Green Streets Tree Planting Underway for 2015

Planting is underway in Birkenhead for this season, with trees planted around Vittoria Street and Beckwith Street and in the grounds of Priory Parish Primary School. 

In Speke, lots of consultation with residents has been taking place, with an overwhelmingly positive response. 78% of residents who responded are eager to receive a free tree outside their home and have selected their preferred species. Planting will be underway over the next few weeks on Damwood Road, Alderwood Avenue, Millwood Road and Eastern Avenue.

In Everton, residents and businesses along Breck Road, Breckfield Road and Mere Lane will be witnessing splashes of green transform their streets, as trees are introduced to the area.

In St Helen's, Eurolink, Lea Green Road, Jubit's Lane and Clock Face Road will all be transformed by the planting of street trees. There has been a great, positive response from residents who have described the scheme as "a brilliant idea."

In Sefton, large scale planting will soon be underway to green routes between housing and areas of employment in the Seaforth and Litherland areas. 

In Knowsley, street trees will be brightening up County Road, Moorgate Road and Didsbury Close. 

This planting will help to create green routes to areas of employment, encouraging people to walk and cycle to places of work, education and training. They will also improve the street scene and make the area more appealing to investors, trap harmful pollutants, provide a cooling effect on hot days and create a habitat for wildlife.

LSTF Site Visits

Over the next few months we will be carrying out visits to the schools, groups and organisations who have expressed an interest in tree planting over the coming season. We will be visiting sites in all our LSTF areas; North Liverpool, South Sefton, Knowsley, South Liverpool, Wirral and St Helens. For each site we will:

• carry out a site visit, 

• talk to the group, 

• investigate the opportunities for tree planting, 

• decide whether the location is suitable for planting, 

• draw up a plan showing where we will plant and what species, 

• send this back to the group and arrange a planting day, 

• mark out the planting area, 

• give a safety talk, 

• demonstrate how to plant the trees, 

• help the group to get planting!

We work with all kinds of groups and organisations, including friends of groups, youth groups, the Prince’s Trust, rotary clubs, churches, children’s centres, primary schools, high schools, special schools and community groups. We create new areas of woodland, shelter belt, orchards and extend areas of existing woodland. This allows people to experience woodland close to home, and provides lots of benefits for wildlife, whilst helping to reduce climate change.

Trees to boost business value in Birkenhead.

Local residents may have noticed the street trees going into streets around Birkenhead. Many of the trees are replacements for trees which have died and will rejuvenate the outlook of the area as well as enhance the green infrastructure of Birkenhead. Locations for trees have included; the Connaught Estate, Price Street, Cleveland Street, Hamilton Square and Wirral Met College. Tree species include Ginkgo biloba, Gleditsia triacanthos, Liquidambar styraciflua, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, among others. These street trees will provide an important cooling effect in the summer months, along with absorbing atmospheric pollutants.

Recent studies have also shown interesting consumer trends around shopping areas where streets are planted with trees.

• Customers are willing to pay as much as 10 % more for goods if businesses are located on tree- lined streets. 
• Consumers rated products more highly when product testing in shopping areas with lots of shade trees, when compared with those shopping in areas barren of trees.
• Tree lined shopping areas encourage shoppers to linger and shop for longer. For more info see here.

All this means that the shopping areas of Birkenhead which have already received street trees, or will in the future, should benefit from a boost in business through increases in customer numbers and longer shopping times, as well as a willingness to pay more for goods.

Planting with the Tree Musketeers

We have been really busy over the last few weeks finishing off our planting schemes before the weather starts to warm up. The trees that we plant over winter are bare rooted, meaning they can be lifted from the ground and planted in the winter, while the weather is colder, as the trees are dormant at this time. However, as the weather starts to warm up and spring is in the air, the trees will begin to grow again, meaning planting them will cause water stress and the tree might die. This leaves us with quite a narrow window to get our trees planted - roughly the months between November and the end of March. 

