There’s a growing interest in local provenance tree seed collection and growing, which presents economic opportunities.

In order to be able to plant native species we first need to source and collect seed from wild trees. The supply chain for native tree seed is well established – what we wanted to explore was how Llais y Goedwig members or other community groups could engage with supply chains from seed to planting to:

• Earn an income
• Increase supply of local provenance tree seed
• Support the planting of more trees local to their area

Our seed trading trial findings indicate that trading as a contractor (i.e. selling seed directly to tree nurseries) would work best on a one-to-one basis, rather than a coordinated pooling of smaller batches across the country. You can find a case study detailing how community woodland group Coetir Mynydd made money by selling seed to a commercial tree nursery HERE.

Dewis Gwyllt partnered with the Woodland Trust back in the Autumn of 2020 to deliver the CommuniTree Project, which continues this year (2022) with support from The People’s Postcode Lottery. CommuniTree has supported:

• In-depth surveys to ascertain interest, experience and resources within community and private woodlands in Wales.
  
  
• The development of resources on seed collection and storage, legal obligations that relate to Forest Reproductive Materials (FRM), and developing small scale tree nurseries. (See the links at the bottom of the page for the full resources).
  
  
• Training and knowledge sharing events to develop skills and networking opportunities amongst proactive groups, individuals and organisations.

In working at a grass-roots level, to develop skills and networks of groups and individuals, Dewis Gwyllt has supported the development of infrastructure required to increase the volume of local provenance trees that can be planted in Wales. However, this is by no means a new initiative and there is very much still a lot of work to do.