Community project: Tree planting
One cold, wet day in December, several members of the local community met up to discuss a community project. These included Marcus Jones the local MP for Nuneaton, members of the committees at the local Rugby & Football clubs and Ms Kim Chapman the Co-ordinator of Etone Eco Council. The volunteers up at the Rugby club have been working very hard to address the flooding situation and provide more training pitches for both rugby and football. So the topic for discussion included how the local area around the playing pitches at the Old Edwardians Rugby Club, could be further enhanced for both the community and wildlife.
This area is an attractive haven for wildlife, which is accessible to the public to enjoy allowing access to Weddington Walk and the area adjacent to Sandon Park. The project was to plant saplings, to grow into large trees to provide habitats for wildlife and hope to address the problem where the pitches are unusable due to the rising water table every winter.
Applications were made and 250 saplings were provided by HS2 rail project and 420 saplings donated by The Woodland Trust in their plan to plant a tree for everyone on the UK.
Despite COVID the trees arrived ready for planting, in late April. The weather had been very dry and there was a worry that watering may be necessary…. How wrong we were!
Several groups of students have been involved in this project from Etone College. Year 7 Eco Council, Etone College CCF cadets, 6th form Eco Council leaders and Etone College football academy who complete projects to “Pay Back” to the community.
Tree planting is one way in which the students can help the community, and develop team working skills as well as valuable lessons about the environment.
Along with tree planting, some of the younger students spread wild flower seed to provide for the smaller animals in the area, biodiversity is vital to the health of the habitat and, as we are now very much aware, our natural spaces are vital for our mental health and well-being.
Many thanks to all our hard workers and we hope you and members of our community will continue to enjoy our local green spaces in years to come.
