The National Park's Eastern Area Ranger team recently gathered a team of extraordinary volunteers to plant over two thousand native saplings as part of our Trees for the Downs initiative.
The planting was part of the Saddlescombe Farm Hedge Project to link an established hedge to an area of dense scrub, forming a much-needed wildlife corridor in a farmed landscape.
Lead Ranger, Phillippa Morrison-Price said:
“Back in March 2025, I put in a bid to Trees for the Downs, to plant 2,725 native trees as part of a hedge planting project at Saddlescombe Farm. This, in conjunction with a capital works funding bid to fence the new hedge (to protect it from livestock), were all a distant memory as the hedge planting week loomed nearly a year later. It was one of those weeks of weather that seemed to happen quite a lot this January. We had Armageddon-type rain, hail and wind alongside warm springlike sunshine… but never on the right day.”
Despite the weather, an amazing 22 volunteers showed up, some seasoned and some completely new who all helped to plant a whopping 545m of hedge which will become a wonderful new wildlife corridor.
As well as the volunteers, this planting couldn’t have happened without the help of the Eastern Ranger team, who prepped, ferried, mulched, planted and chain sawed to ensure the project could succeed – thank you team!
