My First Woods

Planting Trees in a Tidal Swamp


Back in the early 1990's, I planted this woods in a tidal swamp, down stream from Exeter, in the City's extensive Valley park.


Much of the site floods twice a day, when the tide comes in, but so long as there is plenty of water in the River Exe; the trees do not suffer any ill effects from saline (salt) poisoning, as this site is as far upstream as you can go in the tidal zone.  Right next to the point at which the Exe becomes tidal: Salmon pool Weir.

The woods mainly consist of Willows, mostly grown from cuttings, where I and a few mates have simply stuck winter branches into the soft mud of the swamp.  The dryer parts contain all manner of native trees, collected on foot, or by bicycle and often from far and wide.


Today, twenty years later, it looks fantastic.  Better than I ever expected, in just two decades, it has all grown so much.
Willow are very fast growing trees and it's a very low altitude here.


It is great to be able to climb up and sit on the branches over hanging the river.
This must be fairly close to what our rivers should naturally look like.

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