Earlier this year, a 26 acre piece of land came on the market. It was near the former municipal dump, near an industrial part of Workington that had been former open cast coal mining and aluminium smelting. It was covered in soft rushes, so it was really poor for grazing or any other agricultural use. It was no use for housing. It was PERFECT for tree planting!!
Luckily, we got help with the purchase from Raise: Cumbria Community Forest via the Trees for Climate programme, funded by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs through the Nature for Climate Fund. Although the process took a long time, as part of their checks and everything we needed to get an EIA screening application done, so we’re completely ready to start right away.
There’s a ruined building on the site, called Lodge Castle. There’s no castle and no lodge. I think maybe a Cumbrian farmer was having a laugh a few years ago and called their homestead a castle, and the name stuck. We’re continuing his or her sense of humour by calling it Lodge Castle Woodland. It’s not the most salubrious of locations but calling it Lodge Castle Woodland makes it sound a lot more posh than Old Dump Woods.
Although we are obsessed with trees, we like to create sites that are beneficial to all kinds of wildlife. This site is like a blank canvas. It gently undulates so there are lower bits and elevated bits and damp patches, some very wet patches and a few drier patches. Having water bodies is beneficial to all kinds of wildlife so with the help of Cumbria Wildlife Trust we are putting in 6 ponds. That still leaves space for A LOT of trees. We’re planting 70,000 this season, a nice mix of all sorts, see below. We’re also interested to see what will self-seed there. With the ground all turned over from the pond digging, wildflower and tree seeds should set readily. There are a range of trees around to provide seed source.
It has some defunct hedges with some gorgeous old wild apple trees, so we’ve gathered some of these to germinate as well, just to help them along a bit.
We will get the ponds dug and the fences mended before Christmas, in readiness for Neil and his tree-planting crew to get going in January. We anticipate getting the whole project finished in one season. We will see a transformation very quickly! We’ll make sure we get plenty of before, during and after photos to keep you updated.
Here's the tree list:
Acer campestre (Field maple)
Acer pseudoplatanus (Sycamore)
Alnus glutinosa (Alder)
Betula pendula (Silver birch)
Betula pubenscens (Downy birch)
Carpinus betulus (Hornbeam)
Castanea sativa (Sweet chestnut)
Corylus avellane (Hazel)
Crataegus monogyna (Hawthorn)
Fagus sylvatica (Beech)
Euonymus europaeus (Spindle tree)
Ilex aquifolium (Holly)
Ligustrum vulgare (Privet)
Malus sylvestris (Common or crab apple)
Pinus sylvestris (Scots Pine)
Populus tremula (Aspen)
Prunus avium (Wild cherry)
Prunus spinosa (Blackthorn)
Quercus petrula (Sessile oak)
Quercus robur (Oak)
Rhamnus fragula (Alder Buckthorn)
Salix caprea (Goat Willow)
Sambucus nigra (Common Elder)
Sorbus aucuparia (Rowan)
