Project Background
A local charitable trust in Cheltenham commissioned new tree planting on an exposed hillside in Gloucestershire as part of a habitat improvement and conservation initiative. The project had a dual purpose: establishing new native trees to increase woodland cover and ecological connectivity in the area, while also contributing to Vigilis’s UK-wide programme for monitoring the real-world performance of biodegradable tree shelters. From the outset, the trust’s environmental commitments shaped the approach — reducing long-term plastic use was a stated objective, and the product specification was chosen to reflect that.
The Challenge
The hillside location presents demanding conditions for newly planted trees. Full exposure to prevailing weather means young saplings face wind, temperature variation, and periods of water stress before establishing a root system deep enough to buffer against the elements. The steep aspect also limits soil moisture retention around new plantings. Beyond the growing conditions, the browsing threat from local wildlife in the surrounding area required robust individual protection. And for a conservation-focused trust, conventional polypropylene shelters — which must be collected, sorted, and disposed of after use — created a waste management consideration that weighed against the standard product choice.
The Vigilis Solution
300 × 1.2m Vigilis-Bio Tree Shelters, each paired with a 1.3m hardwood stake, were installed on the hillside in early 2022. The Vigilis-Bio shelter is manufactured from a blend of bio-based derivatives — potatoes, wood fibre, and corn combined with a custom biodegradable polymer — and provides the same protective micro-climate as a conventional tree shelter while being engineered to fully biodegrade in soil within approximately seven years. For a trust with a genuine commitment to reducing plastic waste in conservation work, the zero-collection profile of the Bio shelter made it the natural fit for this project. All 300 shelters were formally included in the national Vigilis-Bio monitoring programme.
Outcome
The Vigilis team visited in late summer 2022 for the first formal monitoring round. Shelters were tagged and assessed against a range of structural and weathering criteria, with samples taken for laboratory analysis. Results confirmed that structural integrity across the Cheltenham population was tracking closely to the predicted degradation trendline from Vigilis’s accelerated weathering models — an encouraging result from one of the more exposed sites in the trial network. The hillside planting is establishing well, and the site will continue to be revisited annually as the shelters progress through the five-year protection period towards full biodegradation.
- Scale
- 300 × 1.2m Vigilis-Bio Tree Shelters; 300 × 1.3m hardwood stakes
- Product
- Vigilis-Bio Tree Shelters
- Location
- Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
- Client
- Local charitable trust
