Battling ash dieback and honouring Her Majesty
Two more planting projects for Queen’s Jubilee
A disease-resistant elm avenue has planted to honour the Queen’s Jubilee.
Lord Lieutenant of West Sussex, Mrs Susan Pyper and children from Reflections Small School in Worthing have planted the elm and lime trees at Wild Heart Hill, along the Monarch’s Way footpath near Findon.
The Jubilee elm avenue is a unique feature for the county and the country. The elms have been bred to be diseaseresistant, helping to reinstate elms to the UK after they were almost wiped out in the 1960s and 70s.
This is the culmination of two months of tree-planting by more than 100 volunteers at Wild Heart Hill, which has seen some 1,500 native trees – including field maple, small-leaved lime, dogwood, sweet chestnut, whitebeam, wild cherry, hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn and spindle – planted across the hillside.
The trees are dedicated to the Queens Green Canopy, which aims to plant 70,000 trees to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and to thank Her Majesty for her exceptional service over 70 years on the throne.
The Lord Lieutenant for West Sussex would like to publicly celebrate what has been achieved in West Sussex and to inspire others to plant more trees in the autumn treeplanting season.
Local children from Reflections Small School hand-painted the tubes that will protect the trees from the large families of resident deer and rabbits.
These highlight both the Platinum Jubilee and the wildlife that will be attracted to the trees, creating an engaging and thought-provoking artistic trail.
Mrs Pyper said: “The planting of so many valuable and vital trees will bring joy to many generations and you will have helped to spark a real passion for nature here, on the Monarch’s Way, in a beautiful part of the South Downs National Park.
“This is a powerful way to mark the close of the first planting season, which has been so well supported across the county.”
Meanwhile, students at Oak Grove College have teamed up with Worthing Golf Club to ‘Plant a Tree for the Jubilee’ – and will help to create new woodland there as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy.
Sixth-formers and teachers from the Worthing secondary school for special educational needs visited the golf club on Wednesday, March 30, to help the greens staff plant new oak trees.
At the same time, they were able to learn about the range of jobs involved in running a busy golf club, with its two courses and around 1,000 members.
They were joined by Deputy Lieutenants Dr John Godfrey and Caroline Nicholls, representing the Lord Lieutenant of West Sussex and the Queen’s Green Canopy for the county, and Worthing Golf Club directors Micky Halford and Steven Moore,who are leading on the work to forge a link with the college and so help introduce pupils to the world of work as well as learn about trees and nature.
The planting will form part of a major restoration of woodland replacing trees lost through diseases such as ash die back.
Commenting on the success of the Queen’s Green Canopy campaign in West Sussex so far, Dr Godfrey said: “I would like to say a huge ‘thank-you’ to all those who have planted trees – this means that we have already achieved the planting of over 40,000 trees in West Sussex and are looking at a possible final total of more than 250,000.
“This really shows the importance that a largely – but not wholly – rural county attaches both to the recognition of the outstanding service of Her Majesty the Queen over 70 years and also to the conservation and enhancement of our incomparable natural environment.”