We went to Thurston Outdoor Education centre this week to check the trees that were planted back in December 2017. The work was part of a watercourse naturalisation scheme following the installation of a hydro-electric scheme at the centre. It’s brilliant to see how well this particular river restoration project has worked out.

 June 2018

Two and a half years on the trees are looking fantastic, with only a few losses out of the 120 planted. Following social distancing guidelines Paul & I checked the trees, weeded around the bases, removing some substantial clumps of grass in some cases. We also removed the plastic tree guards from some as they were beginning to constrain growth. The buffer strip look great too, a good mix of grasses and wildflowers including meadow vetchling, self-heal, clover, thistle and yarrow. Bugs were also in abundance – froghoppers, grasshoppers, bumblebees and hoverflies. We also spotted quite a few small skipper butterflies along with meadow browns.