Woman plants thousands of trees after buying fell

Thousands of trees have been planted on a fell after it was bought by a community interest company that plans to turn it into a nature reserve.

Sally Phillips bought Low Fell in the Lake District three years ago through her company Buy Land Plant Trees.

A woodland has been created and about 275,000 trees have been planted so far.

Ms Phillips, from Workington, Cumbria, said the conservation work did not just involve trees but was "about having a patchwork of different habitat types".

Low Fell sits above Loweswater on the western fringes of the Lakes and has a summit just under 1,400ft (427m).

The views from the fell were described by guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright as "a scene of lakes and mountains arranged to perfection".

Low Fell was bought by Buy Land Plant Trees for about £148,000.

“It was on the market for a good long while," said Ms Phillips.

"I always keep my eye on land that comes up for sale and no one else bid for it, so I managed to get it at a good price."

Ms Phillips has a business making sustainable products and then invests 20% of its profits into the community interest company, which uses the money to purchase land.

"When you’re concerned about the environment there’s a lot to worry about, and you can’t do something about everything but planting trees makes things better," she said.

"They’re good for biodiversity, they’re good for carbon capture and they’re good for flood mitigation which in an area like this, in the Cockermouth catchment, matters a lot."

Ms Philips plans to plant between 50,000 and 100,000 more trees over the next two years.

The area now contains a mix of rowan, willow and hawthorn, which are planted in dense clusters. This protects the trees and means plastic tubes are not needed.

But it is not just wall-to-wall trees - there is also heather, bilberries and a blanket bog.

Ms Phillips is looking for more land to buy - specifically areas which are no good for agriculture or grazing.

Sheep had to be taken off Low Fell while the trees were planted but she hopes they will return once the woodland is established.

“The debate has become very polarised," she said.

"It’s viewed as a case of sheep or trees but there is no reason why you can’t have both."

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