Many thanks again for the volunteer session the other day, the weather was atrocious yet you all stuck with it and did an excellent job!

Jersey Trees for Life (JTFL) launched the Hedgerow Campaign in 2007, it's aim being to restore and create hedgerows across the island. There are many benefits to the campaign, increased biodiversity, hedgerow connectivity acting as food and wildlife corridors to enable the islands mammals to thrive and connect island wide as well as benefits such as carbon storage, soil improvement, increased oxygen output.

The main mammal species aimed at were squirrels, bats, birds and hedgehogs.

Since we began, JTFL has planted over 50,000 trees covering over 93 miles of hedgerow!

This year, with the help of volunteers such as yourselves, we are hoping to plant over 10,000 before the end of the planting season ( end of March).

We have always underwritten the costs of all our planting projects, seeking out any possible funds/donations/grants to help offset our work.

We have been using a more science-based approach when determining where and what we plant. Everything we plant is native.

Hawthorn has been shown to provide habitation for over 180 varieties of insect and we plant 50% of Hawthorn in our hedgerows. The rest of the hedgerow is a native mix of Blackthorn, Hazel, Elder, Field Maple, Holly and Privet.

The Oak tree has been shown to provide a home for over 280 species of insect and we always include Oak in any planting project.

Our standard planting plan is a double hedgerow,one every 0.5m staggered, with a tree in its own right every 6m.

Other tree species included in our campaign include;

Sweet Chestnut
Common Pear
Crab Apple
Rowan
Ash
Lime
Wild Cherry
Bird Cherry

All of which provide both a food source PLUS pollination throughout the year.

Here is a breakdown of what you planted for us:

Total planted 300, of which 10 were trees (290 hedgerow).

Trees;

1 oak
1 sweet chestnut
2 crab apple
2 wild cherry
2 bird cherry
2 common pear

Hedgerow;

145 Hawthorne
74 blackthorn
22 elder
29 hazel
10 privet
10 field maple

Total metres 150m

By helping us plant, you have all left behind a wonderful legacy that should hopefully help generations to come.

I'm pleased that you all enjoyed being with us that day and please keep in touch and join us again, there's a lot more to plant yet!

Kind regards

Robin
Hedgerow Campaign Co-ordinator