Thirty-two of Britain’s rarest native trees have been planted at two sites in Cumbria to save them from extinction.
National Trust rangers have dug in the black poplars at Kirkhouse Farm on the Dunthwaite Estate, near Cockermouth, and at Goldrill Beck, near Ullswater.
Once widely spread across the county, there were only three of these culturally and ecologically significant trees left in the Cumbrian landscape and an estimated 7,000 across the country.
With help from a specialist from London, trees of an ancient local strain were sourced and brought on location.
Sixteen were put in the ground near the ponds, created over the summer as part of the trust’s Riverlands work, at Kirkhouse Farm, and a further 16 at Goldrill Beck where award-winning river restoration work has been carried out.
Black poplars are an important wetland tree species that belong to the wider willow family or Salicaceae.
They produce salicylates, important medicines which are both anti-fungal and antibiotic, which are distributed throughout the wetland ecosystem as aerosols in the air, as soluble compounds in the water for aquatic life and within their pollen and nectar for pollinators.
Black poplar not only provide an early source of food to bee and butterfly populations, they also help to ensure the health of the entire ecosystem.
National Trust ranger Edwin Everitt-Stewart said: “Just over a year ago, I had never heard of the black poplar and for good reason, as it is one of our rarest trees!
“It is therefore amazing to be a part of the jigsaw of bringing the black poplar back to the British landscape, just one part of years of hard work and determination that have gone into saving this species from ecological collapse.
“Once the trees are established, they will grow up to six foot in a year, so will soon make an impression on the landscape.”
