This was the largest site we’ve ever had to go and count, and after weather scared off most of the volunteers we were lucky to have a trusty team of deputies. Angus, Leenton and Katie joined Phil in scaling Goytre Hill to see how the ~12,000 trees were doing.
The results were incredibly mixed, and the weather was not the only thing bringing down the mood. On the south facing slope, the effects of the intensely hot and dry spring/summer were most pronounced. What little rain fell immediately ran off down the hill, evaporating in the long grass before it got anywhere near the soil. Survival rate was a shocking 38-55% across the compartments on this site.
The north west strip next to the tiny sliver of ancient woodland along a stream did amazingly well. The bracken was completely dwarfing our young saplings, but that provided enough shade for them to survive. 76% survival there.
The east-facing slope of Goytre Tump was right in the middle of the two. Everywhere the sun and wind got to the saplings they were doing poorly. Everywhere sheltered was doing brilliantly. Overall that largest compartment was a more manageable 60% survival rate.
Across the entire site, the year 1 survival rate is 54%, which is far below our goal of 80% survival by year 5. I am holding out faith that many of those saplings have simply “dead-headed” themselves and will be coming back from the roots as we regularly see across our various sites after a rough summer, but we will not rely on that hope alone.
We’ll be replanting the worst hit sections adding back another ~20%, planting next to the failures instead of replacing them, so those that wish to have another try can do so.
Hemp mulch matts will be added on the south slope where the sun is the most intense, to keep down competition from grass, allowing more water to the soil, and to shade the soil from direct sun to help retain that moisture.
All saplings will be dipped in mycorrhizal fungi root dip to help them get their roots down further, which has helped drastically boost success of replanted saplings on other sites that faced a rough first year.
This is our first large woodland we’ve planted on land we’ve bought. Managing 12,000 trees is a lot different to managing 500 or 5,000, and planting it in 2025 before the worst summer since our horrific 2022 season was unfortunate timing. Thankfully we have this. The local volunteers are dedicated, and planting season is upon us so we can get this done.
