Guernsey Trees for Life’s core volunteer group came together to plant hundreds of trees at Les Picques Reserve over the weekend.
In the small and large St Saviour’s meadows, the group got to work planting native and neo-native species including lime trees, English oak and silver birch on Saturday morning.
‘We are hoping to augment and add to the diversity of species here,’ said Andy McCutcheon, technical officer at Guernsey Trees for Life.
There were four different areas and each had a different plan. In some areas they were block planting and in others hedge planting. Mr McCutcheon said it was important to continue tree planting, especially after Storm Goretti which saw high numbers of fallen trees around the island.
‘With Storm Goretti we lost a lot of trees in one go, a lot of large trees which were healthy and well structured I believe, so with the Storm Goretti fund [where more than £13,000 has been raised] we are looking at places like Saumarez Park that lost a lot of trees during the storm,’ he said.
10-year-old Caroline Coleman was helping out with tree planting on Saturday morning.
‘So far we have gone through what we have to do,’ she said, with a wheelbarrow full of stakes ready to start planting. I’ve never done this before, but I enjoy planting in the garden at home with my mum.’
