Tree Planting versus Natural Regeneration: the Benefits and Challenges of Each Method

[@sophiareygrace6656]

Could you please post more videos of rewilding projects! I loved to see the progress and results of all of these efforts done!

[@WOODLANDSTV]

Thank you! Yes, we are very much hoping to continue a rewilding theme and Jack our expert rewilding film maker is currently researching opportunities. We're hoping to do a film on ancient fragmented woodlands, and we also took note of comments from another viewer on a request for a film on accelerated succession which we're researching at the moment. I like your suggestion of revisiting projects to see progress so we'll certainly endeavour to do so. :-)

[@trendtraderx]

Natural tree guards are brambles. Areas left around here first get covered in brambles then ash starts to poke out through them and so it begins.

[@WOODLANDSTV]

That's lovely to hear, especially as the brambles are helping to support the early life of ash trees, which need all the help they can get at the moment. Do you find that the brambles need some management to stop them covering too much of the ground?

[@hotbit7327]

The "only" problem with brambles is that natural reforestation in some places takes ages. Surely this direction (natural young tree defence) should be explored more.

[@ferret5772]

That is correct along with hawthorn and blackthorn as natural succession occurs the bramble hawthorn and blackthorn die back due to competition I would love to do this personally and to speed it up I would sow all the seeds of the trees I'd prefer in the woodlands

[@taxusbaccata6332]

@@hotbit7327I found snow fall compresses the briars quite low which would give any seedlings/saplings a good chance to grow up through.

[@taxusbaccata6332]

Brambles are the best soil amending plant ever - they smash through compacted subsoil and root exudates change to a 100:1 fungal:bacterial ratio which trees thrive on. They prep the land for natural woodland.

[@jackstone4291]

Great useful practical video highlighting all the different methods and explanations to try a multi modal approach. We all need more useful things like this in our curriculum at schools early years and older too.

[@WOODLANDSTV]

Thanks Jack, and thanks too for your comment on the first film we did with Connor on rewilding. It's great you enjoyed them both and found them useful. We're trying to showcase different options for people to help them choose what might be right for their circumstances. To continue in this way, look out for another film coming out on 27 January that we've done with the North Wales Wildlife Trust on another option for tree planting in areas heavily grazed by livestock and deer, but done in a way that protects the tree so it doesn't need a tree guard. It's called 'no fence' tree planting, or sometimes 'sabre tree' planting. :-)

[@Ziidgaa]

The tree guards (or fences, etc.) are certainly a thing of concern for a variety of reasons... Brambles would be the best, in my opinion, but I know even those have their drawbacks in certain places.

[@TheKlink]

could you do a video on accelerated succession?

[@WOODLANDSTV]

Thank you for the suggestion, great idea. Yes, I'll do some research on this subject with the aim of making a film about it. :-)

[@ianmumford5636]

In urban areas tree guards on small trees are just a magnet for vandalism. For larger trees planted in grass a wire mesh guard gives protection from mowing machines and strimmers.

[@srantoniomatos]

Where i live, central litoral Portugal, creating a forest by gardening/forestry takes about 20 to 30 years to achive young maturity. If left to rewilding it takes about the same time. The difference its in the quality of the forest. If left to rewild the forest have less species, mostly will be pines, or eucalyptus, or very invasive species. While it grows many brush and bushes also grow, and completly fill the space. But it becomes impossible for humans to transit and inhabit. And its very prone to big wild fires. If its a planted (and maintain) forest...it becomes what you want. In my case its a forest garden, full of oaks and many other natives, and fruit trees, no invasives, safe. A delight to live on, for us humans and wildlife. The land besides mine its in its 30 year of rewilding. I can see the diference. Its a major fire hazzard, less quality species, inpossible to move on trough...

[@WOODLANDSTV]

Thank you for sharing your own experience. Your forest garden sounds beautiful. Thanks too for raising the issue of fire risk. It's certainly something we need to consider in woodland creation and management. Although in the UK we haven't yet experienced the wild fires that have affected parts of Europe and the US, we definitely need to be learning from the experiences of other countries like Portugal on this issue. We're hoping to do a film this year on woodland management to reduce the risk of fire.

[@qwertytwerty7293]

The trouble with this is the inherent bias of the organisation creating the film. It is in their interest to champion human intervention. I mean any reforestation is great but there’s so much money wasted on humans getting involved when leaving nature to do its thing is generally and normally all that is required.

[@RewildingFilms]

We'd love to simply leave nature to regenerate, but unfortunately humans have driven large land predators to extinction in the UK. The resulting huge population of deer, and extensive farming of herbivores, means that regenerating trees would be browsed to the ground. I'd encourage you to watch Alan Watson Featherstone's TED talk where he has a lot of before and after pictures showing the difference a deer fence makes to the land, it is transformational.

[@deanvanjones]

I turned off after less than a minute and a half when climate change was mentioned.

[@permabroeelco8155]

@@deanvanjones Some people never change.

[@deanvanjones]

?​@@permabroeelco8155

[@raclark2730]

Have to take in other factors like are there invasive plant species, what is the predator / prey situation, is there enough natural seed bank for regeneration. Advise against to much nature purism ideology, what works or not is highly situational.