Students from Queen’s Croft High School in Lichfield braved the cold on a grey November morning to plant sapling trees alongside the Heritage Towpath Trail. An intergenerational group of people – Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust volunteers, Rotary Club of Lichfield officials, Queen’s Croft High School students and staff - assembled in the mist and dampness on the Tamworth Road section of the Lichfield Canal with 105 saplings secured by Rotary from the Woodland Trust.
Their task was to fill in the gaps in the hedgerow with a variety of hawthorn, blackthorn, silver birch and oak, and Lichfield Rotary Club President Mike Godfrey and fellow Rotarians Godfrey Eland, Geoff Knights and David Mayes were present to see how well the group of 16-19 year old students who help LHCRT every Friday morning have gained the reputation in the Trust of being such useful volunteers. Of the 105 varied saplings, a few were left and these were being planted next week by Queen’s Croft students along the perimeter of LHCRT’s Fosseway Heath site.
The Trust is recreating environmentally scarce lowland heathland as part of its Nature Reserve and Wetlands, and the remaining saplings will only be on the perimeter of the land, as heathland needs to remain as poor, acid soil without nutrients going in the soil from the leaves of deciduous trees.
Christine Bull, the Trust’s chairperson, said: “Rotary, LHCRT and Queen’s Croft High School are grateful to the Woodland Trust for yet another grant of saplings which are so important to LHCRT’s commitment to improving biodiversity and environmental improvement. “This year’s Woodland Trust saplings are sponsored by Sainsbury’s, Yorkshire Tea and People’s Postcode Lottery.
“The contribution of the latter is especially gratifying, as it has financed so much of LHCRT’s Fosseway development of wetlands, boardwalks and nature trails for the community’s enjoyment.”
Tom Reid
