[bthorn]

I'm making a shelter belt on a site < 1 mile from the Atlantic on SW Coast.
Natives are all I'm allowed consider for this site.

I've decided on a mainly deciduous outer belt with silver birches ~ 3 metre spacing in 3 concentric half circles, each half-circle offset a half spacing from its neighbours.
Behind these I plan to have an inner belt of arbutus, to give colour to the view from the house. (I know, the arbutus will get a burning on their outer side but this won't be visible from the garden or from outside the birches.)

My worry is that in that sensitive period - basically from now till next May, i.e. when the birches have just been planted and would be trying to establish themselves - the birches may struggle against the coastal winds.
There is a roadside ditch of height ~ 1.7 metres which is ~ 10 metres in front of the birches and gives a "brow" over which the N & NW sea breezes would be pushed. But there is less immediate protection from W and SW winds, though nearby farm buildings and houses stop much of the W winds.

Am I too worried about this very versatile and seemingly robust native tree ?
Or will it need some screening ?

I'm anxious to put them in as soon as I can as it's still bare-root season and one gets maximum growth if their planted early on in the year.