Woodland friends plant Lois tribute
ATREE has been planted to commemorate the life of a woman who was instrumental in getting a woodland site preserved as a public green space and saved a precious rare tree.
Friends of Broad Lane Community Woodland planted a tree to commemorate the life of Lois Richardson who saved the Populus Nigra Betulifolia, one of Britain’s rare native timber trees in danger of extinction at the time from the axe.
Lois’s long-time friend, Paul Clarke, planted the tree at the entrance to the woodland as the Friend’s of the woodland group watched.
Deborah, the present Chairperson of the reformed group, said: “As a group, we are only too happy to plant this tree to commemorate Lois, whose vision left a positive impact on the area.
“This tree, donated by Lois’s close friends, is a fitting memorial to Lois.
“We hope to preserve and enhance what Lois started.”
She says the woodland is being used more by local people and one local resident came and spoke to the group thanking them for all their hard work, and have offered refreshments on the mornings they are working in the woodland.
The group meet once a month and carry out a variety of task to preserve and enhance the woodland.
A friend of Lois’s and member of the community group, John, had said that although Lois had not been well enough to visit the woodland in person, he had updated her on the work over the last few years, and that Lois had been very happy that the woodland would continue to be used by the local people
Paul Clarke, a friend of Lois who had been given a tour of the site by Bob Bevan the Ranger from the
Rochdale Environmental Team, was equally impressed.
He felt that the tree, planted in a prominent position at the entrance to the woodland, would be a fitting tribute to Lois who had worked hard to start the original Friends of Broad Lane Community Woodland.