JUNIPER COMMUNIS IN

YORKSHIRES ESK VALLEY

A MODEL FOR WOODLAND EDUCATION IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Peter Woods describes how a simple brief to restore a quarry in Upper Teesdale
turned into a quest for juniper and an ongoing environmental education
opportunity for the local school children.

he story began for me in 1993, when I was as the restoration was complete. The birch and
commissioned to prepare a restoration rowan, and the boulders (from the quarry), were
scheme for Force Garth (whinstone) Quarry, easy enough to find, but enquiries of the Teesdale
representative of English Nature about potential
upstream from High Force in Upper Teesdale.
The quarry had originally been located well sources of local juniper seedlings elicited a
out of sight of the main road, and away from totally negative response. English Nature had in
dwellings, so that its environmental impact fact been worrying for some time about the
would have been minimised. Unfortunately for youngest juniper in the NNR being around a
the owners, circumstances changed dramatically century old, with no sign of natural regeneration.
The reasons for the decline of juniper in the
over the following decades. The Pennine Way
Footpath was created, running along the opposite North York Moors, and elsewhere, are probably
bank of the River Tees giving walkers a full view complex, but one can suggest several. Juniper
straight into the quarry workings; England's then burns very well, so would be unlikely to survive
largest SSSI was designated on the land all round on a well-managed grouse moor, and sheep
the quarry perimeter; and a National Nature would eat any natural regeneration amongst the
Reserve (NNR) was created for England's heather. But why no survival just off the moor, as
biggest stand of juniper,
also on the opposite side of
the river.
The quarry restoration
scheme therefore had to be
somewhat innovative, to say
the least. The concept
presented to the quarry
owners envisaged the recreation of a post-glacial
landscape, with large
erratic boulders set into
the new valley sides
amongst vegetation that
would include birch, rowan
and juniper to match the
nearby
scenery.
The
objective was to create a
landscape that could be
Pupils from Botton School collecting berries on the one remaining
included in the SSSI as soon
juniper bush (100+ years old) in Danby Dale.
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QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF FORESTRY

Nurseryman, Ken Brown, with one and two year old

seed trays and the third-year junipers planted out in
pots. (Photo: Peter Woods)

in the NNR in Upper Teesdale? Could it be that

the predators that eat juniper seedlings are superabundant because their respective predators
(which would in turn eat them) are being
eliminated as part of the moorland management
for grouse? There is some suggestion that this is
one reason for the decline, because the onset of
heavy keepering of grouse moors (and
elimination of vermin) roughly coincides in time
in northern England with the age of the youngest
remaining Juniper i.e. 100-150 years.
An unexpected solution
The solution to sourcing the juniper for the
restoration came unexpectedly some time later.
While visiting a small tree nursery in
Leeming Bar looking for broad-leaf trees for
another job, I happened to ask the nurseryman, in
passing, whether he knew anything about juniper
propagation. "Come with me", was the reply. At
the back of one of his polytunnels were several
trays of very healthy-looking, foot-high juniper
seedlings. "I have been doing some experimental
56

work for the MoD on Deeside", he said,

modestly. He then explained how long it had
taken him to work out how to do it (years), and
how long juniper seeds take to germinate (years
more). To cut a long story short, the nurseryman
and his family were immediately commissioned
first to collect a kilo or so of berries from the
High Force NNR and propagate the seeds.
Not only were the quarry owners pleased that
they could now proceed with presenting the
restoration scheme to Durham County Minerals
Planning Department for approval, but the
English Nature staff were delighted that they
could set up a juniper regeneration programme
for the NNR and Upper Teesdale in general.
Both projects are now well under way.
It was in 1995, the first year of the North York
Moors National Park Conservation Awards
scheme, that Charles Critchley of the Forestry
Commission won one of the prizes for some
work he had been doing on the propagation of
juniper from cuttings. He had noticed how rare
juniper was on the south-east side of the moors
and wanted to do something to halt its decline
there.
Hearing about this and not knowing of any
juniper in the area, I set about trying to find out
how many bushes remained to the north of the
Lyke Wake Walk, the east-west central watershed
in the Park. Precious few, was the answer. Nan
Sykes, a local botanist, was extremely helpful in
identifying some of the sites, which were all
visited, and a programme of seed collection was
begun in the autumn of that year, mostly from
some bushes in Baysdale, and the one remaining
juniper at the head of Danby Dale.
Then the waiting began, while the
nurseryman worked his magic. It took three
years for germination and a further three years
growth in trays for the juniper to reach a
reasonable size (20-25 cm) for planting out.
More seed collection has been undertaken in
those intervening years, so the programme to
save the Juniper in the North York Moors is
now going in the right direction. Juniper, like
holly, has male and female plants, so propagation
from seed, as opposed to cuttings, both spreads
the genetic make-up, and ensures mixed sexes
for future pollination.

