Community Action at Wendover Green Link

Posted on 14/02/2012 by Sue Griffith.

Wendover Green Link is an important part of the linear open space that flows through the Perry Common area to the north west of the City. On one side is a new health centre, on the other a redevelopment site. New pathways have recently been laid and the Community Association thought the open site would be enhanced by tree planting.

Witton Lodge Community Association’s vision for Perry Common is "of a thriving vibrant community in which the Association acts as a catalyst for community activity. 
Its mission is to provide good quality homes that people are happy to live in, to manage facilities that enable people to flourish and grow and to work with residents and partners to create a safe, clean and friendly community that people are proud of."

Ten large trees were planted on February 14th, on the
morning of the green space planning group's meeting.
Some London planes will grow large to provide a dramatic element to the open space line, whilst a group of silver birch
and scots pines connect with the landscaping of the health centre immediately adjacent.

          One of the members of the Community Association who           came to help out with the planting has lived in                           the area since she was married nearly 70 years ago and             was glad to be involved in our tree planting. For more               photos of the event, click here.         

The 10 trees and their planting were funded by the Big Tree Plant, the government's tree planting campaign.

Documotive at Banners Gate

Posted on 14/02/2012 by Sue Griffith.

Sutton Coldfield based company "Documotive" approached BTFL as they wanted to extend the green initiatives of the company’s document scanning services. Documotive provide Electronic Document Management Systems and Services to the Social Housing Sector and currently scan approximately 800,000 documents per month. Once scanned the documents are confidentially shredded and recycled. The company has committed to ongoing support of BTFL by planting a tree for every 1million documents they scan and recycle. For more information on Documotive click here. 

       On Valentines Day the management team and other                    members of staff planted the 10 trees that they had                  sponsored at Banners Gate open space.  The new avenue          lines the long distance cycle path that links Sutton Park              with Witton Lakes and ultimately the City centre. The                walking and cycle route passes through a green corridor            which is very important for wildlife. The trees chosen were          all different varieties of maples designed to add brilliant                autumn colour to the route. For more photos of the              event click here.

After the event, they said that "All our staff who attended commented on what a great time they had and our MD was especially pleased with how the day was organised and the commitment and dedication of all your staff. Documotive are all looking forward to planting more trees in the coming years."

Foundry Road, Winson Green

Posted on 10/02/2012 by Sue Griffith.

The school children at Foundry Road, Winson Green can see their local green space and playground from their classroom windows, as the school is immediately next to it. 

The derivation of the name Winson Green is said to be "meadow hill green" within Birmingham Heath, that was common land until 1798. However the area of Foundry Road is now more associated with Soho Foundry, originally established by Birmingham's three most famous industrial pioneers - Matthew Boulton, James Watt and William Murdock - to build commercial steam engines at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

    This is an extremely urban part of Birmingham - the        large prison is around the corner and a scrap yard is      adjacent to the site. The children enthusiastically            planted a few large trees and lots of saplings. They        were all given a goodie bag about trees afterwards.        A local Councillor came to help out.    

     We are grateful to the four lads from Cockshot Hill        Technology College who knew a thing or two about      tree planting and helped the younger children.

      For more photos of the event click here.

 The trees were funded by the Government's Big Tree Plant campaign.

Snowy Fox Hollies

Posted on 08/02/2012 by Sue Griffith.

There was snow on the ground on Wednesday 8th February when 28 Oaklands Primary year 3 class chose their spades to start planting the 500 whips in Fox Hollies Park, Acocks Green. Fortunately there were 13 older students from Saltley School to help them where the ground was still frozen. The earth had been turned over by machine and some sheltered areas were quite soft.

The saplings were planted near to the wet area of the park where rougher grass was already marking out a nature area - the types of tree, such as alder were chosen to suit the site of local nature importance. Two of the local councillors came to help and worked hard until the job was done, as did the teachers, Rangers and BTFL people.

For more photographs of the event, click here.

These trees and their planting were financed by Birmingham City Council. 

Willows at Hamstead

Posted on 03/02/2012 by Sue Griffith.

New willows were planted on the opposite side of the River Tame from old willow trees on Thursday morning. The trees were superb specimens and quite large, but the children from Cherry Orchard Primary School were impressed that they could grow in time to be as large as those on the opposite bank. 

