13 Acre was acquired 2 years ago and hadn’t been farmed for at least 10 years which means it’s already become an amazing haven for wildlife. The site is close to Bassenthwaite Lake and part of its extended flood plain but only floods during large flood events. It is low enough to have areas that are permanently wet producing a mosaic of marshy grassland, mires and wet woodland. As the site is already quite diverse the work we have carried out has been to bolster what is already there rather than change eco-system.
Unlike our Low Fell site, 13 Acre had a variety of trees already growing in hedgerows and along the water course. This has provided a seed source for natural regeneration and the work we have done is to help speed this process and introduce a wider variety of tree species that would normally occupy sites such as this but are no longer present.
In winter of 2020/21 we planted 25,000 trees in dense clusters allowing the majority of the site to remain open unmanaged marshy grassland. As the site is wet, species such as alders, willows, white & black poplar and birch are the majority of species planted, however, in drier areas aspen, oak, scots pine, hawthorn, blackthorn, walnut, hornbeam, field maple, and holly have also been introduced.
