Thousands of plastic tubes removed from woodland

Friends of the Lake District said the plastic tubes were necessary to protect newly planted trees

Volunteers are working to collect 6,000 plastic tubes that were used to protect newly planted trees.

The trees were planted in Gillside Wood and Rusland Wood in the Lake District a number of years ago and no longer need to be protected.

The work is being carried out by conservation charity Friends of the Lake District.

The organisation's CEO, Michael Hill, said the group had tried to use non-plastic tubes but had not found an alternative that could withstand the "wet Cumbrian climate".

Friends of the Lake District have been collecting the tubes over the last few years and have so far retrieved about 3,000.

The plastic tubes are wrapped around the new trees to protect them from animals.

As the tubes are not biodegradable, the team needs to collect them so they do not damage the environment.

The tubes are collected by volunteers and reused or recycled

Mr Hill, said: "We’d rather not be using plastic and have tried using alternatives, but so far nothing else has withstood the wet Cumbrian climate and the tubes protect new trees from damage done by deer, voles, rabbits and invading sheep.

"To date, we’ve managed to take away roughly half the tubes, so there’s some way to go.

"When it comes to disposal, our priority is to re-use either by ourselves or on another tree-planting scheme elsewhere."

If the metre-long tubes are not reused, the charity recycles them through Tubex, a collection and recycling programme.

Each bag collected by Tubex contains between 400 and 500 tubes.

Mr Hill added: "This important work in Gillside Wood is all part of our land management programme and we couldn’t do it without the support of our team of volunteers who turn up in all weathers to help."