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Steyning for trees

from The Village Living Magazine

by angela mcenery

from The Village Living Magazine, page 13

Article from: The Village Living Magazine

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Steyning For Trees

“Steyning For Trees feels very honoured to have been awarded one of the trees from the Tree of Trees, part of the installation outside Buckingham Palace designed by Tom Heatherwick.

This was to commemorate the Queen`s Platinum Jubilee and emphasises her knowledge and enthusiasm for planting trees. The ceremony for the planting of the Tree by the Lord Lieutenant was held at Fletchers Croft BN 44 3XZ , outside the Steyning Centre by kind permission of Horsham District Council at 2pm Sunday, 27th November. There was a reception at the Steyning Centre afterwards hosted by Steyning For Trees and the Steyning Parish Council for those taking part in the ceremony and supporters. A recent article on the Awards in the national press said “The trees will serve as an inspi-

ration for tree planting within communities and to encourage care for the trees which already exist as part of our nation`s stunning landscape”.

Steyning For Trees started 3 years ago as a community Group planting trees on verges through the WSCC tree planting scheme. We will have planted 80 by the end of this year. People let us know if they want a tree on their verge, choose the native variety they want from a list, WSCC then source it, plant and maintain it for the rest of its life. The resident pays whatever they can afford , we top it up and they water it for the first few years. We also plant hedges as Wildlife Corridors throughout Steyning, 14 by the end of this year. We talk to landowners here, football and other sports club, PCs, schools etc. asking them if they want a hedge. We then source the plants mainly through the Woodland Trust, our community volunteers then plant them. We should have planted nearly 4,000 hedging whips, a mix of native species, by year end.We are now working on hedges joining the Weald to Waves scheme, part of which will be on the Steyning Downland Scheme to the Adur River Project, the other side of town.