What's New?

In total 7,010 tree and hedging whips were planted as part of the Jersey Hedgerow Campaign in the 2010/2011 planting season. This equates to 5.3 km (3.3 miles) of new or restored hedgerows in Jersey. Jersey Trees for Life planted a total of 9,629 tree and hedging whips in all projects during the planting season.

Appropriately 2011 has been designated the UN International Year of the Forest. We are grateful to the Royal Bank of Canada (CI) and to Beaulieu Convent School for offering volunteers to assist with the planting. Hautlieu School and RBS International have already organised sessions to help us maintain some of the hedgerows this summer. As ever a HUGE thank you to the Probation and After-Care service who contributed by preparing substantial numbers of holes in which the whips were to be planted and subsequently fitting the mulch mats and spiral guards after planting had been completed.

Jersey Trees for Life are delighted to announce a new partnership with RUBiS (Fuel Supplies (C.I.) Limited. In essence, customers of RUBiS will be able to donate the loyalty reward points they accumulate to Jersey Trees for Life for the purpose of providing whips to be planted in the Jersey Hedgerow Campaign.

We are delighted that RUBiS customers will be able to do this as it enables them to choose to make a practical contribution to combat the effects of burning fossil fuels. Young trees are very effective in removing carbon dioxide (the gas mainly produced by burning fossil fuels) from our atmosphere.

Our membership will receive details, when the Autumn 2010 newsletter is circulated, about how they can become involved in the partnership.

Back in October, Jersey Trees for Life launched what they hope will become an annual competition for young people in the Island .

The ‘Track of the Trees’ competition invited any Jersey individual or group who attend a Jersey school or youth group, to submit a composition which conveyed the following:

· The importance of trees to humanity past, present and in the future.

· The beauty of trees.

In total seven submissions were received and consequently there followed a very difficult session for the judging panel, headed by local journalist and broadcaster Gordon de Ste Croix. The winning composition to emerge was that produced by Tom Carey, Henry Beirne, Max Treharne and Ruben Maric with their entry ‘Save the Trees’. The boys are all Year 6 pupils at Victoria College Prep.

Education Officer Michel Morel, continues: "Following my visit to a Creative Jersey exhibition last year, in an attempt to find someone who would be able to assist us in making a promotional video, I came into contact with Mrs Sandra Peddle a Media Studies teacher from Hautlieu School. She told me that one of her groups last year had jointly won a national award, the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) Schools Digital Challenge. We discussed collaboratively working on a video about trees and the idea evolved that the winners of the music competition would have their composition professionally recorded, and a video made as part of the prize, along with a tree planted in a location of their choice."

The Jersey Hedgerow Campaign continued during the last planting season focused in St Clement in the Rue de Samares and Clos du Roncier areas. In total 5,265 whips were planted in the parish for the benefit of primarily hedgehogs, but obviously the Island's biodiversity in general. This realised the creation or restoration of 3.95 kilometres of hedgerow in St Clement. The species planted were common oak(93), sweet chestnut(60), ash(68), poplar(48), wild cherry(23), hawthorn(2106), blackthorn(1956), elder(642) and crab apple(269).

Additionally, the Hedgerow Campaign continued in the west of the Island with more planting being carried out in St Ouen and St Peter. The corridors for bats, planted last winter, were added to with 686 whips in St Ouen and 570 in St Peter. We are most grateful to the Parish of St Ouen, who kindly provided us with one of their ground staff to help with the planting (see newsletter no. 41)

Late March this year saw the conclusion of the second stage of Jersey Trees for Life’s Hedgerow Campaign. Following on from the 2007/8 Campaign when 1.6km of hedgerows were planted in St. John to create wildlife corridors for squirrels, the 2008/9 Campaign resulted in 1,630 plants being introduced to St. Martin again for squirrels, and 4,050 plants in St Peter and St Ouen to provide roosting sites for bats.

The tree species chosen were common oak, sweet chestnut, wild cherry, oak, aspen and beech. The hedging consisted of hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel and elder. Commenting on the species and sites chosen Conrad Evans stated, “ We chose the sites on the basis of information passed on to us by the relevant support group. We selected the hedgerow plants we did because being native; they offer food, habitat and other opportunities to assist our flagship species.”

