Seed Collection for Essex Forest Initiative

Collect tree seeds and watch them grow!

Meet at the International College car park, all the equipment will be provided! Make sure you're in weather-appropriate clothes and shoes that might get muddy.

The Essex Forest Initiative is Essex County Council’s tree planting and forestry project, establishing trees in the rural and urban landscapes, managing their own woodlands and now building two community tree nurseries.  The focus of the latter is to grow local provenance seeds from as wide a range of woods and parklands as possible to incorporate into future plantings thereby increasing genetic diversity and local adaptability.

They have been granted some space at the University and hope to use our ancient parkland and academic knowledge as a base for work on veteran trees, tree health and properties of growing mediums. The species they will be focusing on this autumn are English oak (Quercus robur) and Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) with an interest in resistance to mildew, acute oak decline and phytophthora sp.