I am going to conclude this series of blogs/posts under the heading of Green Places with a mention of the Humber Forest Project.
Begun in 1990 the project is one 15 community forests in England with four being in the Northern Forest which stretches from Liverpool across to Kingston upon Hull. This description, which generates an image of a vast forest coast to coast is qualified in my leaflet by the phase, ‘These community forests are not actual forests but a collection of all the trees, woodlands and hedgerows within a local area’. It’s a ‘to get local communities involved’ project to improve biodiversity and opportunities for recreation and leisure. The Humber Forest idea started 20 years ago. ‘The aim is to significantly reduce the impact of climate change, and to allow both businesses and wildlife to flourish.
The project hopes to plant 300,000 trees across Hull, East Riding and North Lincolnshire in 2023-’24. After initial surveys the projects provides 100% of the funding for planting native species and their follow-up maintenance for five years. The scheme is worth following with interest.
At the front of the building where I live is a young mature ash tree which I felt was top-heavy and somewhat blocking light. I asked Chanterlands Tree Services to do the work of pollarding (not felling), and because they are a responsible firm, they sent the due notice to Hull City Council as the tree is in a conservation area. However Humber Forest objected on the basis that pollarding would provide opportunities for ash dieback disease to get in and because of this slowly progressing disease ash trees are becoming less common. They made a good case!