Cross Lane Meadows, right next to the A1 Western Bypass, is an important green oasis just yards away from the busy Metrocentre and close to the centre of Swalwell. The Gateshead Council local nature reserve, home to wildflowers and a small woodland, has been chosen as the first of sixteen sites across Gateshead to be part of the ‘Big Tree Plant’.
The ‘Big Tree Plant’ is a national initiative launched by the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs today. As well as Cross Lane Meadows, eleven school sites and four community venues including allotments and gardens.
The trees being planted are native wild trees that are beneficial to the environment and nature.
The planting work is being carried out by Gateshead’s Countryside Volunteer Rangers, a group of more than 90 people from all walks of life who help to make the borough’s green and open spaces better for humans and wildlife alike.
The Cross Lane Meadows planting is the latest in a series of improvement works to take place on the site. Station Wood was planted during the 1990s on the area formally occupied by a fire station. The area is being developed as community wildlife garden and an entrance to the whole Cross Lane site.
Gateshead Council cabinet member for the environment, Cllr John McElroy, said: “We’re very lucky in Gateshead to have such a large and varied range of green and open spaces. This planting scheme should make a long lasting improvement to Cross Lane Meadows and all of the other sites involved.