19 ornamental pear trees from outside the castle are being moved to Moorland and Splott Parks
TREES temporarily used by the Castle Quarter Café last summer are being moved from Castle Street to be replanted in Splott.
The replanting started yesterday in Moorland Park where 10 of the ornamental pear trees were moved to, while the other nine will be planted in Splott Park today.
“One of the aims set out in our One Planet Cardiff response to the climate emergency was to increase tree canopy coverage in Cardiff by 25% by 2030 – finding these trees a permanent home is one small step on the road to achieving that.” said Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure Councillor Peter Bradbury.
“By the end of the planting season we will have planted around 2,400 trees across the city and we are committed to planting many more as we drive Cardiff towards being a carbon neutral city by 2030.”
The council chose Splott due to the area having some of the lowest numbers of tree canopy coverage in the city.
“I think it’s wonderful news that these trees that were temporarily installed on Castle Street are finding a new home in Splott – our area has so few trees and green areas compared to other wards in Cardiff and these spaces are vital for our health and wellbeing as well as wildlife,” said Green Squirrel Director Rebecca Clark.
Green Squirrel are a not-for-profit that developed the Railway Gardens project in Splott. They secured land for the site in December 2018 and want to use it as a green community space.
The Castle Street trees will all be planted in ‘one cut mowing areas’ which aim to support biodiversity.
These areas of the parks are being introduced this mowing season and will only be cut once a year with the aim of bringing more wildflower growth and habitats for pollinators such as bees.
Ms Clark said: “Last Spring we campaigned with other organisations and members of our community for Cardiff Council to mow less in order to support biodiversity, so we were thrilled when these no mow areas were introduced and that these trees are being introduced to the parks.
“It’s good to see the council taking these first steps and we hope that this is just the start of more substantial work as part of the One Planet Cardiff vision for the city.”
Responses from local residents were mixed.
“It’s good, but it’d be better if a) they stopped cutting trees etc down in the first place, b) they were edible fruit trees, and c) if there were a lot more of them,” posted Barsha Knight on a local Splott Facebook group.
“This is great, but I do wonder how long it’ll take before some feral youths destroy them. I hope I’m wrong.” said one twitter user in reply to news about the trees.
18 other Castle Street trees were relocated in November last year. The trees were replanted in Hamadryad Park in Butetown as the area also lacked tree coverage.
