Howard Court

When our surveyor visited this site she was pleased to see the shelterbelt really taking shape, clearly revealing our planting plan. Interestingly, the leaning shelterbelt trees (see photos) clearly reflect the force and direction of the prevailing winds, echoing the more mature trees here. The trees have established very well with the silver birch doing particularly well. The restock in 2024 has helped to boost survival rates, but a further restock would be beneficial to fill the gaps and support the overall planting plan, particularly in the woodland area where survival rates were only 77%.

The site beautifully integrates tree planting with passive rewilding, supporting a rich mix of native wildflowers and grasses alongside the trees. Wildflowers/native plants we spotted included yarrow, ragwort, willowherb, creeping thistle and dock. To mitigate vegetation encroachment and boost sapling establishment, mulching is recommended for the younger planting, especially if we restock this planting season.

Since planting, the barn owl population is booming with 6 chicks hatching this year in a barn owl box. The landowners credit this to the addition of the trees to the site.

Pollinators were in evidence, especially butterflies and bumblebees enjoying the thistles. Butterflies spotted on our visit were green-veined white, peacock, and painted lady.

A survival survey carried out in August 2025 at Howard Court recorded strong establishment overall, with a survival rate of 78%. This is a little below our target of 80% over 5 years but we have had some extreme weather since these saplings were planted, especially the summer of 2022 which was exceptionally hot and dry.

The results indicate good early success across the site, with the majority of trees establishing well following planting. The maintenance we carried out last September will have helped enormously, and continued routine maintenance will help support further establishment and improve long-term resilience of the planting scheme.

14 enthusiastic corporate volunteers from CPI in Redcar joined joined the Protect Earth team to plant 200 trees and carry out maintenance here. Unlike many volunteers, this company was particularly keen to support our maintenance programme. They recognised the importance of looking after the trees we have already planting to ensure that as many as possible survive. We straightened and replaced guards and stakes and made sure that they were free of grass. We were very pleased with how well the trees seem to be doing so far.

We were well looked after by the landowners who gave us tea, coffee and snacks, and we all enjoyed a rest and a picnic in their courtyard at lunch time.

The weather remained dry and we were able to finish in good time. There were no complaints from the volunteers about being allowed to leave a little early! They all said that they had had a good day. The company representative we had been in contact with was unfortunately unable to come on the day but sent this message “I really feel I missed out. I have heard lots of positive feedback and hope next year I am able to join in.”

We visited in August 2023, to check on our trees’ progress and we were very excited to see how well they were doing. Most are now appearing well over the tops of the tubes with berries on some. The grass was tall but didn’t seem to be causing too much of a problem. In fact, the survival rate was surprisingly good, considering the extreme weather over the last couple of years.

This was one of our earliest tree planting events for Protect Earth and we also had a lot to learn in organising a large group of volunteers, many of whom had never planted trees before. However, we were well prepared, organising one group to put out the canes, whilst others planted trees. Of course, everyone wants to plant the trees, aided and abetted by several very friendly dogs, so we rotated the jobs from time to time.

We planted a shelterbelt of native British trees common to the area, which ran along the western border of the farm with the shelterbelt then flaring out into a woodland area. The species mix was chosen to suit the landscape, with oak, silver birch, wild cherry, rowan, hazel, hawthorn, holly, blackthorn, wych elm and guelder rose among the trees going in, alongside alder, willow and downy birch in the wetter ground closer to the riverbank. We also harvested some willow branches from two old collapsed crack willow and pussy willow trees nearby. Those trees had fallen into the river and didn’t stand a chance, but by cutting trimmings from the tree we could replant the river bank, and hopefully prevent further erosion.

The shelterbelt will provide shelter from the North Sea winds that sweep across this part of Yorkshire, while the woodland planting will develop over time into a habitat for birds, insects, and other wildlife along the river corridor.

We were lucky to have a beautiful February weekend for this planting with lots of volunteers turning up on the Saturday to help us plant our trees. What we didn’t expect was some volunteers who had signed up for Sunday just didn’t turn up, so we had to work faster than the day before in an effort to finish. We were however, rewarded with a beautiful sunset, and the landowners were able to plant the last few trees over the following week.