A transformative tree planting project in Northumberland

Doddington North Moor has been transformed through an ambitious afforestation project that involved planting 680,000 trees, which has helped to bring back a diverse range of flora and fauna.

Working with CLA member Sir Ed Milbank, Pennine Forestry, a company that manages and develops forestry for clients, purchased the Doddington site in early 2016 to transform the land through a major private sector afforestation project.

There were many challenges, including taking the project through various consultations required for woodland creation at this scale. Funding was applied for through the Woodland Creation Planning Grant, the Woodland Carbon Fund, a precursor to the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) and Countryside Stewardship. Pennine Forestry had to submit an environmental statement and various documents in line with the UK Forestry Standard, with the planning costs amounting to more than £100,000.

In March 2018, schoolchildren planted the first trees, and two years later, 268ha of the 354ha site had been transformed into a forest with around 680,000 trees. Around 42% of the site is productive conifer trees, most of which is Sitka, with 20% native broadleaves and 13% mixed Scots pine and native broadleaf. The remaining 25% comprises open ground and managed priority habitat.

The site has two zones: pasture fields and rough grazing heathland on higher ground. The original assumption was that the pasture fields would be more conducive to tree growth and establishment compared to the rougher ground. However, the opposite was true.

Project Manager Andy Howard says: “Having seen tree establishment rates being the opposite of what we expected, we did a variety of soil tests, and found that the rougher ground had higher levels of nitrogen than the pasture area. We had to conclude that the pasture area was more denuded of soil nutrients due to extensive grazing over decades. The higher rougher ground also had more balanced vegetation and soil structure.

“One of the things we learnt early on is that if you chemically spray one type of vegetation, another would flourish in its place, particularly thistle and grasses. After the third year, we stopped chemical spraying, which led to a more balanced range of vegetation.”

The site’s biodiversity has increased considerably, with more species of moths, butterflies and other insects and birds. The raptor population has also expanded with significantly more buzzards, kestrels, hen harriers and owls, attributed to a mouse and vole increase.

There has been a noticeable reduction in flooding events downstream from the river Till. Andy is reluctant to take full credit due to the difficulty in quantifying the impacts of Doddington, as other landowners would have also contributed to flood mitigation. It is also estimated that the site’s woodland would sequester well over 130,000 tonnes of CO2.

While Storm Arwen did not significantly impact the newly planted trees, it did cause collateral damage to fencing, particularly to mature trees that were felled along the fence line.

Despite the increase in biodiversity, the red squirrel population remained relatively stable in the areas where they are concentrated: Fenton to the west and Kyloe Forest to the east. Both these areas suffered a major loss of mature trees, a prime habitat for red squirrels, during Storm Arwen.

The Doddington site had two public footpaths and a bridleway. As part of a public consultation, a circular timber track around the site was designed to link up with the existing footpaths and bridleway. This was instrumental in getting planning approval for the site as it provided public access and access to manage the site.

However, the easily accessible loop track with its flat terrain and wellsurfaced area was used more frequently than the longer established rights of way, and Andy started getting complaints about the latter not being used enough.

He says: “I can’t force people to use the public footpath network, and with time, the complaints got more unpleasant, and bizarrely, even threatening me with a social media campaign to discredit our project. This year, we spent £8,000 managing the vegetation on these lesser-used footpaths.”

Andy also dealt with complaints after a photograph, taken by a visitor, was published on social media. Some commentators made incorrect assumptions that the site was on a peat bog, due to the heather. Andy sought help from the Forestry Commission’s national PR team to make a statement correcting the misinformed comments.

Investing in woodland and forestry creation is a long-term endeavour, with the first thinning only expected by the mid-2030s. Andy says the conifers will be thinned in years 17 to 19, while the fast-growing broadleaves, such as birch and alder, will be thinned two or three years before.

The broadleaves, a mix of oak, birch, alder, aspen and some willow, have been planted at 4,000 stems per hectare, and the conifers (Sitka) at 2,700 stems per hectare.

Andy says: “We plan to implement continuous cover forestry within it, therefore we’ll start to thin early in the life cycle. Because we planted broadleaves at high density we can see the birch ‘pulling up the oak’. We will have to thin as the high-density planting has encouraged the mix of broadleaves to reach for the sky.”

In the future, Doddington timber, specifically conifer, will be supplied to wood processors such as A & J Scott at Wooperton. In addition, birch wood will be sold in the firewood market with the scope to supply into newer markets that use broadleaf timber.

The project was funded respectively under Countryside Stewardship and the former Woodland Carbon Fund, which has now been superseded by EWCO. The Woodland Carbon Fund pays a lump sum payment after the first five years, so the project is now due for its five-year verification event. Andy is confident that the project will successfully progress through this verification.