Eat, Sleep, Ride, CIC received £4000 from Blackhill Windfarm Community Fund to plant native woodland trees across our site and erect fencing around the area to keep the trees safe from our 4 legged friends. The funding paid for the purchase of the tress, stabs and shelters, qualified tree planter to deliver 3 sessions with 3 target groups, young people attending youth club, on alternative school provision, adult males completing community pay back orders.
Impact
1 young male became a volunteer for ESR and went on to complete his paths for all walk leader training.
1 young boy completed his NOLB contract and working in the outdoors gave him the inspiration to apply for an Outward-Bound survival camp on Loch ELI, he was accepted
1 young boy on school provision continued with ESR on a rural skills project and has an interest in working outdoors when he leaves school.
We learnt that the young people and volunteers really enjoyed working outdoors and getting their hands dirty and learning how to plant and look after trees as well as identifying tree species and why they are important for the planet. They learnt how to plant and protect a tree from wildlife, how different species of tree will grow differently, how different species like or need different soil/environments, that the 2 main ways trees are grown in a nursery, bare rooted and cell grown, the different animals that will be a pest for trees and what they do to them and how it can kill them, why tree planting is so important especially with protection to ensure a woodland can form
The greater impact for ESR is we are increasing biodiversity and habitat creation as well as providing natural screening and wind and noise barriers in the future
