Call for volunteers as Fife village begins to plant 10,000 trees

The project is an initiative of the Crail Community Partnership.

Over time, the aim is to connect nature rich sites with wooded and hedgerow walkways so that locals and visitors can walk all day, starting and ending in Crail, through biodiverse, rewilded landscapes, within the farmland setting of the East Neuk.

The community planted 2500 trees over two weekends in March 2022 and 95% of them are thriving more than two years on.

The first 3000 trees are due to be planted in the coming weeks and some extra pairs of hands would make the job much easier.

One tree can be planted in a couple of minutes, and working as a pair is more efficient. One person digs and the other does the planting and stomping.

The trees are a wide mixture of local varieties - Scots pine, alder, rowan, birch, willow, blackthorn, hawthorn, oak, dogwood, hazel, and cherry. The first planting session will be at Kilminning Nature Reserve on Saturday and Sunday, March 15 and 16, then at Bow Butts and other sites in Crail town on March 22 and 23. All start at 10.00 am.

A core team of volunteers has already been assembled, but more will be most welcome.

Organiser Will Cresswell, Professor of Biology at St Andrews University, said: “Planting trees puts a long-term smile on your face and helps preserve biodiversity. Native trees in the right places provide shade, act as windbreaks and create essential habitat for animals and other plants. They also look nice, making an interesting and varied landscape.”

The cost has been covered by crowdfunding and donations of trees from the Woodland Trust, with more fund raising planned for the summer to cover planting in the autumn.

Crail Community Partnership was formed to take forward the Crail Local Place Plan.

It looks in detail at the community of Crail and identifies opportunities for development. It was first published in 2019 and updated in 2023.