Going up in the world

Saturday 31st March 2007

It’s a lovely sunny day and the wood is now much greener; the bluebells’ shoots are more full and lush; honeysuckle is in leaf and some of the trees’ leaf buds are opening. In the gill by the seasonal stream the wood anemones are in flower. We see a fritillary butterfly on the wayleave and a peacock butterfly joins us later to sun itself in the clearing. After previous visits spent concentrating on developing the clearing and other more practical aspects of the wood, it was good to spend some time taking things a bit easier. ‘Proper’ work was burning the smaller branches and wood from previous weeks clearing, more creative was starting on Tom’s tree camp. This is not going to be some ultra smart neat and tidy ‘shed in a tree’ style tree house. It’s starting off with a simple platform, which in time will no doubt be expanded with extra platforms at different levels, walls, roof and maybe even a walkway to other trees – well, that’s daydreaming anyway, we’ll see what the future brings. For now, we have a platform with a floor of split chestnut and that’s a good solid start.

Biodiversity Plan

Having lived with the wood for a few months now, with the advice we have received, and with daydreams, the plan is to increase the diversity of habitats within the wood (and hence promote biodiversity) as sketched out below. The original habitat is mainly uniformly aged chestnut coppice with oak standards, which changes to alder and hazel along the gill; there are also birch in the sunnier areas of the coppice. There is a central strip of brambles running north-south where trees have been cleared by a previous owner, and a small central clearing. While the oak is great for wildlife, chestnut supports only a few species compared to native tree species (e.g. see table below indicating number of insect species associated with various tree).

The plan is to evolve the middle of the wood as continuous cover forestry by managing and supplementing natural regeneration to favour indigenous tree species. The existing clearing was too small to be of significant benefit for wildlife; rule of thumb for clearings is to have the width at least 2x the height of the trees, as this allows plenty of sunlight in. To create this we will expand the width of the existing clearing and also extend it to the south boundary. The bramble area will be left as it is, with the brambles providing food and shelter for a variety of species; over time natural succession will age this area. The hazels in the gill will be coppiced, while the alders will generally be left to mature. The remainder of the wood will continue as chestnut coppice with oak standards, but rather than being coppiced in a single year, it will be done in smaller areas (approx 0.5 acre per year) to provide a wider range of ages and hence habitats.

Table of trees and associated insects (* indicates introduced species).
Adapted from www.offwell.free-online.co.uk/woodland_manage/

Habitat plan at purchase (November 2006)

Proposed habitat/management plan

THE GROWING GLADE

Saturday 17th and Monday 19th February 2007

The past couple of visits have seen good progress expanding the glade’s length; it now reaches to the fence on the south side of the wood. As well as felling trees, this has also involved clearing more of the wood felled by previous owners and trimming back some young regrowth from coppice stools. One of the next jobs will be to make the glade wider, while preserving a few selected trees within it (a large birch and a couple of relatively young oaks). On a walk round the wood we clear back some young growth and brambles to give a more defined, easier to follow path* to the east of the wood, we’ve also cleared a path* from the entrance to the glade. We set up a cheap tarpaulin (from eBay) to provide a dry store for the firewood as it seasons. As well as helping with the glade, Granddad clears some old dead coppice stools and has made us some bird-boxes turned from some of the chestnut that we’ve felled. We see a squirrel, 2 red admirals and a pheasant (there are a lot of pheasants along the local lanes). The bluebells are pushing up green shoots all over so we are looking forward to a colourful spring show.

* well, we say path, it’s really just a route that avoids getting snagged on branches and brambles.

FROM PLANS TO PROGRESS

Saturday 3rd February 2007

Tidying up the work done last time on the glade, logging the trees felled and also those that were felled by previous owners; granddad joins us to help with the work. Not the most exciting day but probably the most progress we’ve made, you can now see that we are making a difference and it will be great when the coming months’ growth and sunshine bring a new richness to the glade. Logs from the newly felled trees are stacked for firewood, while those of older felled trees are stacked as habitat piles.

Saturday 27th January 2007

Following the FC visit and considering how much work there is to do, I have invested in a chainsaw (and some safety gear of course). This is the saw’s 1st outing, felling some trees to start developing the glade. Using it I appreciate the benefits of spending the extra to get a professional quality saw (Stihl MS240) rather than the more affordable one I almost bought (although my bank balance isn’t too sure!). Ceinach, Ranger and their kids visit us and its great to get some advice and share ideas with them. A wonder around the wood highlights the benefit of clearing some paths (which we hadn’t done). There are deer tracks on the wayleave and the bluebell shoots are starting to push through the leaf litter in Sulis’ Gill. Ranger and Tom light our 1st fire in the wood, a small but significant mark of progress.

NEW YEAR, NEW PLANS

Friday 12th January 2007

The Forestry Commission visited today to give advice on how we can manage the woodland for the benefit of wildlife. We walked the wood and I was disappointed that the Forestry Commission advisor could not tell me what the fern species were (I guess that’s not his job), but he seemed to have good knowledge on general woodland management. In general he agreed with our plans, and provided clarification on a few points, in particular:
· The glade we are clearing is well positioned, at the south edge of the wood with a field adjacent; this will allow easy colonisation of the glade by butterflies etc. He suggested that the trees cut to create the glade could be maintained on short rotation coppice (2 yrs).
· Much of the chestnut coppice hasn’t been felled for over 20 years, the stools themselves maybe over 150 years old.
· 2 main options for the coppicing are either
bringing in a contractor to coppice 2 acres or so at a time, or
coppice it ourselves and do about 0.5 acre per year.
The 1st option may bring in about £100-200, while the second option could be better for wildlife as this will provide a more varied range of habitats (and so our management plan will include option 2).
· The hazel in the gulleys is well overdue for coppicing. He suggested the gulleys be managed either fully coppiced, or as standards with a coppice hazel understorey.
· We should maintain a variety of deadwood; standing, wind blown, felled and stacked.
· Regular cutting should be enough to control the rhododendron, as it is quite young.
· The local Forestry Commission policy on ‘permitted developments’ such as tool sheds is that they will advise the council against granting authorisation if we apply.
· The north east corner which is a SSSI should simply be maintained as coppice. We just need to write to Natural England for approval before we coppice it.

Following the visit, I spend some time just wandering and wondering. I stop in the south east corner and take some time to connect with the spirits of place. This corner has a lovely feel to it; a sheltered gulley with a stream winding through it, slender hazels, lumpy alders and a trunk clad in fungi (trametes versicolor?) bridging the stream. Am pondering with whether to give this part of the wood a name, maybe “Cunnits’ Corner” or “Sulis’ Gill”?

From 1872 to 2006

1872 map of Ewarwoowar (www.old-maps.co.uk)

130+ years later; the Post Boy Inn is now a Little Chef, a small area of woodland opposite has been removed, there are a few new buildings and a wayleave cuts through Cats Wood.

A little work

Saturday 2nd December

1st day doing ‘real work’; clearing space for camping. The site is pretty central (east-west) in the wood and to the south. Char marks show that it was used by (presumably) the previous owners for fires. We clear some small trees and move some previously felled wood, but there’s still plenty more to do. The felled wood is cut and stacked for firewood and smaller trimmings stacked to one side. We also walk a tour of the wood; the stream is now more full with recent rain. Just to the east of the bridge is a pile of feathers (pigeon?) showing the work of what we assume is a fox. Tom and I cut hazel for staffs. We note that there are quite a few sweet chestnut trees blown over (not very recently and mostly still growing), maybe they should have been coppiced earlier. We finish the day picking up a few more bottles.