Yorgreen CIC is taking part in a regional acorn collection project with The White Rose Forest.

White Rose Forest is the community forest for North and West Yorkshire, working in partnership with local authorities, landowners, businesses and communities to plant more trees across the region and improve our natural environment.

Earlier this year, White Rose Forest commissioned KindleWoods, a Community Interest Company based in North Yorkshire to coordinate a community acorn collection project. The project will see acorns retrieved from publicly accessible ancient woodlands and veteran trees within the Royal Forest of Knaresborough,

Acorns are the fruit of the oak tree. They contain the seeds that can grow new oak trees. The collected acorns will be grown on by partners Harrogate Borough Council and The Arium Leeds and made available to White Rose Forest partners for planting in the 2024/2025 planting season.

Ancient woodlands represent our closest link with ‘wild woods’ – the natural forested landscape that developed across swathes of Prehistoric Britain after the last ice age. By collecting and growing acorns from the pockets of ancient semi natural woodland we have today, White Rose Forest partners will be able to plant more trees of local provenance, increasing the number of trees planted from where the seed was collected: Trees which have adapted over time to the climatic and soil conditions in the place in which they are growing, helping to establish woodland with a greater resilience to climate change

This year, in 2022, the Oak tree looks to be producing a bumper crop of acorns. This follows a huge harvest of acorns in 2020 in what is referred to a ‘mast year’.  This is when trees generate far more nuts or fruits than usual creating an all you can eat buffet for deer, mice, badgers and squirrels. A ‘mast year occurs roughly every 5-10 year. You can find out more about Mast years here:

https://www.treesforcities.org/stories/the-mystery-of-the-mast-year

The oak tree applies so much of its energy into producing an increased number of acorns that they are left with little energy to continue producing fruit. A recovery period normally lasts a couple of year, so it is not surprising to see an abundance of acorns in the autumn of 2022.

With a bumper crop of acorns looking likely, collections are being encouraged outside the Royal borough of Harrogate. White Rose Forest is asking all partners including Yorgreen CIC and organised groups to take advantage of the bumper crop and collect acorns from publicly accessible ancient woodlands and veteran trees from across the White Rose Forest region.

The acorn drop is likely to last a couple of weeks in October when Yorgreen CIC will be encouraging schools, organised groups and residents to collect acorns from ancient woodland sites in Cullingworth and Bingley.

Saturday 8th October

CLOSED SESSION

COW HOUSE BECK

We will be joining Cullingworth Village Primary Eco Council and their families.

Thursday 13th October

CLOSED SESSION

COW HOUSE BECK

We will be joining Parkside School Gardening Club & Eco Committee

Friday 14th October

10:00AM- 2:00PM

ST IVES, BINGLEY

Open to the public with volunteers from the Outdoor Taskforce and Get Out More CIC.

Meet at ‘The Ivy Kitchen’

Saturday 15th October

10:00AM-12:00PM

GOIT STOCK

Open to the public, we will take a stroll along Goit Stock Woodland Walk

Meet at Hallas Lane Entrance