Shropshire farmer creates nature-positive woodland

With funding and expert advice from the Woodland Trust's MOREwoods scheme, Mark Lea and his wife Liz planted 800 trees on an unproductive area of their land to support wildlife and climate adaptation, and supply wood fuel for their biomass boiler.

Mark and Liz Lea have been farming organically at Green Acres in Shropshire since 2000.

Their 175ha farm is certified organic mixed arable and sheep, with around 130ha dedicated to combinable crops in a five-year arable rotation including clover-based leys for seed, silage or grazing, as well as combinable wheat, oats and peas.

Mark is the third generation of his family to run the farm, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.

ORGANIC CREDENTIALS

Green Acres hasn’t always been organic – it converted from conventional farming production in 2000, which Mark says was partly a business decision, to move away from conventional commodity grain production as they were too small to be competitive; but also largely influenced by the impact of intensive arable farming on the environment.

The farm is now heavily committed to agri-environment and stewardship schemes and intends to remain involved in Defra schemes when it comes to funded environmental work.

WORKING WITH THE WOODLAND TRUST

Green Acres has undertaken a small degree of agroforestry, planting avenues of trees with some previous support from the Woodland Trust. Mark commented:

“Liz and I created a small woodland 8–9 years ago, and this project made us realise how much difference a planting such as this could make in under 10 years; it proved that change can happen sooner than you might think.”

It was the success of this small-scale woodland that made them decide to add another.