Nursery helps students tackle support for local nature

High school geography pupils have brushed up their knowledge at Council biodiversity site.

Denbighshire County Council’s Biodiversity team recently hosted Prestatyn High School Geography students at the Council Local Provenance Tree Nursery based in St Asaph.
The tree nursery funded by Welsh Government, through the Local Nature Partnerships Cymru ENRaW project and Local Places for Nature grant, provides a growing area for wildflowers and tree seeds which are sourced from the county.

Last year the nursery saw 13,000 wildflowers grow on site, alongside 11,500 trees including pedunculate oak, sessile oak, sweet chestnut, silver birch, alder, wych elm and goat willow.

The Biodiversity team alongside regular volunteers supporting the site also planted 16,760 acorns that were collected locally.

The Prestatyn pupils spent the day at the nursery tackling activities to support their educational learning.

This visit was part of the prize for Prestatyn pupil James Cumberlidge who won the KS5 category for Denbighshire County Council’s Postcards from the Future competition which asked pupils to imagine we had moved to 2050 and send a postcard back to their younger selves to explain how climate change is potentially impacting on their lives.

The pupils took on a reptile survey around the nursery site which contains wetland areas, spent time learning how to pot on trees and sow seeds in the polytunnels and also help the Biodiversity team put out mammal footprint tunnels around the nature reserve.

Cllr Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “We were delighted to welcome the Prestatyn students to our tree nursery to help them learn about what we are doing at the site to support local biodiversity and their own future in our county.

“The activities arranged by our Biodiversity Team will help these youngsters understand what they can do themselves to help our local nature and climate and also support their own wellbeing by making a positive difference to the county we live in.”