Interview with 2024 Jersey Conservation Award Winner - Jersey Trees For Life

Established in 1990, the Conservation Awards honour local projects dedicated to environmental efforts and nature conservation across the islands. Last year’s Best Conservation Project Award in Jersey was presented to Jersey Trees For Life for their 'dead hedging' project following the impact of Storm Ciaran on the island. We caught up with John Michel from Jersey Trees for Life to find out what it meant to them to win the award and how their project has progressed.

It's been almost a year since you won the Best Conservation Project Award in Jersey - how did it feel to receive that recognition?

We were stoked to win the Best Conservation Award project last year and also a bit surprised – not because we doubted our project but because the entries were so strong across the board. That said, we believe it’s a worthy winner!

Can you share what the award has meant for your project since then?

The award’s biggest impact a year on is its validation of the benefits of dead hedges and deadwood in general. Being able to say that we did all that work with deadwood, why, with so many volunteers, and that it won a conservation project award, is unequivocally positive.

What progress have you made over the past year?

Since the win we’ve built and extended more dead hedges, although it would be impossible to match last year’s efforts without another freak storm – which is fine by us. The nature of dead hedging remains the same regardless but the evolution is in the wider understanding of deadwood’s benefits and the use of dead hedges.

How has the £3,000 prize fund helped support your restoration efforts?

We were grateful for the prize money – even if you can’t put a price on the award win! It went towards the restoration of Val de la Mare which has progressed well; in addition to wrapping up the storm clearance we’ve planted new trees (including the whole entrance section), made new paths, installed new signage and of course done more dead hedging as part of our arboretum maintenance.

Why should other local projects consider entering the Conservation Awards this year?

We would encourage local conservation groups and individuals to enter the awards for several reasons. Making the shortlist enables you to showcase your conservation project to your peers and the winners get media coverage as well as a cash prize. The event is a great opportunity to meet fellow conservationists too.