Planting Plastic Free – The Woodland Trust journey

DWT's Saving Devon's Treescapes (SDT) project and The Woodland Trust discuss the ongoing journey of how we can move towards plastic free tree protection.

The Woodland Trust is using its estate to research and trial plastic-free and shelter-free woodland creation across the UK - including alternative shelters, natural regeneration, herbivore fencing, over-planting, companion thorn planting, and natural seeding.

Joe Middleton, a South West Site Manager for the Woodland Trust, has been leading one of the UK’s biggest trial sites of plastic-free shelters at Avoncliff Wood near Bath for the Woodland Trust, with 5000 trees planted using 14 different types of alternative plastic-free shelters in 2019-20. They are researching all the sustainability credentials of each product and the alternatives, and the results are fascinating.

[farmerfreakeasy]

Both tree guards and tree stakes damage trees. A stake limits a trees ability to sway in the wind, hence producing a weaker trunk that hasn't stretched enough. Tree guards will also damage the trunk if left on too long: A 10 minute walk from where i live there's a freshly planted woodland patch from around 15-18 years ago. The tree guards have never been removed and if you peel them back you'll find the bark of these trees has either disintegrated into a mouldy mush, or is entirely absent. Some absolutely sickly looking trees.

I'd love to see plastic tree-guards outlawed, they've blighted the countryside far too long.