A NEW woodland has been planted at Stover Country Park as part of the Restoring Stover Park project.

Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the three-year project was recently completed, having restored historic features, improved Stover Lake, upgraded paths and trails, and delivered new and improved facilities.

The biodiverse woodland, which has been established with the planting of mixed native trees, is another legacy of the initiative.

At the start of the Restoring Stover Park project, a micro-tree nursery was created at the Courtenay Centre in Newton Abbot and at Stover School, in partnership with Devon Wildlife Trust’s “Saving Devon’s Treescapes” project, and with help from the Stover Shed volunteers.

Children from Bearnes Voluntary Primary School and Stover Prep School helped gather tree seeds collected within the historic Stover Park grounds. They then worked with numerous Stover Country Park volunteers to help prepare, germinate and grow the tree seeds in the micro-tree nurseries.

The three-year old trees from these nurseries are among the trees to have been used to establish a new woodland between the Stover Centre and the lake.

Two successful tree grants were also secured for 700 trees from “Saving Devon’s Treescapes” and 2,500 trees from The Tree Council as part of National Highways’ Community Trees programme.

Last month, 99 pupils from Bearnes Primary School helped plant some of the trees on the former de-silting site at the park, and 150 pupils from Stover Preparatory School planted a hedge along the fence line of the recently restored Serpentine Lake.

On Valentine’s Day, 100 people also turned out for the ‘Spread the love, plant a tree’ event. Those who took part commented that they loved planting the trees together as a family and they looked forward to seeing the trees flourish in years to come.

The final trees of the woodland were planted at last week’s celebration event which marked the end of the Restoring Stover Park project. Every guest who attended was invited to plant a tree – all supported by the dedicated volunteers at Stover.