The Kent Heritage Trees Project, in partnership with Sevenoaks School, has created a tree trail in Knole Park. The Project has created eight trails across Kent to encourage more people to get involved with nature and explore the countryside.
The Knole Park trail was launched on Thursday 6 October, and to mark the event a group of pupils from Sevenoaks School met to walk the trail and discover more about the park’s heritage trees. Among the group were three Upper Sixth students from the school’s Environment Matters Society who planned the trail and designed an accompanying information leaflet: Tom Downey, Kristina Kuznetsova and Katharina Vrolijk.‘I’m really proud of the Upper Sixth who put this leaflet together,’ said Hélène Bonsall, Head of the Environment Matters Society and Sevenoaks Biology teacher. ‘They got out on the trail, decided which trees to use on the walk, worked out how to identify them, and designed the whole thing themselves.’ Also present was environmentalist Natalie Breden, who stressed the importance of heritage trees, and getting locals involved with nature.‘The tree trails around Kent are an excellent legacy of the Kent Heritage Trees Project, really getting communities connected with their natural heritage,’ she said.Trees featured on the trail included sweet chestnuts, an unusual cedar of Lebanon and a 200-year-old sycamore.
There are plans afoot for more walks by the Environment Matters Society, and its members hope to share with fellow students their knowledge and enthusiasm for the unique Kent environment, and to help preserve its ecology.
Niky Pasolino
