CMS protects the pollards and poplars
Countryside Management Service staff are busy across Hertfordshire striving to improve the landscape and protect rare species. Nothing demonstrates our approach better than action to protect Willow and Poplar trees dominating two low-lying areas on either side of the county.
With several landowners joining in enthusiastically, the first season of the Pollards and Poplars project in the Stort Valley spanning the Hertfordshire-Essex boundary is now complete. The branches of traditional riverside Willows had once been regularly pollarded or lopped, to provide foliage for stock to browse and for firewood. They were last cut back several decades ago and became top heavy. Gusts of wind were liable to blow them down. By the end of March, a local tree surgeon has completed work on 26 mature Willows by the river downstream from Harlow. On the Hertfordshire bank, most of the branches have been taken down leaving a stout trunk with short stumps from which new growth will sprout. On the Essex bank, the landowner requested a different approach, with the work proceeding in two stages. Some young Willows have been pollarded for the first time and more planted for future generations to appreciate.
Native Black Poplars were once common in river valleys and Constable's famous painting, The Hay Wain, shows the distinctive shape of several. Like Willows, Poplars have suffered from drainage improvements, changes in farming practices, development and neglect. The total British population is a mere 10,000 of which just 30 mature females survive in the Stort valley including a famous tree - the World's End Poplar at Roydon.
When a large limb fell off it, farmer Charles Abbey took the opportunity of 'harvesting' small branches that had suddenly become accessible to make 66 'sets'. With the help of several landowners and volunteer Alan Burgess, he has planted these along river channels around Parndon Mead, Roydon Mead, Eastwick Mead, Cannons Brook Golf Course and nearby.
Pollards and Poplars is part of a wider, co-ordinated application to the department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) Growth Area Fund. With additional funds from the Environment Agency, Hertfordshire County Council and East Herts District Council's Local Environment Action Fund, we were able to surpass the targets that we had set.
Next winter, the CMS will be restoring more of this valuable landscape with other landowners. We will also make information available about the importance of riverside trees and habitats. Look out for new interpretation panels appearing soon beside the Stort at Harlow, Sawbridgeworth and Bishop's Stortford.
- In the Stort valley, see what's going on during a free, evening guided walk at 7pm on Thurs 14 June setting off from Roydon station. Just turn up or call the CMS Northeastern Area on 01462 459395 for details.
Meanwhile, in the Boarscroft Vale in the west of Hertfordshire between Tring and the Buckinghamshire border, CMS volunteers are continuing to survey existing trees and planting dozens of new ones.
There are about 1200 Black Poplar trees in the Long Marston and Wilstone area. The population is aging and the winter gales (or 'frim' as they say locally) have taken their toll, snapping off one veteran boundary tree at the base as though it had been coppiced. Hertfordshire County Council's Landscape Strategy identified this distinct local landscape as worthy of conservation. To safeguard other mature trees the Black Poplar project has paid for tree surgery on a dozen of the most vulnerable. CMS volunteers have been busy surveying mature trees and planting out 73 rooted cuttings into the countryside. As the project develops, so does our knowledge of the subject. This winter we have learnt that 2 year old cuttings produce an impressive tap root that is very difficult to dig out!
The Black Poplar project began seven years ago when Long Marston Women's Institute contacted the CMS who arranged a grant of £13,000 from the Local Heritage Initiative. The Hertfordshire Biological Records Centre has provided useful support and advice to both projects.
- You can join another Black Poplars survey session around Long Marston (near Tring) on Wed 30 May. Call the CMS West & Southern Area on 01727 848168 for details.