The Beacon CE Primary, North Liverpool

We joined teachers and pupils from the Beacon CE Primary School in North Liverpool to help them create a new area of woodland to use for their Forest School sessions. The school are adopting an area of amenity grassland just outside their school boundary and are working to develop it into an area of working woodland which the school will manage themselves. The area has been planted up with a mixture of native woodland species, including pine, beech, holly, oak, willow, dogwood, alder, elder, dog  rose, silver birch, rowan, blackthorn and hawthorn whips. Larger silver birch and oak trees were also planted to mark out the edge of the woodland.

Pupils of all ages helped to plant the trees, having a great time despite the windy conditions! Everyone worked in pairs or small groups to dig the holes and plant the trees, taking care not to trample the daffodils too much! We look forward to carrying on the planting next season with some fruit trees and creation of a shelter belt at the front of the school.

Kirkdale St Lawrence Primary School, North Liverpool

Staff from The Mersey Forest helped Kirkdale St Lawrence School to plant their first orchard. A combination of apple cordons, pears, damsons and plums were planted on a grassy bank in the school grounds. Pupils will be able to nurture their trees, watching them grow and bear fruit. Any fruit produced by the trees will then be able to be eaten by the pupils, or sold as part of a farmer’s market plan the school are hoping to put into action. This will involve the pupils growing fruit and vegetables to sell themselves, helping them to learn about how to manage a business as well as how to grow their own food and the benefits of healthy eating. The tree planting is part of a long- term goal by the school to make their outdoor area greener, working around the challenges of hard landscaping and limited space.

Cathcart Street Primary, Birkenhead

Cathcart Street Primary pupils have been doing lots to improve their outdoor space over the last couple of months. They began by preparing an area of ground for some wildflower sowing to provide a habitat for pollinating insects. Staff from The Mersey Forest provided wildflower poppy mix for the children to sow to commemorate the First World War, which they have been learning about in school. This was followed a few weeks later with some tree planting, a combination of silver birch, apple, pear and damson trees. These will provide shade in the nursery area’s outside space as well as shading two seating areas and giving the children the opportunity to learn about fruit growing.  The children really enjoyed digging and planting and are already taking watering the trees and wildflowers very seriously!

Malvern Primary, Knowsley

Staff and pupils from Malvern Primary School have been working hard to transform their school grounds into an amazing outdoor learning area, with the help of The Mersey Forest. Several new areas of mixed woodland have been created, as well as an orchard and a wet woodland area which will feature a wildlife pond.

The whole school were involved in planting trees and sowing wildflowers to create their new Forest School area. Year 6 pupils supported classes of younger children throughout the day, giving them encouragement and helping them to dig. All the children had the opportunity to learn about the benefits of planting trees and spent some time helping to plant their forest school area and explore the new space. Tree species planted included Scots Pine, Beech, Willow, Holly, Oak, Field Maple, Rowan, Cherry, Alder and Silver Birch. In the orchard Apple, Pear, Cherry, Plum and Damson were planted to provide a range of fruit which children can taste and use to create dishes which promote healthy eating.

By creating this outdoor classroom the children will be able to have lessons outside in their natural environment allowing them to learn more about managing woodland, building dens, making fire’s, as well as gaining increased self- esteem, better social skills, health and physical fitness improvements.

Pledging Scheme Launched

Working with Faiths4Change, The Mersey Forest is rolling out a pledging scheme to all of our LSTF target areas. Anyone taking part in the pledging scheme will be asked to fill in one of our cards stating that they pledge to walk and cycle more, as part of the LSTF programme.

In return they will receive a signed certificate showing that they have agreed to walk and cycle more, to look after trees and to spend more time outdoors.

Anyone signing up to the pledging scheme will also have the opportunity to sign up as a supporter of the Mersey Forest, enabling them to receive our newsletter which provides more detail and stories from across the Forest area. This will allow them to keep up to date with the projects and activities happening right across The Mersey Forest.

