By Bethany Rossiter

On a typical wet and rainy winter’s day, National Trust Conservation Volunteers teamed up with Cornwall Wildlife Trust Wild Cober volunteers on January 31st, working very hard to plant 300 trees in an area of land at the bottom of a sloping field at Lower Lanner.

The purpose of getting soaked to the skin in January, was to fill in this 15-20m boundary between the field and the Penrose stream, that was created back in 2016 when part of the field was fenced off, work that was funded by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. During the years since this took place, thought has been put into what could be done with this land that was taken out of grazing.

Working hard in the rain, planting various species of trees on a strip of land, at the bottom of a field at Lower Lanner

It was decided that the land would be planted up with several species of trees and shrubs. Six native and local species were chosen which included; English oak, sessile oak, alder, rowan, hawthorn and grey willow. Planting up this land near the Penrose stream had several benefits such as, benefiting wildlife in the area though providing food and shelter- the species were chosen with this benefit in mind. Secondly, planting up land at the bottom of steep sloping agricultural land, will help to buffer any nutrient run off and reduce the input of this into the Penrose stream, which eventually flows into Loe Pool. Also, this newly planted stretch of woodland will provide a corridor between two existing woodlands.

A job well done, trees planted which will benefit the local environment in the future