Seed to Sapling: Our local tree nursery project

We started this project with the support of the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT) back in 2022 with two objectives:

1. To collect local seed from trees well adapted to the Swaledale and Arkengarthdale environment.
2. To raise local trees for local planting.

We carried out our first seed collection with the permission of landowners at Ivelet Wood in September 2022. This was followed by a workshop in October to create seed boxes and plant the seed; and then a potting-on day in May to put the little seedlings into root trainers.

This cycle has been repeated each year since with both an increase in the number of sites from which seed is gathered and the range of seed collected.

We have collected hawthorn, rowan, sloe and bird cherry berries; hazelnuts and acorns;  birch and alder cones; as well as wych elm and large leaved lime. In November 2024, we added rare willow species to our collection programme.

Once seedlings are potted on into root trainers, they need to be kept in a tree nursery for biosecurity requirements and a tree nursery creche was built from pallets and pallet collars.

The first creche was placed with permission at the back of Reeth Surgery in 2023 and since then another three have been added to the Surgery and two placed at St Mary’s Church in Arkengarthdale in 2025. One further creche is planned for Keld. 

Our first locally raised hazel saplings were big enough to be planted in the Reeth Community Orchard and local sites in 2024 with a wider range of saplings ready for planting in the 2025/2026 tree planting season.

We continue to be supported by the YDMT as part of their Seed to Sapling project and are one of several community groups across the Yorkshire Dales growing their own trees.