Marsden Moor tree planting launches conservation programme

TREES have been planted on Marsden Moor to mark the launch of a major new conservation programme. 

Eastergate Bridge, a Grade-II listed monument on the fringes of the moor, has been iconic since pack horses were first allowed to safely cross the river in the 17th century.

Members of the public, politicians, business leaders and National Trust Rangers came together and braved the elements to plant trees at a community planting day.

Tracy Brabin planting trees on Marsden Moor

Among those who gathered were the Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Babin, Yorkshire Water chief Nicola Shaw and National Trust Regional Director Mike Innerdale.

National Trust rangers and members of the Colne Valley Tree Society, who are involved in the on-the-ground rollout of the programme, were on hand to help get two-year-old bare-root saplings – known as whips – through the snow and into the ground.

Landscapes for Water is a £7 million programme devised by the National Trust and Yorkshire Water where it will plant more than 350 hectares of new native woodland – around 300,000 trees – across five main areas of the South Pennines.

As well as tree planting, chiefs say the programme will include ‘landscape-scale moorland restoration’ through the planting of sphagnum moss for moorland restoration and the installation of 3,500 leaky dams.

The aim of the programme is to slow the flow of water across the moor, mitigate against flooding, wildfire and climate disaster, as well as create and improve wildlife habitats.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority has contributed £1.9 million to the programme’s plans for Natural Flood Management, which includes interventions, such as leaky dams.

The tree planting has also been supported with over £1 million from the White Rose Forest, via their Trees for Climate programme, part of the Government’s Nature for Climate Fund.

3 Replies to “Marsden Moor tree planting launches conservation programme”

  1. Just wondering . . . should a moor have trees? Isn’t a moor just grass, heather, etc?

    1. A better question might be; can the moor support trees ?

      Anyone walking the Saddleworth area and it’s environs will already have seen the many fields full of the empty plastic pipes and wire mesh tubes that were supposed to protect hundreds of saplings that were planted there previously.

      All of which have died.

      That isn’t even on the moor proper.

  2. Why are these people hell bent on altering moorland that has been there for centuries I have lived in Marsden most of my life and seen the landscape being changed all the meadows vanishing and being replaced by what will be forest what happens to all the meadow loving insects and butterflies when all that is left are forests and woodland let’s leave nature alone and stop meddling and let nature carry on naturally like it always has done

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