Why (and how) we’re planting trees on the farm - photo essay
This photo essay brings together two recent editions of the weekly Glasbren newsletter, the ‘Veggie Love News’, with stunning photography by Jason from A Great Alternative at our community tree planting day here at the farm on Saturday 17th February 2024.
“What happens when you plant a tree? What happens when you consider your ecological and cultural legacy?”
A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a warm pub, sipping a pint of Guinness and preparing my notes to speak at a screening of ‘In Our Hands’ at SERO. I glanced up to the TV screen and on the news was a report about the new Sustainable Scheme (SFS). The new scheme, which replaces the old Basic Payments subsidies Scheme, stipulates that all Welsh farmers, amongst other actions, will have to plant 10% of their land with trees. The farmers interviewed were not happy, and the report, focused on lost land, lost profit and lost productivity.
It was curious timing, given that I was just about to walk up the street to give a talk about, amongst other things, that very scheme. But it was a good window into where negative perceptions of tree planting on farms comes from - and why it shouldn’t be as simple as insisting everyone plant a percentage of trees, without adequate support around how they can be integrated into productive food-producing systems, and a lot of misinformation and confusion about what the new guidelines actually mean.
A couple of days later, I found myself on a beautiful example of how trees can be used on farms to increase productivity, how they can be useful to farmers whilst still providing the habit, food for wildlife and carbon sinking benefits. At Pencedni in North Pembrokeshire, Tom Clare and Jacqui Banks have spent ten years shaping a piece of land into a beautiful example of how trees can be planted to maximum benefit… Thanks to Farming Connect, Tom is mentoring me and supporting on our agroforestry plan for the farm, and helping to shape our thinking around what to plant and where to plant it.
I’ve met with a few concerns about our plans to plant more trees at Parc yr Arglwydd - 25% of the farm was already planted with trees prior to our tenancy in 2022 - so I thought, given the political climate and our upcoming tree planting plans, that now would be a good time to sit down and explain why and how we’ll be planting more trees here in the years to come.
Planting a tree is a powerful symbol. It’s a positive, restorative act that we can all take in service to future generations - ‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now’ goes the old Japanese proverb. It’s such a powerful symbol of ecological thinking and regenerative actions that we even chose a young tree as our namesake, a symbol to define Glasbren.
But it’s often believed that tree planting and farming cannot mix. Perhaps, when folks hear that we’re planting more trees here on the farm, they might think that it will be at the expense of productive, food producing land. On the contrary. Not only will the way we plant trees enhance the productivity of pasture and veg growing land, but it will also add multiple additional crops from the very same land.
Rather than separating agriculture and forestry, trees over there, and farming over here…. we’re interested in integrating productive trees into our farming systems - a practice known as Agroforestry (see videos below).
The answer to the question ‘Why are we planting trees?’ might be obvious to some of you - most of us will be well aware of the environmental benefits of planting a tree which are now well publicised and even sold as an offset tool to large corporations! Trees sequester carbon, aid in a healthy hydrological cycle, stabilise landscapes, mitigate flooding and protect against drought. They play a big part in building healthy soils and offer food sources and habitat for wildlife. They cool the Earth, too. In the face of climate change and biodiversity collapse, their role cannot be overestimated - we need more trees.
But what might help us more enthusiastically accept their valuable place on any farm and in any food production system is to consider, too, their role as shelter and fodder for animals, shelter from winds for pasture grass, vegetable and cereal crops, for building materials and for making things, not to mention their productive value for us humans too… what we call the 3 ‘F’s - Food, Fuel and F-armacy (a bit off artistic license on that last one!).
It’s going to take us most of this year to come up with a full agroforestry design for the farm, but we have designed some systems to get us started, and last Saturday we made a start with 1000 native trees and a community orchard (see all photos) - 70 heritage Welsh apple and pear trees for a bumper future crop of fruit for juices and sharing with everyone in our CSA community. Not only will those trees be producing fruit, but under them we can grow grass for small grazing animals, edible mushrooms, shade tolerant plants, not to mention bees for honey or chickens for eggs.
In a windswept, coastal place like this, shelter belts of trees are going to be vital. We’ve already observed how important the short line of trees to the southwest side of the house and buildings is for protection and for creating a warmer microclimate on windy days. So we’ll be planting thick shelter belts of multiple species to protect polytunnels and food growing areas and to aid the growth of pasture against brutal winds coming in off the sea.
We might plant, for example, a shrub for medicinal berries, alongside a quick-establishing tree for immediate protection like willow, which could also be coppiced (cut at the base and allowed to regrow) for woodchip for the market garden. We might select evergreen native species to provide year round protection, alongside a nitrogen-fixing species to help feed the plants around it. While many are resistant to taking up valuable farmland for planting shelterbelts, are proven to increase the productivity and rate of growth of pasture, making up for the land that was' ‘lost’ to plant them.
