How to plant trees without damaging the environment - Yorkshire Post Letters

I REFER to the article in Country Week by Bruce McLeod, Chair of Friends of the Dales, about planting young trees or ‘‘saplings’’ coming with an environmental cost when plastic tree guards are used, which is the cheapest method of protecting young trees (The Yorkshire Post, October 24).

There are other alternatives like planting trees in blocks, which are offset to achieve the same effect in the landscape. These groups of trees can be protected by stock proof fencing or chestnut pail fencing, both of which can be used time and time again before the galvanised steel and chestnut pails are recycled.

The unit cost of planting trees using these methods of protection are higher rather than using plastic tree spirals but there is no environmental damage. To justify the extra cost, plant larger trees, which will establish quicker and the fencing can be reused. In the days before plastic was invented, foresters would have used such methods to protect young trees.

I write as a retired professional horticulturalist, working for various local authorities in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria, and finally London’s Royal Parks for 25 years. Knowledgeable from ‘‘grass roots’’ level to trees!

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