We took delivery of nine heritage fruit trees on 27th March and had them all planted by the end of the month. One was an apple (Court of Wick) to replace the Cox's Permona that we lost in the summer last year. The other eight bare root trees comprised of four pears,a plum, two damsons and a Medlar. Perhaps the most "Warwickshire" tree is the Warwickshire Drooper plum, so called for the trees drooping branches. We established a new orchard in the very distinct Oxbow which is a very tight loop on the river and difficult to mow, therefore it suits an orchard better, so lets see how they like it in there! The trees were supplied by The Heritage Fruit Tree Company and were all a good size and in perfect health. Now to learn how to prune properly!
by Mike Hopkins
28Feb2025
First units sold.
We made a sale of biodiversity units last week to enable a developer to start the constuction of a retirement home in the local area. The time taken from the agreement to proceed to the completion of the transaction was exactly one month. This timescale was achieved through efficient communication from all parties.
The funds received will go towards the improvement of the species rich grassland and traditional orchards and the ongoing maintenance.
It has been 3.5 years since we purchased the meadow and started on our journey to be a #BNG offset provider - it has been no easy task, but we can now start to see the full cycle of the system working, from management plans to legal agreements to sales and unique transaction codes.
Now the environment will really start to benefit.
Random photo - but I liked it!
by Mike Hopkins
29Jan2025
River Behaviour.
To understand nature in completeness is a dream! However, observations and monitoring will provide indications of what to expect. Currently our sister company Storm Geomatics is studying the relationship between the river channel and floodplain using a number of live sensors, strategically placed and amazingly all hooked up to the Internet of Things (IoT). One of of the sensors is a weather station that displays results at the top of this page and updates every 60 seconds! This is an ongoing research project to develop a River Digital Twin® that records river conditions and weather, and will use machine learning to provide detailed river behaviours to help inform flood reduction and nature regeneration projects in the future, not only for Halford Flood Meadow, but all over the UK.
