In the early days when Southampton National Park City was forming I had a telephone conversation with someone called Alison from London National Park City and one or two things have stuck in my head.
I can recall her saying "It's not just the destination, its the journey that's significant" and that National Park City groups can be "a springboard for lots of other things".
She was absolutely right.
It's what happens along the way that's so very important.
One such project was the 'Treemendous project'.
One day Christelle asked me if I'd like to run this project which had started under the auspices of Transition Southampton.
The idea was to nurture saplings of native British trees in pots and then give them away to anyone in the vicinity who has a garden or small patch of land and who would plant them.
That year we went a step further and decided to look for any charity who might give us a grant to buy baby trees.
It all went well as I found the International Tree Foundation were doing just such a thing that year-offering baby trees to any regional charity or environmental group with a convincing enough idea for tree planting and enough volunteers to implement the plan. I wrote to them and filled in a grant application form and our idea was accepted.
That year during tree planting season from November to end of March we delivered flyers through peoples' doors with information about the project and the offer of free trees and a list of those available. We also put it out online.
Once we had all the requests we sent an inventory to a local tree nursery, bought and distributed the trees and then sent the bill to the International Tree Foundation for reimbursement.
As always there is the the feeling that when people come together they can achieve so much. I can't remember how many trees we gave away that year but it was many.
It gave me immense satisfaction to have helped organise such a project and without the platform of Southampton National Park City it would probably not have been possible. For me it was an antidote to a lot of the despair felt at the biodiversity and climate crises effecting nature.
Trees are invaluable in cities for contributing to biodiversity, sequestering carbon and improving air quality.
Since then we've kept the project open and every now and then someone writes and asks if there are homes for saplings they have planted. Recently someone contacted us via Facebook offering a batch of Hazel saplings grown from nuts from a single Hazel tree somewhere in Hampshire and was happy to take them in and within days someone from Southampton City Farm asked for them for a local rewilding project.
Let us know if you have any baby trees to donate for rehoming during tree planting time (November to March). We can at the moment only take saplings destined to grow into small to medium sized trees and must be native British trees.
Inspired by the Treemendous project? There are many ways to get involved in creating a greener, healthier and more connected city. Let us know and share if you have an idea; Southampton National Park City can be a platform. Share your idea or project with us and see if we can make it grow. All sorts of things can happen when people come together.
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