The Jensen team at Machinery Imports was delighted to return for the third year to Wiltshire College and University Centre in February, supporting a fundraising activity that has reached over £40,000 since December!
Every year at the Lackham campus, Wiltshire College and Jensen join forces with Dorothy House Hospice to chip over 3,500 Christmas trees collected throughout January from the Wiltshire and Swindon area.
Dorothy House is a charity which provides end of life care and support for patients with terminal illnesses across Wiltshire and North East Somerset. In January, their volunteers collected more than 3,500 Christmas trees, delivering them to the Lackham campus where a Jensen A540 woodchipper, loaned free of charge from T H WHITE Groundcare, was on hand to reduce them for upcycling.
The session was coordinated by Bill Johnston, business manager for Jensen in the UK, partnered by Stuart Fry, area sales manager at T H WHITE Groundcare, who not only managed the chipping of the trees but also demonstrated and taught safe industry practice to students and apprentices on Lackham’s Horticulture and Landscaping courses.
The tracked A540 was the perfect woodchipper for the task, with a hugely powerful feed roller grip, wide infeed hopper and 8-inch chipping capacity – making light work of the bulky trees and reducing them into a fine chip quickly and efficiently at a rate of 18m3/h. The chippings were then loaded onto trailers ready for use on woodland trail paths throughout the campus, giving them a second life and avoiding waste.
The A540 Spider’s independently controlled hydraulic tracks make it agile, compact and manoeuvrable on flat, sloping and awkward terrain, while retaining superb stability.
“Each year we are delighted to return and support this excellent fundraising initiative” commented Bill. “Not only do we help recycle unwanted trees into something useful, we provide the students with valuable, practical experience in woodchipper use and safety, at the same time helping Dorothy House with its campaign which delivers great benefit to the community.”
Fran D’Argenio, Marketing Officer at the college, added, “Lackham’s Horticulture and Landscape Gardening apprentices and students benefited hugely from the workshop. The learners gained real hands-on experience and invaluable industry knowledge, as well as participating in a great effort for charity which raised over £40,000.”
Find out more about the Jensen A540 and the wider range of towed, tracked and PTO woodchippers available from Jensen at www.jensenchippers.co.uk
