Practical Reserve Work (Agroforestry maintenance at Hope farm)
We are looking for volunteers to join us on Hope farm, our arable farm in Cambridgeshire. Hope farm is crucial to our food and farming strategy. Allowing us to demonstrate the ability to grow food profitably and sustainably whilst supporting thriving wildlife populations. It allows us to research innovative farming practices and trial new research as it emerges. An example of this is the recent implementation of an agroforestry trial.
Agroforestry is an approach to land-use that incorporates trees / shrubs into farming systems and allows for the production of trees and crops and/or livestock from the same piece of land. At Hope farm we have converted an 11ha arable field into an alley cropping system, where lines of trees are grown in 6m wide wildflower strips / alleys every 24m through the field. The 24m in-between the alleys of trees remain in arable cropping. The field has had over 1000 trees planted this winter that consist of three main types. The first are native, quick growing broadleaves that will provide shelter and wind protection for the rest of the field. They will also offer an additional biodiversity benefit and will not be used in production. The second type consist of 13 varieties of apple tree, a mixture of heritage and commercial varieties, that will produce Fair to Nature, Hope farm apple juice in a few years when they are mature. The third type comprise of three varieties of cobnut, which is a type of hazel that produces a specific nut type. This will produce Fair to Nature cobnut oil to complement our existing production of rapeseed oil.
Agroforestry has the potential to deliver a lot of key environmental and economic benefits to farmland such as increased pollination resource, nesting / roosting habitat for birds and bats, carbon sequestration, improved drainage and water holding capacity, and diversification of production among others. However, UK specific research into these outcomes and potential trade-offs is very limited. So the aim of the trial is to research three key elements of this type of system
- The biological impacts - We have a long term monitoring plan to closely observe what happens to our plant, invertebrate, bird and bat communities in this field and how those changes impact our farming system.
- Carbon capture - We are monitoring carbon sequestration in the trees as they grow both above and below ground so that we can input this information into our GHG calculations for the farm and hopefully work towards improving our overall emissions.
- Field economics - We need to fully understand the economic impact on the farm business of implementing and managing this type of system so that we can communicate any needs to policy and advocacy teams and farmers themselves.
In order to keep the trees thriving and providing on all those potential benefits we are looking for a volunteer to help monitor and manage them. This will be a semi regular effort that will include tasks such as:
- Walking the strips and checking the trees are alive, the guards are intact and not twisted or falling
- Watering them during dry periods
- Topping up compost and mulch
- Helping to add additional and replace broken stakes and guards
- Seasonal pruning
- Harvesting fruit and nut when trees are mature
- Following health and safety protocols
If you enjoy being outdoors, meeting new people and hands on ecological work, then this role could be the perfect opportunity for you. This role does involve a reasonable amount of physical activity, so will enable you to keep your fitness levels high, as well as helping your mental health and wellbeing. You will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are making a genuine contribution to sustainable agriculture and nature conservation.
We are a friendly and supportive team. If you are volunteering to learn new skills and gain knowledge about wildlife conservation work, you will find that our team will be more than happy to help you on that journey.