Wapley Bushes’ Jubilee project is complete! 800 trees have been planted to produce a new hedge on Wapley Bushes Local Nature Reserve.

The hedge was planted by a combination of volunteers and local contractors. More than twenty local people and Wildlife Trust members got together on Mothering Sunday (18th March) and planted a hundred yards of hedge in less than three hours.

This hedge will be an excellent wildlife habitat and food source in the years ahead for mammals, birds and insects once it has become fully established. All the plants in the hedge mix are native species such dogwood, hazel, hawthorn, etc. and they will ensure that the hedge has a high wildlife value.

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This project shows what can be achieved when lots of organisations and individuals get together. Wapley Bushes Conservation Group coordinated the work, which included preparation work funded by Dodington Parish Council. Local contractors Landcare Tree Nursery supplied and planted half the trees, paid for by a Biodiversity and Landscsape Grant from South Gloucestershire Council.

The trees planted by our volunteers came from the Woodland Trust’s Free Tree Packs scheme. That initiative was jointly funded by the furniture group IKEA and three volunteers from the IKEA Bristol store also turned up to help with the planting and with putting the rabbit guards around the plants.

The new Jubilee Hedge marks the boundary of the Centenary Wood, which was planted by volunteers in 1994 to mark 100 years of Dodington Parish Council. The Woodland Trust scheme aims to plant six million trees to mark the Queen’s Jubilee.