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Sustainable forestry
With over 160 acres of land, it has always been our intention to create a large amount of forestry on the Unicorn site. Like so much of what we do, it is a project that serves a number of different purposes.
We have ambitious building and development plans, so the ability to provide our own lumber from the site itself was a huge influence on us as it means the carbon footprint of our buildings will be vastly reduced by not having to transport the timber very far at all. In addition, we can use wood from our forests to provide our own firewood for heating our houses in winter - and, of course, the amount of carbon dioxide that our trees will take from the atmosphere will offset our activities, and a whole lot more besides.
In total, we have planted over 70,000 trees on our site, and have planted a wide variety of trees, including oak, ash, larch, birch and scots pine. 30,000 of our trees are coppicable, which means that they can be cut down in a manner that ensures more trunks will grow in the place of the one that has been removed. In this way, we can produce considerable amounts of wood from the same amount of space, and provide more firewood and lumber, as well as offsetting even more carbon.
We're passionate about our forest, and have worked hard to make sure our trees grow quickly and efficiently, in a natural environment. That's why we have planted such a wide variety of trees, so that they can grow together, providing different nutrients and benefits to the eco-system. No natural forest has ever consisted of a single type of tree, so we are trying to learn from nature and allow different trees to work together - by providing cover from the wind for each other, for example.
We seem to be quick learners too - many of our trees are already growing much faster than would be 'normal' in a single-crop forest, and we have won acclaim from the Forestry Commission for our achievements too!
Of course, a major undertaking such as planting 70,000 trees can have an effect on the immediate environment, so we have worked very hard to negate this. Aware that our activity on the mountainside would displace a lot of silt we constructed a lake further down the mountain to trap the silt, filtering the water so that the water that is returned to the environment lower down the mountain is clean and will not cause further damage.
In the future, we aim to run a 'tree trail' through our forest so that visitors can learn about the different types of tree we have grown, and see the many benefits of our forestry project for themselves. Watch this space for more details, or visit the case study - forestry page for more.