Trying out our updated monitoring tool near Den Bosch

Our monitoring tool has recently been updated and this week we were able to try it out at our reforestation project close to Den Bosch in The Netherlands. This tool has been developed as an easy-to-use manual survey to check the progress of our trees and projects as a whole. The manual survey can be done by either ourselves, volunteers or even the landowner. 

Today we were helped out by one of our most dedicated supporters: Ethan. As part of his study programme, Ethan worked with us for one full week to experience what it is like to work at an international reforestation organisation. We are always happy to facilitate such experiences, especially for someone with the dedication and enthusiasm of Ethan. Thank you again for your contributions during our monitoring visit and during your week with us as a whole, Ethan!

The project we visited this time was supported by Caterpillar Inc. via our esteemed partners One Tree Planted. We have planted a variety of native trees and shrubs at this location, to transform these former barren agricultural lands into a biodiverse forest. By planting a mix of species found at the forest edge, this plot will enhance the ecological diversity of the neighbouring forest at the Nulandse Heide. We expect that especially the fruit-bearing and flowering tree species will have a positive impact on local bird and insect populations.

Even though the project was only planted quite recently, during the spring of 2023, we already saw the first positive results during our monitoring visit. For instance, we saw some caterpillar species on the European spindle that fully rely on this tree species. Besides, we saw plenty of beetles, butterflies, moths and anthills throughout the planting sites. 

In general, the trees were doing well too, with about an 80% survival rate. One thing we did notice was that the birch trees we planted were not doing so well, despite the fact that this is usually a species that is very adaptable. We will therefore try to use the monitoring data that we acquired during our visit to improve our species selection in future. In general, though, using our updated monitoring tool at our project near Den Bosch has been a great success!