New Year 2019 Newsletter Click here to download
Tree Planting This Weekend 16th and 17th Februaruy Draper Lane, Near Heptonstall, Hebden Bridge.
The field is just below Draper Corner where the road from Heptonstall Village comes up. Nearest post code is HX7 7ES, Grid ref: SD985287
There is a sign posted footpath into the field. The footpath goes to Hardcastle Craggs. There will be ‘tree planting this way signs’. No parking at the site. Weather looks good, there will be home made soup and bread for Lunch.
Address and directions : Yorkshire Water Gorpley Reservoir and Treatment Works Todmorden OL14 7HU
Take the A681Todmorden to Bacup Road(off the A6033 Littleborough to Todmorden Road). After one mile you come to the crossroads at the tiny hamlet of Clough Foot. Turn left. You will see a Yorkshire Water sign board on your left. Keep going untill you see the Yorkshire Water Treatment Works on your right. You can park on the road here. There will be signs directing you to the tree planting.
This might be the last Sunday at Gorpley for a while. So far we’ve been finishing off a section started last season. We’ve been expecting to start on a new section this season, but due to circumstances beyond our control, the go ahead has been delayed.
Tree PLanting Weekends
Photos left to right: Gaps reunion April 2018. Elvira’s 30th birthday celebration April 20 18. Tibet Suport Group York: Breakfast at Height Gate. February 2018
Up and Coming Weekends, Season 18/19
£35 for: Two Nights Accommodation, Great Vegan Food, Two Days Tree Planting, Pick Ups from Railway Stations -from Hebden Bridge on Friday Evening and from Todmorden Saturday & Sunday Morning.
Weekends Open for Individuals and Small Groups to Book Places On:
Celebrate The Return of the Light 15th to 17th February 20 19
Accommodation at Height Gate http://heightgate.org.uk/
Our 21st Birthday, 8th – 10th March 2019
Accommodation at Height Gate http://heightgate.org.uk/
Tree planting site to be confirmed
April 19th – 21st 2019 Accommodation at Height Gate http://heightgate.org.uk/
Tree planting site to be confirmed
Weekends for Groups to Book(min15 people, max 30 people)
Planing a special birthday celebration or a reunion? Bring friends and family together for a residential tree planting weekend with Treesponsibility. You’ll create a lasting legacy, we’ll give you a fantastic weekend. This is what Sarah, who celebrated her 40th birthday with us in October, had to say: “What a perfect way to celebrate my 40th year on the planet. It couldn’t have been better. Delicious food, wonderful people, rewarding tree planting and good vibes”
March 22nd – 24th 2019: Booked for Tibet Support Group York! Accomodation at Tom Bell Hostel Hardcastle Crags http://hebdenhey.org.uk/
Tree planting site to be confirmed
April 5th – 7th 2019: Booked for GAPS reunion!
Tree planting site to be confirmed
You can join us for the day on any of the weekends, just let us know you are coming
Latest Source Partnership Report Now Available.
Read about all the exciting work we have been doing
amended Source 18-Click to download
Newsletter Spring 2018 – Click to download
Treesponsibility Newsletter Dec 2017
October 2017 Newsletter Click here to download
Newsletter june 2017… Click to download
2017 Source Partnership Report Available Now… Click to download
March 2017 Newsletter Available Now….. Click to download
Burning on the Walshaw Estate at the head of Hebden Water increases river flows in Hebden Bridge.
Hebden Bridge is prone to flooding. There’s no denying it, but there are things we can do to minimise the risk. For some time now it has been thought that the burning of heather for grouse shooting purposes has been contributing to the flooding risk, and there has been campaigning going on locally to try and have this addressed.
In May this year, Treesponsibility commissioned Dr. Nick Odoni (honorary fellow, Department of Geography, Durham University) to undertake a modelling study and investigation into how annual burning on the Walshaw Moor estate may affect high river flows in Hebden Bridge, as well as a further supplementary study into the effects of increasing sphagnum cover.
Click here to see the modelling study, showing the main results, conclusions and recommendations for further work.
Click here to see Supplementary Work and Conclusions, to accompany the Summary Short Study:
Community Action Group builds resilience to flooding in Calder Valley
www.slowtheflow.net/ is now live.
This is the link to the web site of Slow The Flow: Calderdale. This network was set up in 2016 to look scientifically at the issue of why and how the Calder Valley floods and to look at flood prevention measures and solutions to slow the volume of water which comes down the hillsides into the River Calder
TREESPONSIBILITY are a key delivery partner in The SOURCE partnership, which aims to take preventative action to help create a healthy, resilient and biodiverse landscape, for the benefit of all the people in our valley both now, and in future years.
In particular, we aim to:-
- Minimise flash flooding through appropriately sited tree-planting schemes.
- Treat damaged land and control erosion.
- Monitor invertebrates in the river and carry out habitat improvements.
- Undertake educational activities and encourage volunteering so people of all ages and from all walks of life become aware of the value of our rivers and uplands.
Slowing the Flow Tour at Upper Strines Farm, Colden Clough.
Mike Potter from Pickering Civic Society, Nick Odini, a scientist from Durham University and Local landscape engineer Stuart Bradshaw joined us in March for a tour of potential “slowing the flow” sites. Here we are at Higher Strines Farm, where landowner Matt Taylor showed us the work he has been doing on his land which could be be replicated elsewhere. Matt is part of the Hebden Water and Colden Water Working Group, one of four working groups set up by the SOURCE Partnership to plan slowing the flow measures in different parts of the catchment. Stuart is now part of the Flood Studies Group, and Nick Odini is modelling flow on Walshaw Moor to show the effects of heather burning on the rate of flow from the land into the water courses.
Manchester Quakers Planting.
