Guided Tree Walk with Devon Wildlife Trust
September 30, 2024
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Tree Identification Walk at Leat Meadows
This month, Turnstyle attended a tree identification walk that was organised by Devon Wildlife Trust as part of their spring/summer event series, Saving Devon’s Treescapes. The walk took place in Leat Meadows, a three-hectare site surrounded by woodlands, coppice, scrub and wildflower-rich grassland. Leat Meadow forms half of Fremington’s Local Nature Reserve and is owned by Fremington Parish Council.
about the walk
The event was well-attended by 20 people from the local area, including two Turnstyle team members. The event was hosted by Lindsay Mohan, a project citizen science officer from Saving Devon’s Treescapes, and led by Steve Skirt, a local wildlife ranger. Among other things, Steve helps manage the Fremington local nature reserves and the Gaia Trust’s Home Farm Marsh.
After a quick introduction, the group set off to Grigg’s Field, where they were shown how to identify and learn about the many varieties of trees. During the walk, several trees were identified, including the sycamore maple tree, sweet chestnut tree, and the hazel tree.
Lindsey and Steve gathered leaves from each tree identified throughout the walk. The collected leaves were used at the end of the walk to summarise the tree types and total the number of recognised trees. During this walk 20 trees were identified without going too far.
#SaveDevonsTrees
what is the aim of the walk?
The guided tree ID walk aim, is to introduce members of the public to their local area and surrounding trees. While helping the Devon Wildlife Trust in recording significant trees on their recording platform Treescape. Grigg’s Field is a green space on the edge of residential Fremington, and well used, yet even those who walk through regularly may not realise what a variety of different trees there can be in a relatively short space.
“Hosting these events is one of the best parts of my job. It was lovely to have a full-house for this event, and have Steve share his local knowledge and wealth of expertise with us all. Everyone got involved and asked great questions and I always learn something new myself on these events. It’s so important to look after our trees, which are vital to supporting a wealth of wildlife. If everyone could record just one significant tree for us, it would make a massive difference to our knowledge of the whereabouts of our trees in the county.”
Saving Devon's Treescape
Saving Devon’s Treescapes Project is a partnership project led by Devon Wildlife Trust. The project started in March 2020 as a five-year funded project with the aim to plant and nurture 250,00 trees outside of woodland across Devon. Saving Devon’s Treescape want to increase the knowledge about the importance of treescapes.
Throughout the last few years Saving Devon’s Treescape have made many achievements, including planting over 150,000 trees outside of the woodlands, establishing over 40 new community orchards, and hosting 80 free community centres, distributing trees locally.
The Devon Wildlife Trust is constantly looking for new volunteers to monitor trees and key species in order to gain a better understanding of the condition of Devon’s treescapes. Every record contributed is important to the Saving Devon’s Treescapes project. Please email Lindsay at [email protected] if you are interested in volunteering.
To find out more about the Saving Devon’s Treescape project and how you can get involved, visit their website.
