Tree Planting event declared a great community success

Over 200 children, their parents and friends and members of Dursley RFC finished training early on Sunday morning to take party in their club’s Tree Planting event this weekend. The picturesque hills around the rugby pitches echo’d to the sound of spades shoveling the heavy clay soil and the squelch of Wellington boots in the mud. The children, who were joined by Neil Carmichael, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for the Stroud Constituency, Stroud District Councillors, former Dursley player Brian Tipper, and Alex Stennett, and John Ferraday and his team from Stroud Tree Workshop, succeeded in planting over 700 trees during the morning.

Dursley RFC, have recently laid a brand new pitch and training facility to meet the needs of their expanding club. With this work complete the club is putting something tangible back into the community by planting over 1500 native hedgerow trees around the new facility. This new hedge will provide an important source of food and refuge for birds, insects and small mammals. A fantastic contribution to local biodiversity!

DRFC’s Conservation Officer, Dr Sean Christian said “I was absolutely delighted with the participation of so many families. We have planted well over half the trees that we need to put in around our new pitch and we have managed to mobilise a large number of willing volunteers to make this a truly community project. A large majority of the trees have been sponsored and our next task is to add the plaques to the trees to include the sponsors chosen message or dedication.”
Neil Carmichael, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for the Stroud Constituency said “I think this is a marvelous community project to be involved in. I have very much enjoyed the planting here this morning and been impressed by the commitment and enthusiasm of the children of the club. As well as being keen on their sport, they are clearly enjoying being involved in putting something back into their club and its future facilities.  I would like to congratulate Roger Batty, Sean Christian and the team at Dursley for creating such a worthwhile and inspiring project.”

The money raised from the Tree Planting event will be added to Dursley Rugby Clubs Development Fund. The next project for the club to complete is the refurbishment of the Clubhouse to better serve the growing number of players enjoying their sport at the club.