Nature Near London: Tree planting, Churchfields Recreation Ground, Chessington. Sunday March 17th

This was the second visit to Churchfields Recreation Ground this month by the Environment Trust's Kingston Greenspace Volunteers. Thanks to a community tree pack awarded by the Woodland Trust, our volunteers spent the day planting over 200 saplings (oak, rowan, silver birch, hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, dog wood) to supplement existing areas of young woodland. The new areas of woodland, will also hopefully serve as a buffer to improve and safeguard more mature areas of woodland.
An invitation to join the planting was extended to Kingston's Lord Mayor Councillor Mary Heathcote OBE, who planted an English oak sapling grown from an acorn collected on the Queen's estate. Before planting the oak, the Mayor, together with her consort and husband, Dr. Roger Heathcote, chatted with volunteers and congratulated them on their dedication to improving Kingston's environment. Despite the seemingly relentless rain, the volunteers, clearly inspired by the mayor's words of encouragement, continued planting until 3pm.
A number of new volunteers joined the group, including several locals, who it is hoped will help keep an eye on the young trees. Unfortunately, experience elsewhere (Wormwood Scrubs and Tokyngton Park, Brent) shows that tree planting is not universally welcomed, with some residents preferring mown grass. Young trees in these other areas have sadly suffered from vandalism as well as theft of tree guards. While the intention is not to turn such areas into forests, hopefully our new local volunteers will convince their neighbours of the value of woodland in terms of improvements to their quality of life, and to the air we all breathe, as well as to improved property values, reduced crime, and a better environment in which to raise children, not to mention the benefits for wildlife. It is also hoped that a formal 'Friends of Churchfields' might be inspired to work together on a regular basis to bring further improvements to this valuable green space on the edge of London.

Kingston's Lord Mayor Councillor Mary Heathcote and her consort and husband, Dr. Roger Heathcote, greet volunteers at Churchfields Recreation Ground.

The mayor plants a Jubilee Oak.

Kingston's mayor and her consort, chat with Patrick and Angela.

Maeve and Lucia from Marymount International School plant yet another tree.

D of E volunteers Reuben and Ted gaining 'brownie points'.

Ryan and Gemma work as a team.

The young trees, hopefully protected against all 'elements'.

A small patch of woodland was also extended to provide more wildlife habitat.

Update - August 2013

During the hot weather in July extra watering was needed to ensure the new trees survived their first summer. Some trees have inevitably died, but most have survived, although a number of tree guards have been removed, and now replaced. It is hoped that further planting will take place in November 2013, as well as the creation of additional long-grass buffer strips from March 2014.