Queens Green Canopy Joint Club Project

Rotary Clubs across Derby joined forces with National Trust, Derby City Council and local businesses to plant 840 trees, with more to come.

Rotary members and volunteers

ROTARY CLUBS WORKING TOGETHER 

The four Rotary Clubs of Derby selected The Queen’s Green Canopy - ‘Plant a Tree for the Jubilee ‘ as their 2022 project to work with business and schools .This unique tree planting initiative invited people across the UK to plant a tree to mark her now late Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee. By focusing on planting sustainably, the Queens Green Canopy project will benefit future generations 

This project, offered by the four  Rotary clubs - Derby , Derby Daybreak , Derby South and Derby Mercia -, provided small businesses the opportunity to assist with their corporate and social responsibility goals, help to improve leadership and project management skills and provide a team building exercise. 

We at Rotary approached the Woodland Trust to secure packs of free saplings generously funded by lead partners - Sainsbury’s, Lloyds Bank , Ovo Energy , DFS , People’s Postcode Lottery , Joules , Bank of Scotland and Sofolgy.  Orders were placed for two lots of 420 packs of sapling. 420 saplings land size equates to a football pitch or 85-100 metres of double-row hedge. 

The species offered were - 
  • Urban Trees - easy to manage , designed for residential areas and to survive in urban environments .
    •  crab apple , rowan and hazel 
  • Wildlife - establish food and shelter for wildlife plus create a living legacy for future generations . 
    •   hawthorn , rowan, blackthorn, silver birch , hazel and common oak 
  • Working wood - able to fuel a log burner in 7-10 years or channel creativity via carving or weaving willow.
    •   rowan , silver birch , wild cherry , common oak, grey willow 
  • All year round colour for beautiful blossoms , bright berries and stunning Autumn displays.
    •  hawthorn, dogwood , wild cherry , silver birch , rowan and hazel 
Rotary worked with the National Trust and Derby City Council to source and agree sites for the planting. Rotary also working directly with two inner city schools and have secured a third 420 pack of saplings to be planted at these schools.

NATIONAL TRUST Grid Reference SK 366217
The National Trust site selected was Caseys plantation at Calke Abbey .This is a newly created five hectare local grown native species woodland planted in 2018-19 .It has a new permissive walk through the plantation that links to the existing public footpath and beyond to the Calke Tramway Trail. The 420 saplings, one pack from each species, were selected  to provide a hedge to protect trees from grazing livestock 
Tubing the saplings was necessary in order to protect them from the deer. For the first time Calke Abbey wanted to trial biodegradable tubes to replace the use of plastic tubes. So for the first time the 420 saplings we planted were tubed using the new biodegradable tubes. A step forward for the environment.

DERBY CITY COUNCIL   Grid Reference SK3211358 
Derby City Council wished to extend the wooded area at Mackworth Park between Osterley Green and Peckham Gardens. Their selection was all year round colour, wild wood and a double pack of working wood. They had cleared the area of blackthorn so for sure had no desire to plant this species .They did not need to use guards .

TEAM WORKING 

Patterson Commercial Law based in Leicestershire and Arthurce a Loughborough based civil engineering company embraced the challenge to each form a team and use the sapling planting as a day team building day .At the pre planning meeting ,however,the decision was made to merge the two teams into one and each company have two days of team building .This approach enabled more employees to participate and to work with team members from inside and outside their own companies.
Sapling planting took place in November 2022 with a day at each site .We were blessed with the weather on both days - no rain and even some winter sun .Equipment and training was provided at both sites by Derby City Council and by the National Trust .Planting took place at the Mackworth site first and the skills picked up there helped at Calke, although at the latter there was the learning of the additional skill of installing the biodegradable tubes. 
On each day a team of Rotarians plus a couple of representatives from the Derby City Council and Calke were present to to join in with the challenge 

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed both days, learnt some new skills, fulfilled corporate goals of leadership and team building and felt a sense of achievement as they looked back at the 840 saplings now ready to grow and flourish over the decades to benefit the next generations.

Many thanks to Derby City Council, The National Trust, Patterson Commercial Law and Arthurce for making this possible.

Contact Pat Zadora about this page:

(ALL fields required)

(If you are a Rotarian, please name your club.)

'What We Do' Main Pages:

Rotary is the most accessible it has ever been. We welcome new members but you do not have to be a member to help us support your local community.

more  
June 2024 newsletter

Our latest newsletter is now available to view online

more  
Litter picking on World Earth Day 2022

For World Earth Day we held a litter pick at Alvaston Park where we collected 16 bags of litter and recorded 1556 pieces of plastic with Kids Against Plastic.

more  
Make a Difference

We have reverted meeting times back to lunchtimes only as this suits most of our members currently. The Satellite group meets on the fourth Monday evening of the month either online or at a central Derby city pub.

more  
The Girl Empowerment Program in Ghana

We work with Village by Village in Ghana who are currently supporting a period poverty project to enable girls to continue their education. Also, a Tech to Teach programme providing tablets to schoolchildren

more  
The Rotary Club of Derby helped seven local schools build Eco-Greenhouses out of recycled plastic bottles

Our Club has various activities throughout the year that support the development of Young People

more  
People of Action - Polio

The Rotary Foundation provides grants to Rotary Clubs to support life-changing projects Worldwide. Photo (c) Rotary International

more  
Rotary members and volunteers

Rotary Clubs across Derby joined forces with National Trust, Derby City Council and local businesses to plant 840 trees, with more to come.

more  
Our Satellite supporting a local fundraising event barbecue

Derby Rotary Satellite is a newer, flexible kind of Rotary which meet once a month, perfect for people with work and family commitments. You only have to commit to what you can without any pressure. Can you help us to make a difference?

more  
Christmas 2023

Plenty of opportunity to support our Christmas Activities

more