Yorkshire golf club plants 5,500 trees in less than three hours

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A team of volunteers from Bingley St Ives Golf Club in Yorkshire, planted nearly 6,000 trees and shrubs in less than three hours at the venue earlier this year.

They originally expected the project, in partnership with the Woodland Trust and STRI, would take three days.

Their efforts have created one acre of new woodland and 1km of new hedgerow.

The majority of the cost has been funded by Woodland Trust, donating the cash for 85 per cent of the woodland and 75 per cent of the hedgerow trees, while the club funded the rest.

Adrian Weaver, club secretary for Bingley St Ives, told the Telegraph & Argus: “A lot of golf clubs and the industry as a whole are taking out trees in order to improve the playing conditions.

“A lot of the volunteers want to put something back into the same environment. The environment will benefit.

“If we’re looking at the bigger picture in terms of climate change, it’s easy to take, take, take.

“It’s important, if we have the opportunity of putting something back into the natural world then do it. We wanted to do that.

“Everyone’s had the right attitude. The conditions were good and working in teams of four we planted 6,000 trees and shrubs.”

Rowan Rumball, ecological consultant for the STRI, added: “What Bingley has done they’ve started to renaturalise some of the areas on the course. They introduced shrubs from native species. Species which can really support our natural environment.

“STRI is working in conjunction with the Woodlands Trust in order to improve aspects of their course and I think this example proves how simple it is to renaturalise areas.

“They’ve permanently changed what the area’s going to look like in a 100 years time.”