South Sefton and North Liverpool Green Schools

The Mersey Forest team have also been busy planting in South Sefton and North Liverpool over the last few months:

Pupils and staff from Rimrose Hope Primary School in Seaforth have created an orchard within their school grounds, with help from The Mersey Forest. Pupils helped to plant apples, pears, and plums which will be carefully nurtured by their gardening club. The project will enable them to learn more about where food comes from, as well as gaining health benefits from spending time outdoors gardening. They will use the harvested fruit to design healthy recipes and in cooking. The whole school got involved with the planting, either by carrying tools and trees to the site, digging holes, or planting trees. It was great to see so many enthusiastic tree planters, who really enjoyed getting out of the classroom to help with planting. 

Staff and children from Cambridge Nursery and Children’s Centre in Bootle joined staff from The Mersey Forest to green their outdoor space through tree planting. A combination of small whips (30-60 cm tall trees) and larger standard trees were planted, to create interest and shade throughout the play area. The planting will provide valuable homes for wildlife, as well as create much needed shade for the summer months, as the play area was previously quite exposed. Children aged 2-4 took part in digging and planting trees and bulbs, with lots of excitement over the discovery of creepy crawlies living in the soil. Despite the invertebrate distractions, there was still time to plant over 50 trees and lots of bulbs!

The Mersey Forest staff helped children and staff from Fountains Children Centre in North Liverpool to introduce some more trees to their outdoor space. The centre already has a selection of mature trees, shrubs and some structural ornamental trees; however the centre manager was keen to improve their outdoor area even more to provide further habitat for wildlife and provide year round colour. With advice from the Mersey Forest the centre decided they would would carry out some planting in the spaces between shrubs and trees. Species such as willow and dogwood were selected for their use in weaving, to create beautiful natural crafts with the children and hazel for its coppicing potential, to provide material for den building. The children were helped by pupils from St John’s Catholic Primary School, who assisted with tricky digging and supported the younger children to plant their own trees. It was great to see the older children helping the younger ones and everyone taking part and enjoying themselves!

Vauxhall Children’s Centre in North Liverpool worked with the Mersey Forest to solve their problem of a lack of shelter in their outdoor space. The area contained lots of play equipment for the children and space for running around but was surrounded by a green metal fence without any shelter belt planting , meaning the site was open to the elements on windy days and the only greenery was some short grass and a few standard trees. In order to improve the outlook of the site and make it feel more secluded, the Mersey Forest staff worked with the centre manager, centre staff and children to plant an area of shelter belt. This was made up of blackthorn, hawthorn, spindle, hornbeam and field maple. We also planted some larger staked fruit trees which will provide the centre with a supply of fruit that they can ‘taste test’ with the children.

The tree planting carried out in these areas was coordinated by The Mersey Forest and supported by the national Big Tree Plant campaign and the Woodland Trust.

More From Trees

The Mersey Forest team have been busy planting trees all over Merseyside and North Cheshire this winter, including the Local Sustainable Transport Fund Target areas.

In Wirral we have been working with Tomorrow's Women Wirral, to transform the outdoor space in the grounds of their centre. The women's centre is in the midst of creating a new sensory garden to host relaxation and reading activities, help the ladies learn about food growing, as well as give them a space to sit and enjoy wildlife. The donation of trees from the Mersey Forest is helping them to realise their dream of a relaxing outdoor space which also provides a valuable habitat for wildlife.

We have also been working with Holy Cross Catholic Primary School to plant a hedge and an orchard in their school grounds. Pupils of all ages joined in with the hedge planting, creating a valuable wildlife habitat and learning lots about The Mersey Forest and how to plant and care for trees. A dedicated team of older pupils carried out some tricky excavation works to plant the orchard trees, which should start to bear fruit within a couple of seasons. Everyone involved had lots of fun and will be looking forward to tasting the different apple varieties!