Alley-cropping would be a very interesting approach here on the farm - growing vegetable or cereal crops in between lines of productive trees. The trees provide shelter and edge ecological benefits, and their protection would increase the productivity of the crops in-between. Silvopasture is also an interesting prospect, introducing trees to animal grazing systems. We can look at how we can plant standalone trees or small copses in fields to provide ‘Tree-barns’ for animals as shelter. We can select species that animals like to browse for the medicinal qualities of their leaves or in the bark, or for the fruits or nuts they generously offer at harvest time.
So you can see that within every agroforestry system, we’re looking at the multiple benefits and yields trees can provide.
All generations assembling for future generations (CREDIT: A Great Alternative)
In some places, too, we’ll be working with our non-human coworkers to plant trees. Leaving areas of land to wild, where the bluejay can plant oaks, or seed can travelog the wind, fall and germinate, where brambles or gorse can act as protective nurseries for trees not planted by our hand to get a head start. Often those young trees and stronger, more vigorous and quicker to get going than any of the ones we’ll plant!
Planting Trees as a Community
Last Saturday, thirty-five generous and courageous souls ventured into the thick fog that’s engulfed Parc yr Arglwydd recently to come and be a part of the early tree planting efforts here at the farm. Some walked up from Llansteffan village, spades over their shoulder, others travelled from across West Wales. We gathered in the future veg-box packing shed to talk about the plan for the day, share a bit about how and why we’re planting trees, and to organise into into smaller tree-planting teams. The forecast was awful, but we were blessed with a few dry hours in the morning, thankfully!
Together, we planted and mulched 50 heritage Welsh apple trees and 20 pear trees - - with names like Poppit Blas y Twyni, Poppit Sŵn y Môr, Pig Aderyn and Pwll Pisgod - the beginnings of a community orchard, accessible from the Wales Coast Path and with trees dedicated to our farm supporter members.
Some of us also ventured out of sight into the veil of mist, a roving team of planters to fill in gaps in existing tree planting with 500 native trees, while another team broke ground on a shelter belt to protect gathering spaces and veggrowing spaces from the brutal winds coming off the sea. I’ve never seen tree planting happen quicker. It felt like an orchard and a shelter belt appeared on the landscape in just a couple of hours - planted and mulched with a smile and lots of laughter! It was hard to keep up….
“How wonderful to be part of a growing community and being in communion & connection with nature. Lots of gratitude thank you so much for the invitation and all the people recognising the opportunity and showing up in such a great variety, with energy & passion across generations”
— Svend, Volunteer & Tree Planter
Despite the weather, spirits were high and there was a great energy - such is the collective power of restorative action. Positive, community climate action. Of taking steps to secure a long term source of food for the community. As the Spring tries to break through day after day of rain and fog, it felt like such a generative, life-giving way to come together, all generations assembling for future generations, to plant trees in the shade of which we may or may not sit, the fruits of which we may or may not enjoy.
But when it does come to enjoying the fruits, we can’t wait to bring everybody together again in 5, 7 or 10 years time to harvest them, process them, and enjoy the taste of some freshly pressed apple juice. The community orchard space will be there for you, to sit a while as you are passing on a Sunday walk, to pick a crunchy snack, to remember that day we all spent getting the trees in the ground.
Not only is it incredible to witness how much can be achieved by a big group of willing folks in a really short space of time, but how much power we have as a group - to take steps to secure our own food future, to regenerate our local lands, to, at once, nourish ourselves and the earth simultaneously. Yes, we’re planting tree for their environmental benefits, and for their usefulness for food, fuel, materials, medicine and shelter. But last Saturday also showed us that planting trees can also be a powerful way for us to bring the community together in positive, restorative purpose. It’s a vehicle for community-scale ecosystem restoration, for working together for food sovereignty and to secure a vital community resource and for joy, fun and all the good feels on a rainy Saturday in February!
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead
A huge thankyou to all those who came to help plant trees on a foggy February Saturday, spades, mulching cardboard and wheelbarrows in tow. Thanks to our coordinating crew too - Luisa, Steff, Helena, Clementine and Paddy, to Liz Dutch, Llangain village hall and all the other generous contributors of food and cardboard to help pull it together. Shout out to Tyn y Berllan and Applewise, the local nurseries that supplied all the rare and interesting apple and pear varieties, and to the Tree Council and TCV’s iDig Trees for supporting our tree planting efforts and Pembrokeshire Agroforestry for the magical Chaos Fungarium miccorizal inoculant! And to Jason at A Great Alternative for capturing the unique quality of the day so stunningly, as ever.
If you weren’t able to make it, don’t worry! We’ll be running community Saturdays like these once a month! We have an open day on March the 9th (see below), and then the next Community Farm Day on Saturday 13th April. Save the date and book your spot now.
This article combined two recent editions of our weekly newsletter, the ‘Veggie Love News’. If you’d like to be one of the first to read it every Sunday morning, sign up below.
If you’re a farmer worrying about the new Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) and it’s tree planting and habitat commitments, don’t forget that your existing hedgerows and woodland qualify (good for Carmarthenshire farmers!). And Farming Connect offer 15 hours of free agroforestry mentoring to help you explore how you might integrate trees into your farming systems. Find out more here. You can also find more clarification about what the tree planting requirements of the SFS actually mean in this helpful article.
