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Mini forest set to grow larger

With concerns over the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the loss to wild habitat for flora and fauna in England there is one place which is seeing the planting of more trees which provide solutions to both issues.

The Stables Business Park at Rooksbridge in Somerset is set to further expand its tree cover by the planting of another 1,800 trees this winter. They will add to the already extensive woodland cover earlier this year when 5,000 trees were planted in the grounds of the park just off the A38.

“We have a motto here: relax you’re at work,” said proprietor Tom Dally, “as we have made the business park as green as we can with woods and even a pond to attract wildlife. With the grants available through National Grid and the Hinkley Point Project we’ve already created a large wood on the right as you come in with more trees to the left. The new trees will add to the main forested area with more on the left nearer the office in the meadow.”

With a mixture of native broadleaf trees that include oak, beech, hazel and holly the first plantation was created in January and has already thriving in the rich soil of the park.

The Hinkley Connection plantation at Rooksbridge is already the single largest planting undertaken so far in the policy of increasing reforestation and is set to grow even larger under the 106 planning agreement to offset the new power lines currently being constructed linking Hinkley to Seabank near Avonmouth. Hinkley Connection is a joint project featuring National Grid, Western Power and EDF at Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Station.

It goes without saying that the recent COP26 conference stressed the importance of planting trees to improve the environment, encourage wildlife, combat pollution and carbon dioxide and pump oxygen into the atmosphere.

Hinkley Connection said: “We’re already engaged with landowners closest to the route, and we’re now making the scheme available to landowners within 3km of the new connection. Wherever possible we will use native species such as oak, willow, hazel, hawthorn and maple, to create woods and to infill in existing hedges.”

The initiative known as the Off-Site Planting and Mitigation Scheme (OSPES) aims to increase local biodiversity as well as increasing the amount of tree cover along the route which passes Rooksbridge in Somerset.

The Stables Business Park lies just off the A38 at Rooksbridge close to the M5 at Edithmead and features new classic English farmstead style buildings occupied by a wide range of businesses.

“It really improved the park as we are in a rural location,” said Tom, “with thousands of broadleaf native trees the business park effectively doubles up as a nature reserve as well.”

The Stables Business Park

Tel: 07968 910 761.

www.stablesbusinesspark.com 

Stables Business Park, Rooksbridge, Somerset BS26 2TT