Volunteers from the Manchester Quakers group have joined us for tree planting every year since the very beginning of Treesponsibility. This year being no exception, they arrived on a bright and sunny Sunday in March this year to help with our planting site at Lodge Farm, up on a steep hillside approximately halfway between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden.
You may have seen this when we first planted on this site in early March and were filmed for BBC Breakfast News.
Treesponsibility staff repairing Landslip at Meadows Edge, Todmorden. (The staff get all the best jobs!)
Hebden Bridge Scouts Planting – 12th March 2016.
We were very pleased that Hebden Bridge Scouts were able to come tree planting at last. The previous date set for them in December brought non stop torrential rain. We didn’t want to put the young people off for life so we agreed to cancel and choose another date. In the meantime the land where they were to plant their trees and where our work team had done the preparation was withdraw by the owner from the tree planting programme. Luckily Kate at Lodge Farm got in touch right after the boxing day flood to say she could offer a substantial plot of land for tree planting. Lodge Farm is a prime site situated on the Burnt Acres hillside below Stoodley Pike and above the sewage works. The trees here will help slow the flow of run off down to the canal and sewage works.
Scaling Up.
GAPS Residential Planting Weekend
From the 8th to 10th March 2016 the GAPS group came to plant at Higher House Barn, a property near Turley Holes in Crag Vale.
GAPS, or the Gardening and Permaculture Society from Manchester University, first joined us in February 2008 Now they are dispersed around the country they come back every year for a tree planting weekend and a reunion. Not everyone makes it each year but they always bring a new friend. Local volunteers Bill and Colin joined us for the day sunday and over the weekend 1,000 trees were planted.
Residential weekend with the Woodcraft Folk District Fellows
Season 2014/15 finished with a busy April. We had three residential weekends on the trot. We were very happy to welcome GAPS for what we think must be their seventh or eighth year. When they had their first residential tree planting weekend they were all part of the Gardening and Permaculture Society at Manchester University. Now they are dispersed over the country and sometimes abroad. Sometimes they bring along people they have met, but they are still GAPS. Last season they were the first group to plant on Gorpley on what must have been the wettest day of the year. This year the weather was kind to them as you can see from the photos taken on the Sunday when we planted 100metres of hedge and a small woodland of 300 trees on a rough bit of hillside near Sowerby Bridge.
We also hosted a group of young people from the Woodcraft Folk. On the Saturday of their weekend we were joined by fifteen young men from Muslims for Humanity. Altogether, six hundred and sixty trees were planted at Rambles, Blackshaw Royd.
Our final weekend of the season was a birthday celebration. We planted 560 trees at Shore Green above Cornholme on a rather wet Saturday. The group included several young children and we were very lucky that landowners Caroline and Marcus welcomed us in to their cosy kitchen to dry off from time to time.
If you would like to bring a group of people together for a tree planting weekend just get in touch via our contact form.
Pictures from New Year tree planting weekend
A fantastic weekend was had by all. 40 volunteers joined us altogether and we planted 1,200 trees. Saturday morning brought rain and sleet but the volunteers were not deterred. Sunday opened sunny and frosty. The ground was too hard for planting at first but the sun soon warmed the earth through. A big, Thank You to Emily for the photos.
Newsletter Available Now
The latest newsletter is available for you to download for free. To get your copy click here…..
Midgledon Wood 12 Years On…
To see how one of our earliest large scale plantings is getting on nowadays click here
Treesponsibility aims to help educate people about the need for action on climate change, and to involve local communities in tree-planting projects to improve our local environment and biodiversity for the benefit of local people and future generations.
Available Now… The SOURCE Report 2014… Click here to download your copy.
Thieves Target Flood Prevention Project.
Thieves have stolen over 1000 young trees from Gorpley Clough, our planting site above Todmorden which was in the process of being planted by volunteers to help reduce the impact of flooding locally. Staff arrived at the site on Thursday 27th February to find …..READ MORE
Latest -The Scientists Views on Peat Bog Restoration
We’re not just interested in trees you know. In recent years a great deal of research has been carried out on the value of peat bogs, and of particular interest at the moment is their ability to help reduce the risk of flooding. Click here to read about how South West Water and its partners are restoring the peat bogs of Exmoor, and see just what a difference this amazing but undervalued resource can make. Read more…..
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By taking a RIVER BASIN approach, such problems can be understood within their wider context. A recently published booklet ‘UNDERSTANDING THE HEBDEN WATER CATCHMENT’ explains how a river basin approach offers the best way of appreciating how all of the various management issues are interwoven. Please download a copy of the booklet by clicking the image on the right.
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In particular, we aim to:- PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO THE LEFT FOR REPORTS FROM 2012, 2013 , AND NOW 2014 SOURCE ACTIVITIES! If you own land in the area between Cornholme and Walsden, please get in touch. We are particularly interested in steep or eroding hillsides, derelict land, or moorlands in poor condition, so that we can assess them for restoration work. There will be no cost to you.
Can You Help?
We are also looking for volunteers to help with the survey work. If you have expertise in this area, so much the better, but full training will be given.
We want schools to get involved too!
We intend to develop educational school trips to the watershed area, so that the children can gain awareness of the importance of our upland catchment. The children will be actively involved in the project, by helping us to monitor progress.
Our projects are already well underway (please see the Annual SOURCE Reports from 2012 and 2013, by clicking the images on the left of the screen). We have been installing pilot erosion control works and are beginning to undertake detailed survey work across the Calder catchment. This groundwork, coupled with advice from friendly experts and site surveys by the Upper Calder Valley Wildlife Group, will enable us to draw up costed action plans for a portfolio of sites, for inclusion in the next White Rose Forest Green Infrastructure Programme. We are also actively fundraising to ensure that delivery of the plans can take place. There are many ways in which local people can help our project forward, and get involved…
