Developing sustainable tree-shelters
Sirane's development of an eco-friendly tree-shelter
TREEs are everywhere, and so are tree-shelters. Drive down any motorway in the UK and you'll see young trees which have been planted on the verges, and often - unfortunately - you'll also see a plethora of plastic-tree shelters.
Young trees need protecting. But that protection does not have to be plastic.
Sirane's eco tree shelter - our Earthboard Tree-Guard - is a product many years in the making. It was in 2019 when we first considered the idea of making a sustainable tree-shelter our of our Earthboard, a naturally water-resistant board.
Earthboard would last a long-time without any help, but most tree-shelters need to be in place at least three years, so our boards are coated with a water-based coating.
We're now nearly four years down the line from when our first tree-guards were put out in the field. We've made design improvements along the way, but even without the design improvements those guards are still going strong, surviving the elements.
Ultimately, they do start to break down. But of course we want that to happen eventually. And there's a major advantage to this, which is that the don't actually need to be collected in. The can be left, in situ, where they will eventually rot.
From the earth and back to the earth, we think that has a good ring to it...
