It seems to have taken forever in the planning but we are now very excited to be planting 3,488 trees at Albourne Estate next week.  Over the years, we have already planted quite a few trees, from the  1,440 Italian Alder we planted in 2009 prior to the vines going in to grow up as windbreaks for the young vines, to the 260 ‘native woodland species’ that we planted as a trial patch in 2015 which are flourishing (and storing carbon) 10 years on.

Now, with the support of grant funding and guidance from The Forestry Commission and the government funded England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) grant scheme we are expanding our woodland, filling in unused corners of the vineyard as well as creating a 2 ha (ca 5 acre) area of new native broadleaf woodland on what has previously been permanent grassland on our estate.

Why are we doing this?

Since our inception, Albourne Estate has taken sustainability very seriously – we were one of the first, and still are, one of the very few English wineries that is entirely powered by renewable energy – most of which is generated by our own solar panel array that was installed in 2011.    Since then, we’ve educated ourselves along the way and adopted a series of measures to improve our sustainability: ranging from regenerative vineyard management practices to tweaking our packaging; all with the aim of truly becoming a ‘Carbon Neutral’ producer.

Planting trees is a very visible further step to help Albourne Estate achieve its Carbon Neutral goal and also to significantly promote biodiversity within our estate by providing new habitats and food sources for a variety of species.

We imagined that it would be simple, but properly planting a new native woodland is not as straightforward as it may at first appear.   Our first step was to design our new woodland areas to meet our three objectives:

1. Carbon Capture (Sequestration) – this requires selecting tree species with a reasonably good growth rate (or yield class as it is termed in forestry) that can capture significant amounts of carbon
2. Biodiversity Gain – this requires planting a good mix of traditional woodland trees incorporating open spaces and ‘soft’ edges to the woodland areas with native woody shrubs as well as positioning the new woodland areas to maximise opportunities to link existing woodland habitats. The design will particularly favour a locally important bird species, Turtle Doves
3. Landscape visual appeal and integration – this requires that the majority of tree species selected are native but with a small component of non-native landscape trees to add interest and character

To deliver these aims, our planting will consist of ten different native broadleaf species, led by Oak and Alder and also including Hornbeam, Field Maple, Bird Cherry, Rowan, Silver Birch, Sweet Chestnut and Small leaf lime and one non-native broadleaf species, Red Oak as well as approximately 10% native woody shrubs, all planted at a relatively low density of 1,600 trees/ha.

We don’t want to get this wrong as not only are woodlands for the long term, but the upfront costs of planting trees are significant (more than vines even!).  Our trees will each cost £7.20 + VAT.   Only 30% of this cost is the tree and the planting operation itself.     A significant part of the balance is to protect the young saplings from deer and rodent damage with tree guards.  Sadly, this means for the first 4 to 5 years our ‘baby woodland’ will look more like a stand of plastic than a woodland.  Rest assured that these will be removed after this period and sent for recycling.     We’ve looked into using bio-degradable guards, however, as yet, they have not been proven sufficiently effective and the cost risk of having to start over with replacement guards would have been prohibitive for us.   The deer pressure in our part of Sussex would mean that the trees wouldn’t stand a chance without protection.

The balance of the cost is the addition of mulch mats around each tree to suppress weeds allowing for reduced herbicide use and to aid moisture retention in the soil.  Thankfully, we have been able to source bio-degradable mats made from sheep wool which have the added benefit apparently of deterring deer due to the smell of lanolin.   After 2 – 3 years they should break down naturally providing extra nutrition to the soil.

So in reality how much Carbon will this capture and store?

Initially, not much.  The graph below generated from data we input to the approved Woodland Carbon Code calculation spreadsheet shows the projected cumulative carbon sequestration (aka storage) by our new woodland over 100 years.

For our 3488 trees, for the first 5 years, actually very little carbon is stored; even for the first 10 years it is only 50 tonnes. However, as the trees grow and increase in size the rate of sequestration accelerates so that by 20 years it is 400 tonnes and by 35 years it is 800 tonnes.  The storage rate then slows as the tree has reached maturity.

To put this in context, it is estimated that the current Carbon Footprint of the average person in the UK is 13 tonnes per year.  So yes, by year 10 our 3488 trees will have only captured the equivalent amount of carbon that a single family of 4 emit in ONE YEAR (a sobering thought).   But will be sufficient to offset any carbon emissions from our vineyard and winemaking practices.

This should be a wakeup call to anyone who thinks that just planting trees alone can get the UK to Net Zero by 2050 (our Governments commitment).

If our trees sequester MORE carbon than we need to offset the emissions from our estate, we are planning to sell ‘carbon credits’ to other organisations.   This will not only help others meet their Net Zero targets but will also help cover the ongoing costs of managing and nurturing our young woodland for many years.

This topic is highly complex and requires another Blog.   Please keep tuned for this and regular planting progress updates.

We’re finding that creating a woodland is the work of years not days! It certainly makes us look at the patches of old woods that do still stand, wonder who nurtured them and be thankful to those who’ve been protecting them over the decades and centuries.

If you would like to see our progress and learn more about woodland establishment, do visit us this summer.  You will be able to to visit our vineyard and woodland areas as well as enjoy a glass of wine and local cheese and charcuterie boards in our Tasting Room.