My Woods on Dartmoor

11 Years of Treeplanting on Dartmoor

Many of the trees I have planted over the past decade are getting quite big now.  It has been amazing, that I have been left alone, to get on with it.  Although never given any kind of official permission.  A whole 11 years, where nobody has ever bothered me, despite my many controversial tree and wild flower planting activities.

The photos, which I have chosen for this post, are from the last two growing seasons.  They show different parts of the woods, but are generally of some of the most established parts.

History

I moved up here in 2000 and really started planting trees here in that following Winter, which began in the Autumn of 2000 and ended in the Spring of 20001, so I refer to this year as 'year 1'.

For the first five years,my only form of transport was a bicycle and for those five years most of the trees I collected were collected by me cycling off miles and attaching a bag of trees to the rack, which sat over the back wheel of my bicycle.  I lived at least 5 miles from the nearest places, where I could collect trees from, but more often ten or even twenty miles, added to which my home for the past 11 years has sat at 413 metres above sea level in the UK's highest village, up on Dartmoor; so getting back home, laden with trees in mist, hail, lashing rain, thunder and even blizzards; has often been extremely challenging.

For year 6 I had got a motorbike and this totally revolutionised tree collecting.  I could travel much grater distances, go much faster and collect much larger trees.  After never having had motorised transport before; it felt like I had just got a spaceship and every time I zoomed off on it anywhere; I felt like I was travelling off at warp-speed to far off distant worlds.

One clear disadvantage with having the motorbike, over the bicycle was that it was more of a performance to stop and start it.  With the bicycle; I could lean it against a hedge or wall, when ever I spotted something interesting, such as a Hazel rooted into the side of the road, which wasn't part of the hedge and needed to be removed and transplanted somewhere safe.  With the motorbike I could only stop in car parks and could no longer transfer onto the pavement, when the lights were red, but over all by far; the motorbike increased the amount of trees I could and did collect ten-fold. 

 

The Sites

Most of my attentions over the past decade have be concentrated in the Black brook valley, which is a tributary of the River Dart.  The Black brook begins deep in the moor and flows through artificial field systems, as it passes by the village of Princetown.  After that it goes through another 4 miles of open moorland, before joining the Dart.  Only two road bridges cross this river and only farm track.  It is a truly wild river and quite rapid in many parts.  It is about 7/10 miles downstream to where the Dart valley becomes proper forest, but a long way untill it hits any sembelance of real civilization.

The section of the Black brook, which goes through this field system around Princetown; had been partially planted with many of the wrong sort of trees, seemingly at a few times throughout the past 200 years.  The majority of the area between the river and its adjoining system of ancient water-leats was left ungrazed.

What I have done over the past decade is to plant the right balance of native trees, collected locally, from natural woodlands and forests, around the edges of the moor.  I have basically filled in the gaps between the patches of Beech and Conifer, to create a balanced natural woodland, which could be the highest in the country, possibly.

Because of the high altitude; the trees grow much smaller and more slowly, than they do elsewhere.  This is due to the poorer soil quality, with the very boggy and acidic soil up here on this granite plateau and because of the much shorter growing season.

A fully grown tree here is only a third the size of one of the same species that had been growing in some lowland fertile valley.

History of Dartmoor's Forests

Before sheep farming became big business in the middle ages Dartmoor was covered in forest,  at least up to a height of 400 metres.  Preserved tree roots and branches in the peat that forms up here, are a testament to this.

I imagine that unique species of plants and animals probably lived here, as do in most upland areas.  these were most likely driven to extinction, during the brutal and swift clearance of the forest, with most of these species; probably vanishing without ever having been recorded.

My Aims
I want to plant the right ingredients of trees and wild flowers so that the natural forest can regenerate its self and so restoring the natural vegetation to it's former state.  By planting a massive woods high up on the Black brook valley; I have created a sink for wildlife, attracting creatures from miles around to come into the woods and feed, and so dispersing seeds out to other nearby areas.

I have also planted many other smaller and some roadside areas, with the intention of speeding up this natural process.

Having the big main woods; means that there is a large pollen count in the air, from all native wind-pollinated trees and also a large bank of diverse genetic material, so that trees and plants, growing up here in isolation from the lowlands; will not become in bread.

Help from friends, neighbours and customers
Various people have helped me.  Sometimes friends would turn up with vans full of trees, other times neighbours and customers would allow me to rescue trees, which had seeded themselves in their gardens.  This helped the cause enormously and meant that allot more land was able to be completed.

I am soon to move to a new area.  I have asked various dog walkers, etc to keep an eye on my trees here, but really; my work is done here and it is time for me to move on, to begin planting trees in another deserving area.