ISLANDERS are being encouraged to collect the acorns which are beginning to fall and donate them to support a massive tree-growing project.
Horticulturist Robin Waymouth is launching Operation Broadleaf, through which he hopes large numbers of broadleaf saplings could be planted in vacant agricultural land in Jersey.
He said he would ideally like to have a million acorns ready to plant this autumn.
And he believes there could be an economic as well as an environmental benefit, saying that there is a ready export market for young trees in the UK.
There are plans in Britain to double the amount of woodland cover across the country by 2050. But Mr Waymouth explained that the UK could not grow enough saplings on its own to fulfil the ambition, and that, since Brexit, it had been unable to import them from EU countries.
However, he argued that Jersey’s sunny climate and rare frosts made it an ideal environment for growing saplings for export.
He added: “We have no red deer here, eating saplings for breakfast.
“There’s a market for [these trees], a demand. We can supply it if we cultivate them. It’s a beautiful virtuous circle.”
Acorns can be handed in at Acorn Enterprises in Trinity, and Mr Waymouth said other collection locations would follow.
