A Surrey farm has secured a Farming in the Protected Landscapes grant to plant 20,000 trees and hedge plants to boost biodiversity and mitigate climate change in the Surrey Hills, near Dorking.
Manor Farm
Volunteers will be doing the planting from February until March at Manor Farm, Wotton – the project is joint with the Surrey Hills Society and the Surrey Hills Trust.
There will be volunteers from all walks of life, including a Scout group from Shere and students working towards a Duke of Edinburgh Award. All will be helping to plant trees on the farm which is home to mixed farmers Paula Matthews and her husband, Laurence, who is Surrey NFU Council delegate.
For one of the first planting weekends, the Matthews family is working with We Are Possible (‘Possible’, for short), a charity taking action on climate change. This organisation is providing a lot of volunteers, working with the Nature Friendly Farming Network to plant hedgerow trees on farms around the UK, and co-ordinating a hedge planting at Manor Farm on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 February 2022 - anyone is welcome – Paula is co-ordinating a further planting day the following weekend on Saturday 19 February 2022. Book in for hedgerow planting dates.
Events will be run in a Covid-secure manner. She and the team at Manor Farm are busy preparing the ground now – there will be 4.5KM of new hedge.