Helping our woodlands thrive

Tree guards can be essential for helping young trees become established. They protect them from browsing animals such as deer and rabbits, shelter them from extreme weather and make them visible whilst they grow. But when left in the environment for too long, the plastic they leave behind is polluting our soils and waterways.

Through four initiatives, YDMT is taking practical and impactful steps towards removing and correctly disposing of plastic from our woodlands.

Plastic-free woodlands

This project began in 2022 and has three key objectives:

• Remove redundant tree tubes from the Dales.
• Trial alternatives to plastic use and feed into national Forest Research trials.
• Create real systems change in forestry and woodland creation across all sectors.

YDMT is the lead partner of the Forest Plastics Working Group (FPWG), which brings together a wide range of partners, including DEFRA and the Forestry Commission, to focus on the reduction of single use and temporary use plastics in tree and woodland establishment. As a small
charity in the Yorkshire Dales, we are very proud to lead the FPWG on a European stage.

We have also issued a range of Guidance through the FPWG, some of which has been adopted as official guidance by Natural Resources Wales. Plastic tree shelters and bio-alternatives, their use, and clean up, have now been included in the UK Forestry Standard too, which is a significant first, and represents a monumental sea-change in highlighting the problem of plastic in our woodlands.

Citizen Science

The Forest Plastics Working Group recently launched a citizen science app - Plot that Plastic – to build a UK wide map of where plastic tree guards are in the environment. This is helping to:

• Raise awareness of the problem of plastics in our woodlands
• Educate people on the need for tree protection, but the issues of leaving plastic in the environment.
• Share the data collected with other relevant organisations and people to aid the future removal of the guards and facilitate new recycling hub locations.

Recycling hubs

In 2024, 140,625 shelters were recycled in the Dales, Devon, Essex, and the Lake District through YDMT-led hubs. That’s 25.031 tonnes of plastic saved from landfill or being left out in our environment. We are also launching two hubs in Scotland this year.

Last year we saved 150 metric tonnes of CO2 by using recycled material collected from used tree shelters. Nationally, 700,000 shelters were collected across 23 central hubs. That’s 124.6 tonnes of plastic!

Volunteers

Since February 2024, there have been 284 dedicated volunteers committed to our woodland management projects. Volunteers have ranged from members of the public, scouts and community groups, to our corporate partners. Volunteers have undertaken activities including
plastic clearance, woodland maintenance, replanting and underplanting. Without them, we couldn’t manage these important small
woodlands, make them resilient to climate change, or improve biodiversity.

 

Learn more about our woodland work 

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