During March, 50 trees were planted within the southwest fringe of Mountbatten Park to replace the dead or dangerous trees, and the recent windblown trees, in this area.
Within the woodland at Luzborough Plantation to be dedicated for public access, a first year planting of 200 trees, mostly Hornbeam and Beech, has been completed, and a variety of bat and bird boxes, including one for a barn owl, have been fixed within the existing mature trees. There has been some wind blow within the area and most of this timber has been removed; the rest has been deliberately left on the forest floor in accordance with ecological advice.
The planning application for the revised access to the woodland areas from Mountbatten Park is still being considered and following representations the route is being slightly changed so as to run along the field edge so as to avoid root protection zones and minimise any possible risk to the existing woodland habitats.
It’s also good to be able to report that a good number of the acorns planted last autumn within the tree guards in the field to the west of the site have germinated and we hope will have a good year’s growth ahead of them.
