There's been a lot of felling of timber in Holme Wood in the last year due to Larch disease.

As a consequence there are gaps in the woodland that need replanting to maintain the woods for the future.

Today there was a local invitation  to come along and help on a Community Planting Day.

The woodland is owned and maintained by the National Trust and today's activity was organised by them

but with a large input from Rosamund and John Macfarlane who, living locally, have taken a great and caring interest in the woods.

The area is important for red squirrels, spotted flycatchers, owls and all manner of wildlife.

Today we hope to mitigate some of the environmental damaged which occurred during the necessary removal of the trees.

Watergate is the local National Trust Farm, workshop and home to Mark on the left, our local National Trust ranger.

As we gathered we said hello to many friends and neighbours and had a briefing about the purpose of the day.

Time for a group photo before we set off . . . courtesy of John and his tripod and self timer.

John Macfarlane, Mark Astley, myself, Ellie, Ian, Ian, Judy, David, Joan, Katherine (over the back) Richard,

Anna, Leon, Melinda, Rosamund, James, Beth, Les, Stuart and Andy.

We walked out into the wood where Mark divided the group, based on our preferred tasks.         ( photo by John )

As a group of us head further into the woods,work was already well underway

planting wild flowers close to the seat and the lower bridge over Holme Beck.

We head up the waterfall track, spades in hand.

Next to a recent clearing, Ian introduced us to the task ahead.

In the bag are the tree saplings, alongside them the support stakes we will be using, these should survive a good few years then rot away naturally.

The innovation for today is the use of biodegradable starch tree guards.  They are more expensive than traditional plastic but don't need to be removed.

They too will biodegrade in a few years time once they have protected the new trees from the weather, from deer and other ground based nibblers !

One could just make a slit in the ground and drop the young trees in, but these are second year plants so there's more root growth than normal.

We've been asked to dig a hole and spread the roots more widely, covering them with as much soil as possible.

John's photo of Stuart and I as we get into the swing.

The trees were to be planted about 3 metres apart, preferably not under the canopy of existing trees.

     ( photos by John once again )

Ellie watches as the protective tube is carefully placed and strapped to the post.

That's great . . . now do it again, there's only 98 more to go !

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Work progressed fast and soon it was time for a quick lunch stop.

That's me with three or four more samplings ready to plant after lunch.

About half of the trees would not be receiving the tube protection, so as to be able to ascertain (over time) whether the extra cost was worthwhile.

The sun made an occasional appearance so by this time jackets were placed to one side.

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Once our group had completed our 'Aspen' task there was time to have a look at what else had been done.

Above the falls, where a new forest track had been bulldozed through, the erosion and bare earth was a significant scar on the woods.

Today some of the guys had been raking the earth and spreading a special woodland flower mix.

Hopefully the range of about 40 different, specialist woodland seed types and the open aspect may help the forest floor recover more quickly