One thing the pandemic has made us all appreciate is the importance of nature and it seems that for many of us trees are the embodiment of this. Trees oxygenate our air, lift our spirits, help us heal when we are ill. They provide a habitat for birds, insects, fungi, and more. They give us shade and keep us cool in summer, they shelter us in the rain and speak to us through the rustling of their leaves. CREOS has been working not just to protect and preserve existing trees but also to add more trees to the area we look after.
The CREOS Copse
With a grant from the Campaign to Protect Rural England, free trees from OVO and the help of The Conservation Volunteers, CREOS has now been able to plant 30 small trees and ten metres of new hedgerow in a corner of the Highgate Wood School playing field. This part of the field is unsuitable for sport and too boggy for pedestrians for at least 6 months of the year, but it should be a good place for trees, having so much water. It is wonderful to see these new whips starting to come into leaf and every one of them seems to be doing well.
Our volunteers also extended and refurbished the path alongside this new planting, but as is always the case, the mud just moves to wherever people eventually have to step off the path. Undaunted, one creative volunteer outwitted the mud by building a series of stepping stones leading from the end of the path to the grass beyond. These stepping stones were much appreciated and provided a lot of fun for families visiting the site during their daily escape from lockdown.
Illegal Bonfires
Sadly some members of the local community seem to be getting their fun by having parties around bonfires at night. Not only is it illegal to have a bonfire on a nature reserve, but also the amount of litter left behind has been appalling.
In addition these thoughtless people have often sourced the fuel for their bonfires from the dead hedging that volunteers had erected to protect sensitive areas of our woodland.
If you see anyone starting a fire or destroying our dead-hedging please let them know how damaging it is and when safe to do so please call the police
