Overdale Forest
It’s not a forest yet, but with your help, we are planning to plant 6,500 trees there this winter. Hope Valley Climate Action has planted lots of hedges in the last three years but this is our first large scale woodland planting. We will be planting a variety of tree species on 11 plots over 5 planting days and need all the help we can get. The site is a Derbyshire Wildlife Trust reserve between Bradwell and Abney where grazing was ended for several years ago, so it is mostly grass and bracken. There are lovely views but it is but quite steep and exposed to the weather.
Our vision is for an area of diverse wood pasture lightly grazed by highland cattle. We expect the trees to store around 60 tonnes of CO2 per year – so good for the climate and good for nature.
The dates for your diary are the 6th and 13th of November, the 4th of December and the 10th and 15th of January. They are all Thursdays except the 10th of January which is a Saturday. You need to be equipped for a day on the hills with walking boots, wet weather clothing and a hot drink and food. If you want to use your own spade that’s fine but there will be some available on the site.
We will be meeting at 9.30am each day at the west end of Duper Lane in Abney at SK189802 (W3W skills.mystified.waistcoat). There is a small area of parking at the end of the lane from which it is about a 10 minute walk from the site. The lane is very narrow, so it would be a good idea to park away from the site and walk in either from Bradwell, Shatton or Abney. If you can’t make 9.30 you should be able to find us fairly easily from the public footpath at SK184805.
We hope to be joined by one of the local schools and other community groups, so it would be helpful if you can let me know which dates you can join us (plus it means I can get back to you if there are any changes due to weather), but feel free to turn up anyway. To show your interest, please email David Hughes at land@hopevalleyclimateaction.org, or info@hopevalleyclimateaction.org.uk
3 responses
Definitely interested but can’t join you tomorrow unfortunately.
Hi Tony, thanks for your message. If you are free to join us on any of the other dates we would
be grateful to have you along. Please send us an email to land@hopevalleyclimateaction.org.uk with
any questions you may have.
This is Rosemary, My husband and myself came to your meeting ‘carbon emissions’ and really enjoyed it. I heard about the tree planting then and would have sked more about it but we ran out of time. Would very much like to know what kind of trees you are going to plant .Will they be native to Derbyshire with others such as silver Birch and Rowan? We planted such trees in 1987 when we took over the farm and people who visit think that it an ancient woodland as is has done so well. Was a bit worried about the Highland cows ‘even though we love them to bits, as they don’t normally graze between trees unless the trees are in perhaps groups of three with lots of space around them. I hope that people will not be able to walk near them as having kept Highlands for some time and having talked to old timers they can sometimes have hormonal problems if female and become rogue and attack you even if you have reared them from birth! Just thought I had better warn you but wish you all the best with your project. R