Herefordshire Orchards Community Evaluation project
The project’s work at Saltbox orchard, Garnons
The apples have been
collected and cider making is underway. Meanwhile, Herefordshire Orchards
Community Evaluation project has been busy amassing and processing information
and experiences about orchards.
The project set out
to really understand the importance of orchards to Herefordshire.
We are concentrating on an evaluation of the impact of just six of more than three thousand orchards in the County, but these orchards were selected to represent the different types and characteristics of orchard that can be found here. The evaluation is both deep and wide-ranging, seeking to derive a triple bottom line value for each orchard through assessment of environmental, social and economic impacts.
This has included consideration of aspects as diverse as the orchard’s contribution to climate change, biodiversity, the local economy and people’s lives.
One of the orchards in our study is Saltbox orchard, the last bush orchard, resplendent with its veteran oak, on the river side of the A438 before Bridge Sollers when travelling towards Hereford.
Our work on the orchard culminated with a discussion with local people in September.
So, what are our triple bottom line findings?
Economic
The most important impact of this orchard is the fruit that
it produces – over 200 tonnes of apples last year off of nearly 3,000 trees.
The orchard is an efficient growing machine. It also provides benefit to the
local economy by expenditure being made locally, including for labour. From
national estimates, £1 spent locally may be worth £1.40 to the local economy
through what is called the local
multiplier effect. Therefore, some of the money spent in Herefordshire will
re-circulate to other local suppliers and shops.
To consider the tourist value of orchards, we have interviewed visitors to Herefordshire in Hereford Tourist Information Centre. For the County as a whole, the annual revenue from tourism is estimated to be over £270 million a year. However, most people don’t seem to come to the County for its orchards specifically, but for the general landscape of which orchards are a part. Although some visitors did seem to have noticed Saltbox orchard as they sped past, our work suggests that the tourist value of specific orchards is not particularly great.
Environment
Throughout this year, a number of local natural species
recorders have visited the orchard to study the biodiversity. They have
recorded 10 different mosses, all on the earth strips below the trees, one
thallose liverwort, 12 fungi, 11 insect species, 3 butterflies, 57 types of
plant and 3 grasses: a pretty impressive tally – especially because generally
bush orchards have been viewed as relatively poor habitats. The orchard margins
were particularly helpful to biodiversity. An important find was Pirottaea nigrostriata which, although an inconspicuous
microfungus, was the first time this had been recorded in the County. This was
found on a dead stem of Hogweed.
More recently, students from Cardiff University have been lending a hand by assessing the orchard’s populations of worms and mesofauna (small creatures living in the soil).
We have also looked at the climate change impact of the orchard. This takes into account the carbon absorbed by trees and soil, the diesel burned by tractors and in the production of chemicals used in the orchard’s management. We estimate that the growing trees more than offset the emissions and reckon that the net carbon dioxide sequestration in the orchard in the last year was 58,000 kgs. To put this into context, an average car emits 1kg of carbon dioxide every 3 miles driven. Our work suggests that the value of this sequestration is an estimated benefit of £2,600 per year. We are working with the University of Wales, Bangor, to refine this assessment and to estimate the total amount of carbon that is now stored at Saltbox orchard.
Social
The final piece of the jigsaw was provided by a group of neighbours of the orchard. An evening, held at the Portway Inn, was lively and enjoyable, generating a wealth of good and bad impacts of the orchard upon people living close by. The consensus from the evening was that by far the most valuable impact for the community was it being a place of work and income – people valued being close to a working rural economy. Neighbours also valued seeing the wildlife in the orchard and its borders, and liked walking to and through it.
Having plugged lots and lots of details into my laptop, and with some assumptions, I estimate that Saltbox orchard generates triple bottom line value of approaching £40,000 a year, of which £19,000 is economic, £18,000 its social value to the local community, and £3,000 is its environmental role. Along the way, we have now harvested a wealth of information – which has national significance – and many really nice people have been involved. I am very grateful for the continuing enthusiastic involvement of so many people in this project: the natural species recorders; the facilitators at the community evening; national experts; the orchard neighbours who gave up their evening to help our understanding; and of course Harry Cotterell for his help with the evaluation and his permission to study Saltbox orchard.
This project has been developed by the Bulmer Foundation on behalf of the Herefordshire Orchard Topic Group, which represents a wide range of interests in orchards. It is part-financed by the European Union (EAGGF) and DEFRA through the Herefordshire LEADER+ Programme; the National Association of Cider Makers; Bulmers; Westons; the Sustainable Development Fund, a Defra initiative in the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB); Natural England; Herefordshire Council; and the Bulmer Foundation. I am also grateful for the help of Forum for the Future in developing the project’s approach.
If you are interested in finding out more about the project please contact me at the address below or by email at damagelimited@btinternet.com.
Dave Marshall
Associate
The Bulmer Foundation
Plough Lane
Hereford
HR4 0LE