SUSTAINABILITY

FEATURES
A tale of history, nature,
conflict, and 500,000 trees
Warcop – a success story of the Woodland Trust working with DIO to create a vast area of woodland © Jeremy Kalkowski
Crawling through the undergrowth it
was hugely diffcult for the soldier to
see the enemy but the camouflage
of the trees provided some comfort
and protection as he advanced. In
the eerie silence he looked up and
for a moment he was able to take
in the beauty of his surroundings
as the rising sun’s rays gradually
made their way through the trees.
He looked around and advanced,
pushing through the broad leaves and
branches of the oak and hazel and on
through the silver birch. But then, as if
from nowhere there came a shout and
it was over, the army training session
at Warcop was brought to a close.
This was, of course, not a real
scenario but similar ones have been
made available thanks to a unique
partnership between the Defence
Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and
the Woodland Trust.
More than 500,000 trees have been
planted at eight DIO sites including
Warcop, Catterick, Prince William of
Gloucester Barracks near Grantham,
Bordon, Winterbourne Gunner,
Wethersfield, Condor and Barry
Buddon. During a blossoming five year
partnership – that is the equivalent
of 1000 football pitches. The new
woodland will provide huge areas
of valuable wildlife habitat but still
provide the backdrop for essential
military training.
To complement the new planting,
DIO has joined one of the Woodland
Trust’s biggest ever campaigns –
perhaps the most fitting – as it bids
to create four new woods in its World
War I Centenary Woods across the UK,
the first of which is Dreghorn amid the
rolling Pentland hills near Edinburgh.
Serving soldiers from 2 Scots and 3
Rifles are leading the way by planting
almost 50,000 native trees, working
alongside Sea, Air and Army Cadets,
as well as local people, including
hundreds of school children.
Each year, as thoughts turn to
remembrance, a special avenue of
50 wild service trees will provide
a spectacular annual flash of red
in the autumn and four acres of
wildflowers, including poppies, will
create a peaceful, beautiful place for
commemoration and reflection.
This precious new wood will increase
native woodland in Edinburgh Cit y
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Sanctuary 44 • 2015