Sorting the Trees from The Woods.

ACORN plant trees, in fact they have planted a lo t o f trees since they were founded It is quite easy to plant trees as all you need is a spade, a whip (that’s a young tree) and somewhere to plant it

ACORN met its f irst tree challenge shor tly after it was set up no t by planting, bu t by the destruction o f the old orchard just nor th o f the foo tpath 3 It is across the road f rom Go thic Mede School and crosses the railway via a foo tbridge to the Mill Pits The bulldozers mo ved in on an Easter weekend when the council o ff ices were shu t and grubbed up all the old apple trees By the Bank Holiday Monday all that was left was just a heap in the f ield We received many calls abou t the destruction as soon as the bulldozer mo ved in; unfor tunately we were unable to legally stop the ‘crime’ taking place. The Forest Au thority did come ou t after Easter bu t unfor tunately the trunks were no t quite the size to require a licence to cu t them do wn If they had been, then the lando wner would have faced prosecu tion Many o f the older generation, during the 1950s, will remember the old orchard and the pigs which were allo wed to roam to eat the fallen apples. The sad fact was at the time o f its destruction there were go vernment grants in place to help pro tect old orchards. Unfor tunately, money is the prime mo ver in destro ying the countr yside especially when what you are destro ying is no t on your doorstep. The county ecologist who later came ou t conf irmed the site as ancient meado wland f rom some o f the flora he found (illustration 1) and it was designated a Sites o f County Wide impor tance (SCWI).

For many years it laid untouched as planning permission was refused because o f the designation Ho wever, when Central Beds Unitar y au thority took o ver f rom Bedfordshire County Council they remo ved that SCWI status Some o f the roo ts o f the apple trees that were no t grubbed up began to sprou t back again We were led to believe during the planning consultation to f inally develop the site that samples would be saved and propagated to replant in a community orchard. Sadly we have lost the f ight and the developers are f inally mo ving in.

The trouble is the hype is no w to plant more trees (shame they didn’t pro tect the ones they already had ) bu t when you come do wn to the nitty-gritty, where do you plant them?

That is the hard par t. Trees really belong in woods bu t the odd one planted in among the houses is quite acceptable, except to those who live under them and have to sweep up the leaves, have to clean their conser vator y cour tesy o f the birds that like to sit in them and have the odd branch drop do wn on their new car

Many trees have been lost because o f this and the black poplar was one because it caused a mess ACORN has no w reintroduced one locally The black poplar needs bo th a male and female tree to propagate They bo th produce flo wers and the pollen is blo wn f rom the male tree to fer tilise the female tree Once it is fer tilised the catkins develop into co tton-like seeds, which fall in late summer

With the loss o f so many magnif icent Elm trees to Du tch Elm disease in the village ACORN took the oppor tunity to plant a Wych Elm, one o f the truly native species o f the UK ACORN has planted many oaks (obviously it’s in the name) around the village and the children o f Go thic Mede and Etonbur y helped with this task. Can any o f you readers remember helping planting one at your schools? Many o ther o f the smaller tree species are planted in hedges and are kept hedge size by regular trimming. The spindle tree being one variety, the young shoo ts have square stems and bear ver y glamorous seed heads. One species to look ou t for in the hedgero w at the Glebe Meado ws.