For the fifth year in a row Premier Paper, its customers and the Woodland Trust have returned to Pullabrook Wood on Dartmoor to plant trees and maintain native woodland in the area.
Around 40 people gathered in Devon and proceeded to split into two teams in order to cover more ground and more work. The first team took to a recently cleared 20 x 20m plot where a wall of conifers had recently been removed to allow for new native plants and trees to strive. The first task was to clear the area of brush and debris before planting around 100 saplings; an understory of hazel, hawthorn, cherry and rowan. Once the last tree had been planted the team set about installing chestnut stakes around the perimeter, providing fencing to keep out deer whilst the saplings grow.
Elsewhere the second team had revisited a previous planting site at the location to remove stakes and tubes from five years ago, the saplings now successful, healthy trees. The stakes were sent to be dried out so that they could be used again whilst the tubes were stored ready to be reused for further planting. After a brief lunch break the group removed stakes and tubes from previously planted hedgerows and planted some extra saplings to help fill gaps where the previous ones had either failed or been damaged. Some volunteers joined together to help rake and plant seeds to create a wild flower meadow.
‘It was great to return to Pullabrook Woods, revisit and work on some of the areas that we’ve planted in the past,’ said Premier Paper’s marketing manager Hussein Ismail. ‘We were incredibly lucky with the weather and everyone worked really hard to ensure all of the tasks were complete – it was a rewarding day.’
Pullabrook Woods is located in the Bovey Valley, not far from the village of Manaton. Once home to a number of medieval farmsteads; the woods are now home to dormice, kingfishers, bats and buzzards, as well as countless species of insects, plants, trees and fungi. Whilst in river Bovey, that runs through the woods, visitors can see salmon, trout, dragonfly and various other wildlife native to the area; a great spot for a walk out with the family and dogs or even a cross country run.
