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 learned about landowner grants through Treesponsibility. After witnessing the devastating impact of local flooding on his friends in Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd, he knew he had to act.

"When we moved in, we saw huge amounts of runoff flowing across our fields," Pedro explains. "Some of the houses below us flooded because of water coming down the hillside. Seeing friends suffer from flood damage made the decision easy."

By implementing Natural Flood Management (NFM) schemes on his land, Pedro is now helping to protect the community. The newly planted trees don't just "slow the flow" of rainwater, they are also creating a thriving new habitat for local wildlife.

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.”