How a mile-long hedge made of dying Christmas trees in Yorkshire is such a boost for wildlife

The initiative has been run by Calderdale Council for more than 20 years and involves charities from Bradford to Keighley, picking up unwanted Christmas trees for a donation.

So far this year several hundred have been handed in and volunteers from Ogden Water Community Group are now busily forming a barrier up to 5ft high and 12ft wide.

The chain of trees will slowly rot down over the year to a fungussy mulch – to be topped up by another 3,000 or so Christmas trees the following season – which at £50 each would have cost £100,000 to buy.

More than 300,000 people visit the reservoir every year for picnics, walking, feeding the ducks, family outings and nature activities.

Calderdale Council’s Countryside Officer, Chris Sutcliffe, said people enjoy the fresh smell of the pine as the old trees join the growing pile telling him “it smells of Christmas”.

He said: “If you have a live tree, they are cut off at the bottom, they are not going to grow – they die off slowly. We give them a longer life than going into landfill or being turned into wood chippings.

"We offer people the chance to bring them up to Ogden reservoir and they can be recycled into a dead hedge which is brilliant for wildlife and also stops people from getting through and going into the water itself.

"There were issues of people going in and there has been fatalities in the past.

"People try to get over, but at the end of the day it’s 4ft or 5ft high and in some places 12ft wide.

"It keeps dogs away from the waterfowl that are breeding, and it creates this mosaic of habitats, bramble, bilberry areas, and grassland all round the edge of the reservoir.

"When we start putting them in the hedge you get this smell of pine and also the impact of something green against the brown and grey drabness of January.”

Over time as the needles drop off, brambles and nettles grow up, with the hedge providing homes not only for birds and small mammals, but also a very rare bright orange fungus called pythia vulgaris.

When it was discovered growing in patches over the deadwood at Ogden a few years ago, it had only been previously recorded in the UK in 1888.

People can drop off dead trees throughout January outside the classroom at Ogden water, or over the wall next to the visitor centre. There are volunteer sessions every Tuesday throughout the month if anyone wants to help the Countryside team with the work.