From little acorns... children to scatter seeds 'for a more natural woodland'

The "direct seeding" of the trees at Heartwood Forest near St Albans, Hertfordshire, is an alternative approach to creating woodland, compared with the more traditional method of planting saplings protected with tubes or fencing.

The Woodland Trust, which has bought the land at Heartwood, hopes the scheme will create more natural-looking woodland, as well as bring children closer to the process by which "great oaks from little acorns grow".

Some 63,000 acorns and hundreds of thousands of smaller seeds of ash, birch, field maple, hawthorn, blackthorn, hornbeam, hazel, dog rose, will be scattered across three acres of open land by 400 children from 14 schools.

The ground has been harrowed to produce planting furrows and the seeds will be covered over after being scattered.

The Trust's director for woodland conservation John Tucker said the method was an alternative to more standard planting schemes, which was not commonly used because people felt more confident if they could see a sapling going into the ground.

The method also makes it harder to control which trees grow, with a recent scheme in the National Forest delivering mostly oaks and wild cherry so far, from a range of seeds sown.

But Mr Tucker said: "One of the key attractions to it is we have a better chance of creating a more natural looking woodland.

"One of the biggest strengths is that when you plant a woodland you want to quite quickly get canopy closure, shutting out the ground, to establish woodland conditions as quickly as possible.

"You tend to get that quicker on a direct seeding system than on a traditional planting system.

"It's great with children, they can see acorns on the trees, but sometimes they don't connect the fact that the acorn can grow into a new oak tree.

"And it's an easier way to plant it, rather than having to dig holes, so it's a great way to engage children."

The planting programme this week is part of the creation of England's largest new native forest across 850 acres – which already includes pockets of ancient woodland – in Hertfordshire.

The Woodland Trust has already begun planting saplings and aims to plant 650,000 trees in an 8.5m project to create new woodlands for the benefit of people and wildlife.