Family creates first ‘Grow Back Greener’ woodland - Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
A family with a smallholding in Craven has created the first new woodland to arise from a ‘landmark collaboration’ between the Woodland Trust and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.
The Hinds family from Woodhouse Farm near the village of Austwick have planted nearly 5000 native broadleaved shrubs and trees in a five hectare (12 acre) field.
The mixed native woodland has been created through a Northern Forest scheme called ‘Grow Back Greener’.
Landowners and farmers are now being encouraged to make applications to the scheme, which offers significant financial incentives including upfront maintenance payments.
Kath Hinds, speaking after Cumbria-based contractor Graham Bradley Landscape and Forestry Ltd had completed its work, said: “We had a lot of people walk past at the weekend and had a great reaction. Almost everybody said they couldn’t wait for the trees to grow.
“We’ve got ancient woodland, Oxenber Woods, right next to us, and the idea was that we wanted to continue that down the hillside. There is already a feeling of walking in a forest, even though the trees are so small. You get a sense of what it is going to be like.”
Daughter Annabel Hinds said: “I’m excited to see how these trees will grow. We’ve planted them to help the environment and to have a place for the animals to live.”
The Grow Back Greener scheme is seen as critical to achieving an ambition, set by the Dales Woodland Forum, to create 6000 hectares of woodland in the Yorkshire Dales National Park between 2021 and 2030. As outlined in a blog post published today – ‘Woodlands in the Dales: the backstory to the big story’ – if realised, this ambition would increase tree cover in the National Park from four to seven per cent.
More on:
Posted On: 04/04/2022