Tuesday 2 December 2008

EBU tree planting

On 27 November, on behalf of the EBU, I was invited to take part in some tree planting near Bedford. This initiative was set up by our paper recycling company - Paper Planet to represent our successful year in recycling paper at EBU HQ. The company has pledged to plant a tree for every 50 bags of waste paper that is recycled by their customers and this tree planting took place at the Forest of Marston Vale, near Bedford.

The Forest of Marston Vale is an evolving community forest in Marston Vale, which runs south west towards the M1 motorway from the towns of Bedford and Kempston. It is operated by a registered charity called the Marston Vale Trust.

The vale is traditionally a brick making area, but the brick making industry has been running down since the 1970s. It has left a large amount of spoiled countryside containing several large empty pits some of which have now been converted into lakes. The Forest of Marston Vale is one of twelve community forest projects in the United Kingdom. The total area covered is 61 square miles (158 km²), but most of this land is in private ownership. Since 1990, they have planted around 1 million trees and by 2030 they will have planted 5 million more, working with local communities, government and businesses, to create new woods and other wild places for everyone to enjoy.

Last Thursday over 100 Paper Planet customers came along to help the charity, by planting trees in one of the many new forest areas. November is a very good time to plant trees, as the cold forces them to grow and develop their roots. Like everyone else, I was provided with a shovel and some Oak and Elm trees and asked to plant as many trees as I could! The ground was very icy, plus it was very clammy and clay based, so it did prove very difficult to plant these trees. However, together with a co-worker, we did manage to plant 29 trees on behalf of the EBU. Have a look at some of the photos below.

We can feel justifiably proud that there are charities trying to help the UK’s environment with this initiative. For more information please have a look at: http://www.marstonvale.org/index.html



6 comments:

  1. An admirable cause, and in light of today's increasing preference for recycling it's great to see that someone is taking it one step further to help the environment. Well done!

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  2. Very good, but remember the ethos of 'greenness'.
    1) Don't use - ie don't print out unnecessarily, print on both sides of paper
    2) Re-use - use the back of paper for notes etc.
    3) make sure you use re-cycled products (paper in this case)

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  3. Why is it always the small companies, like the EBU, who help the environment and not the big un's! Really pleased to see your getting involved in this side of things - keep working for a better environment EBU.

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  4. Sounds good - what an admirable idea - creating something decent for the future. Not just bridge hey!

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  5. As Hugh says, excellent work - it's nice to see our union is working on the future of our planet too. Percy

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