planting to increase water absorption and reducing water runoff on particularly wet sites. Another interesting use is through willow spiling for stabilising river banks and reducing erosion by creating a living barrier that holds back the soil as well as rooting into the bank and stabilising it.

One aspect that the Woodlands for Water team is concentrating on is being able to provide local provenance trees for its projects. And it is with this in mind that we are planning to develop two further satellite tree nurseries at Gwaith Powdwr and Cors Goch Nature Reserves. We are fortunate in that we have funding from two of our Local Nature Partnerships (Gwynedd and Anglesey and their Nature on Your Doorstep funds). Each new nursery will develop over a period of time and perhaps specialise in providing certain species or how the trees are grown (pot or bare root). The trees grown will be used locally, including in planting schemes on our nature reserves but also in small tree planting projects.

If you have an interest in growing trees or would like to develop your skills in this subject and help us develop our new nurseries why not get in touch via our volunteering web pages.

Become a volunteer