    The Tame valley is an significant wildlife corridor from the           nature reserve at Sandwell Valley in the north, into the heart       of the City.  Enhancing this green corridor is therefore very       important. The local councillors have recently encouraged         the provision of seating along the walkway, so the trees             added to the open space improvements. Half of the willows       are the more usual scarlet willow and cuttings were given to       the children to take back to school to grow as part of their         biology class. These children won the unofficial prize for               walking the most distance from school to park - about a mile     in the freezing cold (we did check first that this was ok, but         the teachers assured us that it was!).

A total of ten willows were planted and we are working with the local parks staff and elected members to select more planting sites along this corridor for future planting.
All three of the ward elected members came to the event and helped with the planting.

With thanks to the Council's Woodland Management Team for all their hard spade work (literally) and to the local Park Ranger.

Frosty Farm Park

Posted on 01/02/2012 by Sue Griffith.

Children from Montgomery Primary School walked to Farm Park in the freezing cold on the 1st February and planted 10 trees without one word of complaint. A variety of ages represented the School Council and their Forest School Group, so many of them were used to using spades and knew lots about trees.

                                                                      For photographs of the event, click here.

       Farm Park is a very historic park and the trees were planted to                restore avenues, in keeping with its character. In July 2005, the              Birmingham tornado ripped through the park, destroying trees.              Since then many have been replaced, but still some avenues look          bare. We planted 5 small leaved limes and 5 elms. Most elms in the          UK died years ago from Dutch Elm Disease, but now disease                  resistant trees have been bred, so its time to reintroduce them to          our parks. 

The children had adults to help; two teachers, representatives from Sparkbrook Neighbourhood Forum, a local City Councillor, the park keeper, BTFL, Council parks staff and the park contractors all made sure that the younger ones all got a share in the action, without having to do the hard work of lifting trees or digging holes. All the children went away smiling with 'goodie bags' about trees.

The trees including their planting and aftercare, have been funded from the Government's 'Big Tree Plant' grant scheme. BTFL successfully applied for funds to plant 14 sites across the City this winter.

Tree Planting Events in February

Posted on 01/02/2012 by Sue Griffith.

All these events have now taken place and reports and photographs are available on this blog.

Wednesday 1st February - Farm Park, Sparkbrook B11 1JZ
Thursday 2nd - Hamstead Playing Fields, Perry Barr B42 1NJ 
Wednesday 8th, Fox Hollies Park, Acocks Green - B27 Gospel Lane end 
Thursday 9th, Foundry Road, Winson Green - B18 4LP
Tuesday 14th, Wendover Green Link, Perry Common B23 5DD - 1.30pm
Wednesday 23rd, Sparkhill Park, B11 4EA
Wednesday 29th, Glover Rd, Falcon Lodge, Sutton B75 7RH

Big Tree Plant Launch Event at Colebourne Meadows

Posted on 05/12/2011 by Sue Griffith.

We officially launched our 'Big Tree Plant' planting season on 2nd December at a site within the Kingfisher Country Park at Colebourne Meadows, Stechford.  The Lord Mayor, Cllr Anita Ward (who represents this ward) was present and local school children from Colebourne J&I School  planted sapling trees to enhance a nature area that they use for study (and fun). 

Photographs of the very successful event can be seen by clicking here.

Over 50 children joined us for a brilliant morning of digging - many of the 1000 saplings available for the site near the river were planted by the children, who showed great enthusiasm and energy.  Helped by a number of adults from the Friends of Kingfisher Country Park and local Ranger service, BTFL staff and Committee members, City Council staff and even a representative from the Forestry Commission, the young planters really got stuck in to the task.  The saplings were used to enhance 3 different areas of the river walkway - the nature area close to the school, bulking up a hedge, and some were allocated to restoring a hedge along the road.  3 more mature trees were also planted.  

 The Big Tree Plant is the Government's national tree planting campaign which aims to help community groups plant a million trees across Britain over 5 years.

Ten Red Oaks Planted at Small Heath Park

Posted on 01/12/2011 by Sue Griffith.

