Planting at Dudmaston Estate

At the end of every year at Dudmaston Estate, the planting of new trees begins to hopefully form new areas of woodland. The first thing to do is to establish which site needs to be cleared ready for planting. In Dudmaston's case it was an area of land up on the heath also known as compartment 3. To clear the site we called upon our trustee WNTCV ( Wolverhampton National Trust Conservation Volunteers) to get the job done. Clearing a site involves making enough ground space to be able to dig a small hole into the soil so that you can plant the trees. After the site is cleared the planting can begin. The reason for planting in the first place is to regenerate areas of woodland that have been clear felled because contractors have extracted wood from that compartment. Because Dudmaston operate as an outlet for timber its important that we plant trees to put back in what we've taken out, this is why planting is so important. Also when we plant tree's your eligible for grants that are given out by the Forestry Commission which help support some of the cost of planting and maintaining the new site.

This shows some of the site at the start of planting. As you can see from the picture every line of tree's is set approximately 2.6 metres away from the next. The direction of the line is straight but  horizontal to the road. The reason for slightly offsetting the line is to make it look as natural as possible when the woodland begins to grow. Each Tree has a tree guard to protect from animals such as rabbits which would eat all of the new trees if they were not covered, these guards also act as a wind break and protect the new tree's form the elements.