JUNIPER COMMUNIS IN YORKSHIRES ESK VALLEY

Saving the Juniper clearly now offered a

wonderful opportunity for including local
primary schools in the programme. They tend to
have little time for nearby, hands-on
environmental education these days with all the
pressures for achieving standards in numeracy
and literacy demanded by government, and the
potential hazards to be insured against beyond
the school gates. However, the primary schools
at Lealholm, Castleton, Danby, and Botton
Village all expressed interest when approached
by Sue Whitehouse, who is the National Park's
Education Officer based at the Moors Centre.
Planting out
There were less than 30 plants mature enough for
the 2001-2 planting season, so each school was
invited to participate in planting a triangle of six
at a site selected within pollinating distance of
existing old bushes.
The format developed was for myself and Sue
Whitehouse to go to the school first thing in the
morning to give the children an insight into what
the moors must have been like at the end of the
Ice Age, 10,000 years ago, and explain how
juniper came to be one of the earliest colonizers
of the barren, post-glacial landscape. (Who or
what brought the seeds?) Other issues covered
The author, Peter Woods, holds the stake while a
were why there are now so few juniper left, why
pupil from Danby School does the hammering.
it was so important to help the species to survive
Sue Whitehouse, the National Parks Education
into the future, and what steps should be taken to
Officer, looks on (far left).
protect the vulnerable little plants
on the edge of open moorland.
Then each class had the rest of
the morning, with teachers and
some parent helpers, to go and
carry out the task of planting and
protecting its own new clump of
juniper. Much prayer for
reasonable weather in February
and March was part of the
preparation, and miraculously it
worked! Nobody got soaked;
some shivered a bit but never
complained.
The children learned about
how to prepare the ground, with a
supporting stake, how to plant
each sapling carefully, without
Pupils from Redcar and Danby Schools digging the planting holes.
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QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF FORESTRY

Danby Schools clump of juniper prior to fencing.

either drying out its roots or damaging its leading

shoots, how to put a rabbit/deer guard over it,
and how to smother competing vegetation round
each new plant. They participated in all these
processes, talking through the reasons at each
step.
One of the planting forays was also joined by
a small group of pupils and a teacher from West
Redcar Community School, a secondary school
in a very deprived, urban community. They
participated with great energy, even finding a
local spring for watering the plants.
All the groups were hugely enthusiastic, and
one likes to think that they will never forget what
they learned about the planting and care of
young trees that day. Since then all four of the
sites have had follow-up visits by the children to
trample the bracken which was shading the
plants and to make sure that all was well with
their Juniper - it was!
The year 2002 marked the 50th anniversary
year of the designation of the North York Moors
National Park, so the first planting, by Lealholm
school, close to the head of Fryup Dale, was
attended by representatives of the National Park
Authority, English Nature, the North Yorkshire
Moors Association, and other bodies. The site
has been marked with a stone carved by a local
stonemason with the simple lettering "NYMNP
1952 2002".
April was a particularly dry month in 2002
with no rain at all for most of it. So how did the
recently planted cell-grown juniper survive such
58

a drought? The saving grace was a

local cross-country runner, Tom
Chadwick, who also monitors acid
rain. He undertook to take a
(neutral pH) bottle of water with
him each time he headed for the
hills. All the juniper plants have
survived so far as a result.
The National Park ecologist,
Rona Charles, has been a
particularly enthusiastic supporter
of the project, and is now setting
up a Bio-diversity Action Plan for
Juniper in the North York Moors.
Each landowners own staff or
National Park teams helped with
fencing the incipient juniper clumps to exclude
sheep, so there has been a very inclusive start to
this initiative. I am immensely grateful to all who
took part, and to the TV crews, and other media
personnel who made such a good story out of it.
Generous financial support has already come
from YorWoods, the NPA and North Yorkshire
Moors Association members, but more will be
needed in future to cover the nurseryman's costs.
In the first two weeks of October 2002,
classes from all four primary schools set out
(separately) to visit known mature junipers in
order to search for and collect ripe (black)
berries, before the birds got them all. With great
enthusiasm, and nimble fingers, they collected
well over 2000 berries. After sorting and
selection, a total of 1,850 were delivered to the
nursery for propagation.
The programme has only just begun. Each
year more juniper will be ready for planting at
other sites by more schools, and more seed needs
to be collected each year to keep the enterprise
running well into the future. It's going to be great
fun!
Peter Woods* is an independent woodland and
wildlife habitat management consultant.
*Rosedale Intake, Danby, Whitby, N.Yorks
YO21 2LX.