Project Background
A managed forestry site in Newport, Wales, had been harvested for timber and was ready for restocking to begin the next production cycle. The site is managed by Tilhill, one of the UK’s leading woodland management companies, which handles restocking programmes across a large estate portfolio. With the felled timber dispatched, the priority was to get young trees into the ground efficiently and protected from the moment of planting.
The Challenge
The site occupies an undulating hillside with a stream running through the centre — attractive terrain, but one that creates varied soil conditions and drainage across the planting area. An active deer population presents a persistent browsing risk to young saplings, making shelter height a non-negotiable specification. Getting shelters to an off-road hillside site at the scale of a full restocking programme also demanded products that package and handle efficiently in the field. The project additionally provided an opportunity to contribute to the Vigilis-Bio UK-wide trial, running a monitored population of biodegradable shelters alongside the standard product under real restocking conditions.
The Vigilis Solution
Tilhill specified 1.5m Vigilis Tree Shelters as the primary protection across the restocking area. The 1.5m height was chosen to provide reliable protection above the browse line for the deer species present on site. Vigilis Tree Shelters feature two releasable cable ties and three vent holes along the length of the shelter, allowing alternative height configurations during future beat-up work without replacing the shelter. A designated section of the planting received 1.5m Vigilis-Bio Tree Shelters — matched in specification and dimension to the standard product, but manufactured to fully biodegrade in soil following the protection period. Running both populations on the same site under Tilhill management makes this one of the more directly comparable data points in the national trial.
Outcome
The Vigilis team visited the site approximately nine months after planting. Trees were well established, and shelters across both the standard and Bio populations were performing within expected parameters. All Bio shelters were tagged and assessed as part of the formal monitoring programme. With Tilhill’s professional management, the site is on track for a productive timber cycle, and the field data being gathered here will inform how biodegradable shelters perform in the hillside, high-moisture conditions typical of managed Welsh forestry estates.
- Scale
- 1.5m Vigilis Tree Shelters & 1.5m Vigilis-Bio Tree Shelters
- Product
- Vigilis Tree Shelters & Vigilis-Bio Tree Shelters
- Location
- Newport, Wales
- Managed by
- Tilhill Forestry
