Glen visits Make It Wild

On a glorious sunny day in August, Glen Group visited Rowan Tree Farm in Derbyshire — the site where 2,000 trees have been planted as part of Glen Group’s carbon offsetting commitment to help reduce the company’s impact on the environment. It was a day of interest, activity and adventure.

Glen Group heard from the landowners about the history of family-owned Rowan Tree Farm in the Peak District — the plans to plant more trees, their partnership with Make It Wild, and the challenges the team has experienced in setting up this woodland creation site. The landowners highlighted the woodland management strategies used, such as deer and hare fences, to protect the saplings and ensure the trees planted become well established and thrive.

Helen from Make It Wild shared the background to Make It Wild and the benefits of working in partnership with Rowan Tree Farm, so that organisations like Glen Group can choose to have trees planted to offset and mitigate their carbon footprint. Helen stressed the importance of tree planting, and of caring for the wellbeing of nature, to help secure a healthy future for the next generation.

Glen learned more with each step from the Make It Wild team and the landowners about the species planted at this site: hawthorn, wild cherry, rowan, hazel and sessile oak, all native to the Peak District. Different species of tree absorb and store different amounts of carbon, and planting a variety of trees with different growth rates and carbon-capture effectiveness supports biodiversity while helping nature be more resilient to the challenges of climate change.

In the afternoon, Glen Group took part in woodland management activity, removing tree guards from saplings. The plastic tree guards (recommended by the Woodland Trust) are collected, returned to the supplier and recycled — which also helps tackle waste and pollution. Currently there is no feasible alternative to a plastic tree guard, so full commitment to reduce, reuse, recycle is essential.

As the team worked and trod carefully on the hillside, dragonflies flew by, delicate lilac harebells swayed in the breeze, and grass snakes were seen hiding under rocks next to the pond — all testament to the positive impact of tree planting and land management on biodiversity and the wellbeing of nature.