Jersey Trees for Life is extremely grateful for the support of the States of Jersey Countryside Renewal Scheme which recognizes the important place that this campaign has in improving the condition of Jersey’s hedgerows and arresting the decline in Jersey’s biodiversity. As part of the condition of the CRS grant, JTFL has undertaken to provide maintenance of the hedgerows for the next three years. We are grateful to other sponsors too including Island Insurance, ITEX, Jersey Dairy and donors from our membership. Next year watch this space as we plant for hedgehogs!

The BBC has featured Jersey Trees for Life's Adelina Wood as one of the Jersey sites in its Breathing Places community initiative. On Wednesday 11th February Sarah Scriven from BBC Radio Jersey visited the wood to interview Enid Gautier and Michel Morel, JTFL's Education Officer. The interview was broadcast on BBC Radio Jersey. The site has been used in the summer by Year 7 students from Haute Vallee School carrying out a tree identification activity organised by our Education Officer, Michel Morel. Plans are currently in hand for students from Trinity School to visit the site and observe the changes that occur naturally in the environment as the seasons progresses.

Jersey Trees for Life, in partnership with the Island’s environmental, conservation and farming community has launched the Jersey Hedgerow Campaign, an ambitious three-year programme to plant, restore and protect hedgerows for the benefit of the Island ’s biodiversity.

Hedgerows are one of the most important features of Jersey ’s natural landscape. They stabilise banks, reduce soil erosion, and enhance the environment by storing CO₂ and atmospheric pollutants. They also provide habitats and food sources for a wide variety of plant and animal species. Hedgerows are of particular relevance to Jersey because they act as natural corridors enabling wildlife to move between habitats.

Unfortunately, it is estimated that 80% of the Island’s hedgerows were destroyed by Dutch elm disease in the 70s, and with further damage done by the Great Storm and agricultural developments, Jersey ’s hedgerows have now become sparse and degraded.

Olivia Copsey, former Education and Projects Officer for Jersey Trees for Life said: “the sight of entire stretches of bank with only one or two sorry hawthorns left is all too familiar in Jersey. This situation has severe implications for local wildlife because, where animal populations would once have used hedgerows to move safely around the Island , they are now isolated in pockets of habitat. This leads to inbreeding and limits foraging and habitat options for the animals. Consequently hedgerow loss has contributed to the decline of many local species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects.”

The Jersey Hedgerow Campaign planned to plant new hedges, restore existing hedgerow and carry out careful maintenance for three years to ensure that they become well established to provide permanent and much needed corridors for Jersey ’s wildlife. The campaign partners would like to appeal to local businesses and private bodies who may wish to fund such work. Olivia went on to say; “This work will only be possible with the help of sponsorship and volunteer labour. At the moment we are looking to raise approximately £20,000 a year for three years to fund this grand-scale tree planting. We have been lucky enough to gain sponsorship from the Countryside Renewal Scheme, Earthwatch Foundation and Jonathan Le Maistre so far. Additionally we are grateful for the support of the Jersey Dairy who have sponsored several Hedge Days, when community volunteers have assisted with the planting of the hedgerow plants. We very much hope that further sponsorship will come from other local businesses and individuals who recognise the long-term benefits that this work will have for the Island and its unique wildlife”.

The campaign has been planned to run in three phases; starting with corridors to connect red squirrel populations in the centre and east of the Island . This year, planting corridors to connect bat roosting sites island-wide and in 2010 they will be concerned with hedgerows for hedgehogs. The campaign partners will be using recent surveys carried out by the States of Jersey Environment Division, The Jersey Bat Group and the Hedgehog Group to plot routes along field boundaries and will be approaching farmers individually to discuss possible sites. Meanwhile they would be grateful to hear from any land-owner who would like to have hedgerow planted as part of this campaign.

As of February 2009, planting of corridors to connect bat roosting sites is well under way, and the final hedges to complete the connecting corridors for red squirrels are being planted.