Project Background
A private site near Malvern in Worcestershire had been managed with ecological diversity in mind — purposefully overgrown in sections to encourage a range of habitats for local wildlife. While this approach benefits biodiversity, it also creates the browsing pressure and competitive ground conditions that make tree establishment genuinely challenging. The site managers sought a protection solution that could perform reliably against a wide range of species in an environment deliberately kept wild.
The Challenge
Dense overgrown vegetation supports an abundance of wildlife at Malvern, including rabbits, deer, and a variety of smaller mammals. Any tree planted without adequate individual protection faces an immediate risk of browsing damage before it can gain height. The complex character of the site also presented a longer-term question: with environmental objectives front and centre, what happens to conventional plastic shelters once the trees are established? The project offered an opportunity to explore this question directly by running standard recyclable shelters alongside the newer biodegradable alternative on the same site.
The Vigilis Solution
The majority of planting was protected with 2,600 × 1.2m Vigilis Tree Shelters on softwood stakes — a proven combination for reliable establishment on browsed sites. Alongside these, 150 × 1.2m Vigilis-Bio Tree Shelters were installed as part of the UK-wide Vigilis-Bio monitoring programme. The Bio shelter delivers the same protected micro-climate as the standard product, accelerating growth and shielding saplings from browsing and herbicide drift, but is manufactured from a bio-based polymer blend designed to fully degrade in soil once the tree no longer needs protection. Tree wraps and bamboo canes were used for additional specimens where a different protection approach was appropriate to the planting context.
Having both shelter types installed side by side on a genuinely challenging, wildlife-rich site means the data gathered here will capture real-world performance under conditions that reflect biodegradable shelters at their most demanding.
Outcome
The Vigilis team visited the site in late summer 2022, approximately six months after installation. While it was too early to draw conclusions from the Bio trial, all shelters were tagged and formally assessed as the baseline for future monitoring visits. Both the standard and Bio populations were performing as expected in the early establishment window. The mixed-product approach gives the site managers a direct comparison as the trees develop — and provides Vigilis with valuable field data from one of the more ecologically complex sites in the monitoring network.
- Scale
- 2,600 × 1.2m Vigilis Tree Shelters; 150 × 1.2m Vigilis-Bio Tree Shelters
- Product
- Vigilis Tree Shelters & Vigilis-Bio Tree Shelters
- Location
- Malvern, Worcestershire
- Stakes
- Softwood stakes, tree wraps & bamboo canes
