Last week 105 Wild Harvest Trees through the Woodland Trusts Free Trees Scheme arrived in the Allan Water Catchment. Although consisting of varieties that would whet the palate of any wild forager, these fruit/berry/nut trees will also contribute towards minimising flood risk by accompanying the Natural Flood Management (NFM) Community Orchard and riverside (riparian) tree planting in slowing the flow of flood water at Craigton. By slowing the flow of flood water on this site, these wild harvest varieties are contributing towards minimising the flood peak height the Allan Water will attain during a flood, and therefore contributing towards flood protection in urban areas downstream, such as Bridge of Allan.
The wild harvest varieties included Elder (Sambucus nigra), Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris), Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), Hazel (Corylus avellana) and Dog Rose (Rosa canina). All these varieties have edible components that can be harvested to make a variety of food and drinks from salads and jams to even gin, or just directly browsed upon. Therefore these trees will accompany the orchard site nicely, and provide sustainable food opportunities for the local community whilst also contributing towards minimising downstream flood risk.
Last Saturday was the chosen day to set the trees free into the soil, and despite our current sunny weather it was a different story last Saturday morning by the Allan Water. Thankfully by the time me, and my four NFM volunteers had reached Craigton, the rain that had been pouring down the previous day and into Saturday morning -drawing a few concerns for the planting- had passed. In addition, as we carried over our tools and trees, the day turned out to be rather nice for tree planting. Luck must have been on our side!
The original design for the site was 10 rows of 10 trees, with the 5 extra trees being added to rows at the end. The plantation would also be designed so that it would not allow water channels to form between the tree rows. To stop channels being formed, the planting was designed so that the trees in a row were planted in positions that were between the spaces of the adjacent rows. The idea of this is to slow the flow of flood water by creating a living pinball table for water to pass through. However due to the high water levels, and rain, surface and ground water levels did not allow for us to plant our 10*10 rows so neatly. In the middle of the row design was a large puddle, with saturated groundwater underneath. Planting in this would drown our trees by restricting the roots of oxygen, which leads to root dieback. Instead the design became altered, in that we planted where dry ground was available on the row, and thankfully we had a lot of room to play with to make that work. Trees were planted at least 3metres apart to provide a lot space for each harvest tree to flourish, and this would also allow plenty of room to harvest each tree when they start producing berry, fruit, leaf or nut.
NFM Volunteers planting the first row
The large puddle/saturated ground in the middle of the rows
Happy NFM Volunteers!
The volunteers planting the last few trees
The planting went very well, and despite some cold fingers by the end, we planted all 105 trees in rows beneficial to NFM. To celebrate afterwards we shared a hot beverage and some biscuits by the Allan Water, whilst surveying the riverside, orchard and wild harvest plantings in this scenic part of the river catchment.
NFM Vols. celebrating a good days planting!
Many thanks again to all the volunteers that helped plant trees at Craigton! I cannot wait to see this site grow and develop over time. For a bit of fun, I have included some photos below of each volunteers best planting poses from Saturday. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the poses!
Zarah
Paloma
Charlie
Rosie