After a very wet night, the sun shone on 10 pupils from Small Heath School's Eco Committee as they planted 10 Red Oaks on Thursday 1st December in Small Heath Park as part of National Tree Week. The park is located in an intensely urban area and is very well used. Pupils from the school cross it daily on their journey to school.

To see photographs of the event click here.

Small Heath Community Forum and the Friends          of the park also came along to help, as they are          very proud of their park which is one of the            oldest in Birmingham.

The community asked for trees with good autumn  colour and the Red Oaks have large leaves,          bigger than the Common Oak, which will look  wonderful. For more information on this beautiful    tree  click here.

        One of the local City Councillors came               along and was involved in planting bulbs in         the holes dug for the trees by the park             contractors. These should flower in the             spring and remind the pupils of their                 planting day in the winter sunshine.

        In addition several police officers and                 community support officers from the                 South Yardley team came and got their             boots dirty, ensuring the trees were well           firmed in. They will help to keep an eye on         them when they are in the park. Thanks           also go to City Council Parks staff.

This event was part of BTFL's tree planting campaign across the City, funded by the governments' programme The Big Tree Plant. 

The land for Small Heath Park was gifted to the city in 1876 by the philanthropic Louisa Ryland, whose other gifts included Cannon Hill Park in 1873.

Planting Event at Handsworth Park

Posted on 29/11/2011 by Sue Griffith.

Twelve wonderful trees were planted in one of the City's premier parks on Tuesday 29th November by 14 pupils from Handsworth Wood Girls School, helped by BTFL organisers, Parks staff and contractors.

                                                                               Lots of photographs of the event can be seen by         clicking here.

    The trees will form part of a new Tree Trail to be             produced for the park in the summer. Unusual               types of oak and beech were planted to add to the       variety of trees in the park. Other trees with                   interesting leaves were also planted.

    Two of the trees were particularly suited to wet             areas, so they were planted near the pool.

Our thanks go to the contractors who did the hard work of digging the holes in the hard ground, but there was plenty of work for the girls to do and they were very enthusiastic.

BTFL organisers, Rangers and the Park Keeper made sure their enthusiasm was harnessed safely.

Our Schools Liaison Officer had walked with them and the teachers from the school and on the way they discussed the importance of trees. They took away with them the tree species identification labels so that they could look them up on the internet and see what the trees will look like in the summer. Pupils were also given a "goodie bag" of information about trees.

             A local City Councillor also came along to help, as did      a representative from the cricket club in the park. As      we were planting, several users of the park said how      pleased they were to see trees being planted.

   The trees, their planting and maintenance is funded        by the governments Big Tree Plant programme. Our      thanks also go to Barcham Trees, our supplier, who      donated two trees as part of their committment to        The Big Tree Plant.

Handsworth Park occupies over 63 acres. It was largely created in two parts, the first opened on June 20 1888, the second added in 1895. It was designed by nurseryman and landscape designer Richard Hartland Vertegens and has Grade II listed status, reflecting its importance as a fine example of a 19th century urban park. It was extensively restored about 8 years ago - for more information click here.

Successful First Planting Event this Season at Short Heath Park, Erdington

Posted on 23/11/2011 by Sue Griffith.

Ten enthusiastic pupils from Court Farm Primary School got the BTFL Big Tree Plant programme off to a fine start on the morning of Tuesday 22nd November. Not only did they help plant the 10 large trees, but they added a time capsule into the tree pit of one of the finest trees.

For lots of photographs of the event please click here.

                Contractors did the hard work of digging the                  large holes, but extra digging was done by                    the three local Elected Members                                    who came along to help out and the                              Woodland Team/Ranger Service. Local                          Friends of the park were delighted to see the                  new trees being planted. BTFL                                        people made sure everyone was in the right                  place at the right time and the Rangers                          ensured that our nice new spades                                  were used appropriately. The children                            obviously enjoyed themselves - they each                    had a 'goodie bag' to take away, including a                  badge "I've planted a tree in Birmingham"                                                                                                 and information about trees.

Our thanks go to the teachers for supporting their involvement and to our tree supplier for such magnificent trees.

The trees and their planting and maintenance are funded by the Government from the new Big Tree Plant grant programme.