Yorkshire Dales communities provide nurseries to grow new trees

August 17, 2023

Our Seed to Sapling project is helping to ensure we have the right trees to plant here in the Dales by supporting communities in the Dales to grow new trees from local provenance seed.

Community tree growing schemes in the Dales

The scheme launched last autumn when Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust partnered with several community groups, giving them the tools, skills, and materials to set up their own tree growing schemes. The first steps were to collect and process the seed ready for planting. We then made special germination trays in which to sow the seed and protect them from birds and animals.

In June, we were ready to see the results of our work! Community members came together to pot on the seedlings that were big enough. These seedlings will now be looked after for another year before being quarantined at community growing sites to ensure they are healthy. Once big enough, the saplings will finally be planted out at approved woodland and hedgerow sites by our community volunteers.

The Seed to Sapling project helps strengthen our efforts to develop a landscape richer in trees, woods, and hedgerows, with tree cover of varying types and densities planted using locally grown stock from across the national park. It also gives communities a greater understanding of trees, and a real sense of connection with the woodlands they will help to create.

Liz Sutcliffe from Heggs Farm in Arkengarthdale, who is part of the scheme, said: “Growing our own trees from seed and then planting them on site, makes the whole process immediately more circular, as well as giving the saplings – raised in our specific microclimate – the best chance of survival. I’m also keen that ‘growing trees’ at home becomes as commonplace as growing plants and flowers, and hope that by including my daughter Polly in the process from a young age, she will grow up with a feeling of its normalcy.”

Find out more about the Yorkshire Dales Seed to Sapling project