Plant a tree 73

[Chris152]

Anyone else remember that?
I just did a search to see what current government initiatives there are to get individuals planting a tree on their land in order to help combat climate change. All I found was about plantations/ forestry. I've no idea what impact it would have if everyone with space did plant a tree (anyone any idea? little impact, I guess...) but I'm sure it'd be good for kids'/ people's awareness and definitely make for a nicer environment generally.

edit - apparently there are about 27 million households in the UK and a little under 90 per cent have a garden - however big or small.

 

[Noel]

Did I read somewhere that overall, tree planting has reduced over the past decade or two?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

https://www.heartofenglandforest.com/

always worth a plug.

 

[Noel]

In 2015, only 122 hectares of new woodland (all broadleaves) were planted in Wales compared to a target of 2,000 hectares, whilst in recent years the Assembly Government has converted nearly 20,000 hectares of productive conifer woodlands to either broadleaves or open ground.

In England, the latest official statistics show that only 546 hectares were planted between April 2015 and March 2016 - less than 30 per cent of the annual target needed to meet a manifesto commitment by the Conservative Party to plant 11 million trees by 2020.

https://www.hortweek.com/vital-address- ... le/1405773

 

[flying haggis]

i always remember it as "plant a tree in 73"

"buy a saw in 74"

 

[Chris152]

I think the official line was 'Plant two more in 74'?!

That's pretty disturbing news, Noel. Here's anther that paints a grim picture in the UK (it's quite political but that's not he point here):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41551296

Brilliant project, Phil - I'd not seen it before.

I think maybe most of us feel hamstrung when it comes to the environment, and feel there's little any of us can do individually in comparison to what happens nationally and internationally. But planting a tree is fairly easy and potentially not expensive, and across the nation could make some sort of difference? Might just write a note to my local MP.

 

[Steliz]

I planted a tree in 73 and Valerie Singleton came to our school. I was starstruck.

 

[Keith 66]

The Woodland trust was recently giving out packs of native trees free, Think it was the first 5000 people to apply got a free pack of 30 small saplings (whips)
I applied on behalf of our club for a hedging pack, hawthorn, dog rose, hazel, crab apple, field maple, 6 of each & was sucessful, i have just been told they should arrive in November. They will get planted straight away,
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/plant-trees/ ,

 

[Chris152]

This popped up on Facebook this morning - has anyone used it?
https://info.ecosia.org/?https%3A%2F%2F ... dXXGK-GrSk
Tree planting internationally, using money raised through people's use of their browser, if I've got it right.

 

[Chris152]

Update - I've been using Ecosia the last 24 hours (since one of my son's mates said he uses it all the time) and it works really well, I think. Occasionally the message 'On average you need around 45 searches to plant a tree!' comes up after the count of searches I've done. I reckon that's worth bothering with.
C

 

[whiskywill]

I planted a tree in 73 and Valerie Singleton came to our school. I was starstruck.

She should not have hit you. :wink: I thought she was a nice person.

 

[Chris152]

Of course, trees can plant themselves...

 

[RogerS]

Unfortunately many of these schemes are ill-founded and even worse, not properly managed. A lot of subsidy farmers signed up to a scheme to plant a lot of native hardwoods. They got paid to plant and an annual payment to look after and manage the trees. My local farmer has done precisely diddly squat in terms of management. A large number of the trees have died due to neglect.

But not surprisingly as there is limited money to monitor the scheme.