Children from Marsden Infants and Primary School came to help with a tree planting day with the National Trust
By InYourArea ·
Children from Marsden and Slaithwaite schools were among those who have helped to plant trees on Marsden Moor in the past month, working towards new woodlands that will eventually blanket the slopes of Pule Hill and fill the moor’s cloughs (steep-sided valleys).
This December, the children came in small groups, bundled up in layers of warm weather gear, to help rangers from the National Trust and Yorkshire Water to plant two-year-old ‘whips’ (saplings).
They learned how to position them on the less windy side of pre-positioned stakes and how to ‘heel them in’ with their wellies so they survive the harsh winters out on the moor.
The trees are part of Landscapes for Water, the Trust’s major partnership programme with Yorkshire Water, which aims to plant new native woodlands on the Pennine uplands to support nature recovery.
When grown, these trees will reduce flood risk to downstream communities as well as supporting wildlife and storing carbon.
As well as learning how to plant trees, the children were taught they are so important to the environment.
After getting to grips with the spades and using rubber mallets to hammer in stakes, they declared it the “best school trip ever!”
National Trust’s senior volunteer and community officer for West Yorkshire, Emily Ghassempour said: “Introducing young children to the concepts of moorland conservation is vitally important – after all, they will be the adults of the future.
“It’s so important that they understand why we must look after the landscape in Marsden, for them and for all of us.”
These children weren’t the only ones to get their hands dirty in the name of a good cause either.
While two free community events had to be cancelled because of Storms Bert and Darragh, members of two Huddersfield-based groups – a Scout troop and a refugee charity – managed to attend planting sessions, as did representatives from the White Rose Forest, the community forest for North and West Yorkshire.
The White Rose Forest is one of the main funders of Landscapes for Water, via their Trees for Climate programme, part of the Nature for Climate Fund, and the trees will form part of this community forest for North and West Yorkshire.
In total 300,000 trees in total will be planted by Landscapes for Water over the next four years, and 3,500 leaky dams will be installed, across 5,500 hectares of the South Pennines, from Marsden in the south to Heptonstall in the north – across land owned by the National Trust and Yorkshire Water.
Jess Yorke, project lead for Landscapes for Water, said: “We are so grateful for all the help we have received throughout 2024. It’s clear there is an appetite among local people to get out and do what they can to do something about climate change. It’s heartening to see even the smallest kids getting involved.
“The named storms we have had already this autumn show the vital importance of Landscapes for Water and similar projects for slowing the flow of floodwaters. These nature-boosting woodlands will help mitigate against the ill-effects of these storms for many decades to come.”
