Nannerch

The survival rate of trees at Nannerch varied considerably across the site, from 90% in one part, right down to 18% in the least successful area. Surviving trees showed very mixed progress with vigorous growth in some areas with trees well out of the guards, and others with very little growth at all. There could be a variety of reasons for this so we will need to monitor this site closely.

Our ecologist visited and provided an in depth report on the wildlife found on the site. Birds included Red Starts, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Buzzards, Cuckoos and Greenshank. For plants, they found widespread creeping thistle, common harebell, gorse and yarrow.

They also found evidence of larger animals, specifically rabbits; spotting droppings and a burrow, and badgers; finding a badger sett. The badgers are especially important as they are heavily protected under UK law.

Following Oscar’s visit, we returned to Nannerch to carry out a full beat-up survey, marking all the trees that will be restocked in the planting season ahead.

In September 2025 a small group of corporate volunteers from Ivanti joined us to carry our some routine maintenance here, led by Phil. They had originally hoped to plant some of the trees last season but regrettably we had to cancel their day due to a severe storm. Fortunately, the weather this time was perfect.

The main task here was weeding because as you can see from the photos the grass grows vigorously here. Volunteers removed grass from inside the guards, mainly by pulling it out. If it had been left the grass would have rotted and damaged the young bark, often resulting in the death of the tree. Where necessary, stakes and guards were straightened too.

This may not sound the most exciting of tasks to volunteer for, but the volunteers had a great time, laughing and joking, and were very enthusiastic once they realised how vital their work was to the survival of all these saplings. We kept them going with hot drinks and midway through the day we stopped for a picnic.

We were very grateful for their hard work.

Normally, we wouldn’t be checking survivals the first summer after a late winter planting, as there’s usually not much that’s going to have changed other than a bit of rabbit nibbling, but with an intense summer drought and a difficult group of contractors, we wanted to see how things were going.

The answer is not brilliantly, but manageably, with a 73.4% survival rate. This varied a lot on the area, so here are a few that stood out.

The north west areas were planted on the first day of our volunteer planting, and had the best survival rate by far. The volunteers who planted it all cared so much about the planting that they even came back to help with this maintenance and survival work, so you know they were on board. This section was also protected by trees on two sides, and from a hill on another; they were all standing upright and doing brilliantly, giving it a natural advantage.

Other areas had a series of problems to contend with. The eastern field has dropped to 58% survival, which was not helped by the more exposed nature of the site. Lots of wind and direct sun could have contributed to things, but the planting work itself was certainly not up to our high standards. Various issues of all sorts, from antisocial behaviour towards neighbours, long delays, discarded bags of trees, littering, it was a literal and metaphorical mess that we have spent months fixing the best we can. This experiment with outsourcing planting (and attempting to put money into the local economy) made me question the approach. We will be reviewing our approach to large-scale planting when it’s beyond the scope of local volunteers, perhaps to focus on hiring local individuals and managing the team ourselves, so we can ensure the trees and the community are all thriving.

Next steps here will be to return and plant up the areas that are the worst hit by bad planting and adverse weather conditions.