Woodland dedicated to former park employee
ANORTHUMBERLAND National Park woodland has been dedicated to a muchloved former employee after she died just over a year ago.
Elaine Rigg worked for Northumberland National Park for 22 years before leaving to set up her own consultancy business.
She founded many areas of native woodland throughout the park, including Kilham near Kirk Yetholm, Dueshill near Rothbury, and Ryecose Wood in North Tyne.
Twenty years ago, at an area of woodland on the northwestern side of Greenlee Lough on Hadrian’s Wall, Elaine left spaces in the woodland to plant a memorial, not anticipating that it would end up being her own. Over two days in February and March, Elaine’s family, friends and former colleagues planted trees to extend an area of native woodland in her memory.
On March 18, rangers affixed a wooden plaque at the top end of the wood, with the words “Elaine’s Wood” inscribed on it. Her husband Andrew said that it was a great privilege and honour for the site to bear her name.
He said: “Everyone thinks it’s a marvellous tribute. I’ve been inundated with messages saying that it’s a lovely tribute to a lovely person.
“It will be lovely to go back there in 20 years’ time and see Elaine’s Wood growing as a lasting tribute, bearing in mind how many trees she planted herself, managed, and got funds for.”
Andrew, 70, said she was fiercely dedicated to her job and loved every minute of it, but outside of work, the mother-of-two and grandmother of two, was a happy, cheerful and joyful person who had an encyclopaedic knowledge of flowers and plants.
He added: “She sang in at least four different choirs, she had an angelic voice. She loved doing that.
“We loved travelling together, and over the last ten years we travelled all over the world.”
Sadly the couple didn’t get to build on their travels together during retirement, as Elaine was diagnosed with cancer just a month after her last day at work. Less than three months later, she had passed away from the disease, aged 69.
Andrew continued: “It’s been very difficult because it came out of the blue.
“We’ve got a lot of fond memories, and I can look back now and enjoy the memories more than I could last year – I’ve got to keep optimistic and the kids keep me optimistic.”
Andrew was surrounded by the couple’s family, friends and colleagues as hundreds of oak tree saplings that he and Elaine grew from local acorns were planted, including one near the plaque.
Ecologist Gill Thompson worked with Elaine for 12 years and initiated the idea of naming the woodland after her friend.
She said: “When I go around the park, I see many of the fantastic woodlands that were initiated by her.
“When she sadly passed away last year, we thought it would be a fitting tribute to dedicate a wood to her, and it’s lovely to see something positive come out of this even though it’s a sad time for us all.”
Dr Albert Weir, who gave Elaine her first job at the National Park and was a long-term colleague said that Elaine’s passion for woodland may have contributed 20 years later to the notion of rewilding areas to address biodiversity loss.
He added that he still thinks about her every day, saying: “We are devastated as colleagues. She was a truly nice person and I’m privileged to have known her.”
Tony Gates, chief executive officer of Northumberland National Park Authority, said: “My lasting memory of Elaine is someone who just knew her stuff and cared passionately about her job and getting it right.
“If she felt there was a piece of woodland in the wrong place, she would say. And I think in her memory, we carry that passion forward at Northumberland National Park.
“So, when the idea to dedicate the wood to Elaine was posed, I thought it a wonderful suggestion because people who work for National Parks do so because they care, and Elaine had such a connection to this place that there could be no better tribute than this wood being named after her.”
In the future, the team at Northumberland National Park plan to establish more trees in the area and have plans to rewet the woodland to create a habitat for botanicals and wildlife.
There is also a footpath planned so that people can visit, while specialists plan to have the wood’s new name reflected on the Ordnance Survey map.