Once upon a time, long, long ago and far, far away (well March and April 2015 at Longside Farm in Nidderdale) a group of NCVs took the trouble to plant 1600 British native trees on the most challenging site they had ever encountered. Loyal readers may remember that, with a slope not far from vertical, on an area that had previously been forested (so was strewn with coniferous brash), they braved strong winds, lashing rain and baking sun to complete the job. Well - this week the news came through that those same trees needed revisiting.
"Why?" you may ask. Surely trees can be trusted to just get on with the job of growing themselves? No, no my friend. This is definitely not the case. Winds over the last 12 months have taken their toll and pushed the tree tubes and posts over -
Bracken has sprung up to engulf the small saplings -
Help was needed! Popping into the local telephone boxes to spin around and change into their Super Hero NCV costumes 17 brave souls flew up beyond Gouthwaite to see what needed to be done.....
to ensure that the NCVs remained dry all day.
These NCVs shunned the escalator
and took the footpath up instead.
Everyone started peering down tubes looking for signs of life.
Lots of the trees have done well...
...but, unsurprisingly, a number have failed so their
tubes and stakes were removed and piled up.
Phil tried to hide to avoid having to do any work.
Unfortunately he was a lot wider than the
tree tube and so was immediately spotted shirking.
How on earth do you re-insert a tree like this...
...into a narrow tree tube like this?
Answer? With cunning. Simply slit the tube
right the way down its length and wrap it up.
Walking down the hill required lots of care and,
in some cases, the use of various bit of kit as walking poles.
Ros 'tree tube hands'.
Ros E uses the 'Comedy Relief' method (well known to
all good photographers) for keeping her apple clean whilst taking a picture.
and took the footpath up instead.
Lots of the trees have done well...
tubes and stakes were removed and piled up.
Unfortunately he was a lot wider than the
tree tube and so was immediately spotted shirking.
right the way down its length and wrap it up.
in some cases, the use of various bit of kit as walking poles.
all good photographers) for keeping her apple clean whilst taking a picture.
By 2:30pm we started to head off down the hillside - there were still a number of trees needing attention but they will have to wait for another day.
Ros E.
No comments:
Post a Comment