Tree planting - Pedro’s NFM story

Two people walking through a grassy field with tall, wild grass. Dense trees and misty rolling hills appear in the background under an overcast sky.

Pedro De Wit first heard about the landowner grants via Treesponsibility. Treesponsibility initially explained that grants were available for planting trees that can help prevent flooding in the valley. After several bad floods in Hebden and Mytholmroyd and with Pedro seeing first-hand his friends suffering from flood damage, he decided to implement some natural flood management schemes on his land. “When we moved to our house there was flooding in Hebden. We noticed how much runoff water was going over our field. Some of the houses beyond our land flooded because of water that came down the hill and across our field.” Pedro explained. Not only are the newly planted trees helping to slow the flow, but there is a benefit for wildlife once they have grown.

A grassy field with many young trees protected by light green plastic tubes, sloping gently upward toward dense woodland and rolling hills under a cloudy sky.

In the future, Pedro would like to plant more trees along the border of his land to help reinforce the banking. Pedro would also like to build an attenuation basin that can collect run-off water from the hills above and in doing so stop water from getting to the estate below. An attenuation basin would be great for wildlife too and when the pond is dry it would create a sheltered space for wild plants.

Pedro said “There are many fields higher up in the valley not used for farming anymore. In my opinion, it is better to create woodland on these fields as this benefits the climate and helps to slow the flow.”