Arran Land Community Orchard
Arran Land Community Orchard
ACTIVITY
Arran Community Land Initiative are planning to create a community orchard and memorial tree garden, planted with Arran Whitebeams on a disused piece of farmland.
This will result in the landscape becoming more attractive, local fruit being produced, one of Arran's native trees being conserved and will encourage biodiversity in plant and animal life in the area.
The project involves deer fencing the area in question to protect the young trees and planting the trees, which will be done by ACLI volunteers and students from Arran High School. The ACLI are very grateful to the Arran Trust for their kind donation of funding for 2 deer fence gates.
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OUTCOME
All the community will benefit from the creation of an orchard and woodland to visit and from the locally grown fruit for consumption.Once the trees begin to produce fruit this will be sold and the proceeds used to maintain and improve the orchard and other projects on the ACLI Land. The woodland can be extended as and when ACLI receives donations for more memorial trees.
The Memorial garden provides a conservation area for the Arran Whitebeam as well as an outlet for the dedication of trees for locals and visitors who have found Arran to be a special place.
The area as a whole will be transformed by the planting, and will encourage the biodiversity of animals and plants as well as being a beautiful area for locals and tourists to visit for recreation.
The deer fence is essential to this project to protect the trees from deer so the orchard and Arran Whitebeams are not destroyed before the trees have a chance to begin to establish into a new woodland.
The orchard and woodland will also have an educational quality as courses in areas such as tree pruning and forest schools sessions can be run on the site.
