Blog - Blog

Fundraising for the Westonbirt Project is an interesting role in these times of austerity. I’ve had several responses to funding requests along the lines of, “Many thanks for your application. It looks like a terrific project, but….”...

With so many to choose from, I can’t help but add a couple more examples to my top ten! I hope visitors to Westonbirt this autumn can enjoy identifying these maples on their walks...

In the last few weeks I have been exploring the log books of W.J. Mitchell, Westonbirt Arboretum’s first curator. These books have been incredible to read, and offered fantastic quotes and stories of life at Westonbirt from the 1920s to the 1950s.

We have been considering using woodfuel at the Arboretum for a while, but as it’s such a complex subject area with lots of new technology involved.

As part of Operation Wallacea, a series of biological and social science expedition projects, I am spending a month high in the trees of the Cusuco National Park in Honduras.

As members of the tree team here at Westonbirt, we are always looking to find ways to improve the management of plant collections.

As a new member of the team (started last week), I have been granted a rare treat as part of my induction; a behind the scenes look at the Arboretum I’d only ever viewed as a visiting tourist.

As with most planning applications extra pieces of information have been requested from us. We have been busy digging holes in a variety of locations and pouring in water to see how well the water drains in the ground at the Arboretum.

Coming from Westonbirt's marketing office, I anticipated the Woody Women course to be something of a challenge.

We have now submitted our planning applications for the Westonbirt Project! It’s been a frantic few days, with several long supporting documents and reports flying through our emails for final tweaks and approvals.

The Westonbirt Project is progressing at an exciting rate and letting people know about what we hope to provide for visitors, staff and the local community is vital for gaining, and keeping, support for the project.

Of all the possible reasons for Westonbirt’s new spring photography shoot to be hampered, an extremely rare – erupt once every 200 years – Icelandic volcano was not one of our considerations.

We have all been very busy lately with a big push to get the drawings and our proposals finalised before we submit our planning application in May.

As well as propagating trees and shrubs for the Westonbirt collection, I am also working with two other organisations on conservation projects, namely Natural England and Plantlife.

Along with planting this time of year, we also remove trees deemed to be hazardous. Although it is always sad to see these large trees come down, it is part of the ongoing management cycle of any collection.