Experimental Tree Planting on U.K. Containment Landfill Sites: Results of 10 Years’ Monitoring

Abstract

A series of experiments was set up in England in the early 1990s on five containment landfill sites engineered to modern standards to test the relative performance of 14 native and nonnative woodland tree species. This article describes the results of monitoring their survival, growth, and nutrition over a 10-year period. The experiments demonstrated that several species, notably ash, whitebeam, white poplar, and wild cherry, can usually be established on landfill sites with survival rates comparable to other brownfield sites. Despite general site infertility, growth of many tree species (for example, ash, beech, English oak, sycamore, Italian alder, silver maple, white poplar, and whitebeam) was similar to that expected on greenfield sites in the locality of the landfill sites. As well as infertility, soil droughtiness and mammal browsing were identified as limiting tree performance of particular species on some sites. After 10 years, there was no evidence of interaction with landfill containment systems or landfill gas.