Scrub Planting at City Stadium

Join Wild Ouseburn to rewild the City Stadium. We’ll be planting scrub and spring bulbs to help make the park more biodiverse.

Scrub, and its edges, are one of the most important habitats for wildlife. Young thorny trees and brambles begin the process of change from a grassland to woodland. In areas of scrub, you can find a whole range of different habitats (known as ‘mosaics’) with grassland, young thorny trees, and woodland all being present at different stages and times. These dynamic habitats means that they become incredibly valuable place for wildlife, providing different niches for a large number of species.

In the urban landscape, especially our parks, scrub is often one of the first habitats to be lost, or prevented from growing. In Wild Ouseburn we’re also seeing loss of scrub through development pressures. Through our bird territory mapping surveys, we have identified opportunities to plant new scrub in the City Stadium to support breeding birds, but also a wide range of other species. The scrub planting will complement this year’s wildflower meadow creation to create a more biodiverse landscape, and reinstate some of the scrub lost to a neighbouring development. 

We’ll be planting thorny and understory tree species including; Hazel, Blackthorn, Crab Apple, Elder, Dog Rose and Rowan which have been provided by Woodland Trust as part of their Community Tree Packs. Alongside this, we’ll also be planting spring bulbs in the shadier woodland edges which have been provided by Newcastle City Council, to help support early emerging pollinators.

Everyone is welcome to take part, you don’t need any experience – we’ll show you what to do – and we’ll have gloves and some spades available to use. If you’ve got a spare spade please bring it along with you!

Meet by the original City Stadium Meadow ///poet.rice.brief

The City Stadium rewilding is part of Wild Ouseburn, in partnership with Newcastle City Council, and has been funded though the Reece Foundation’s Ouse Burn Way Fund.

Saturday 22nd November marks the start of National Tree Week, this year celebrates its 50th year! Find out more about National Tree Week here.

Please RSVP your free place(s) so we have an idea of numbers, and you’ll be sent a handy reminder email a couple of days before the event.