500 English oak saplings – one for each of the 410 pupils currently at Threemilestone Primary School plus a few extra – have been planted in a brand new tree nursery at Langarth, marking the first step in our ambitious project to create 5 hectares of new woodland on the site of the Garden Village.
As a garden village we want to do everything we can to preserve and enhance green space. Growing trees can really help to improve the natural environment where we live, for both wildlife and people, for generations to come. Planting the next generation of trees for the next generation of residents is a fantastic way to start our tree planting project.
What are the plans for planting trees at Langarth ?
As part of our vision for Langarth we are planning to plant around 55,000 new native trees throughout the site to provide food, shelter, shade and nesting and roosting sites for wildlife, as well as supporting cleaner air and helping to capture carbon.
We are committed to protecting at least half of the existing green space on the site and increasing biodiversity by up to 20%. As well as the new woodland, we will also be planting a further seven hectares of hedgerow woodland, creating 720 metres of new Cornish hedges and wildflower meadows.
Sustainable drainage with swales, ponds and wetland areas as a natural flood prevention system, will provide habitats for insects, songbirds, badgers, otters and other amphibians, with new allotments, community gardens and community orchards helping to support food production and bring communities together.
We want to grow our own trees for Langarth and, working with local firm Take a Fence, have created a tree nursery on the site where we can grow a range of native species to plant during the life of the project.
Planting the first 500 oak saplings, supplied by the Forest for Cornwall team, in the tree nursery is a great first step towards delivering our vision. These trees will eventually be planted to bolster the existing wooded assets and hedges; providing important wildlife corridors within the development boundary between various niche habitat areas earmarked for retention and improvement via natural resources as part of the Langarth project.
We had hoped to invite pupils from Threemilestone Primary School to help us plant the first trees but unfortunately this was not possible because of the Covid lockdown restrictions. Instead we will be inviting children from the school to the site to see the 500 new trees as soon as the restrictions allow.
We are looking forward to planting and growing more trees as the scheme progresses. We are currently developing plans to plant a tree for every primary school pupil in Truro during the next tree planting season which begins in November.
We are backing the Grow More Trees campaign. Developed by Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Cornwall Council’s Forest For Cornwall team, the aim of the campaign is to encourage people to collect, grow and plant their own tree seeds in Cornwall: https://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/growmoretrees
We are also supporting Countryfile’s Plant Britain campaign, which aims to get the whole country planting trees, and the ‘Treemilestone’ community tree planting project. We have donated £5,000 towards the Treemilestone project and will be working with the local councillor to support community tree planting events in the Autumn.
