So what's happening right now?

Autumn is here........

We took delivery of <2300 trees on 5th January 2026 thanks to a generous grant from the Tree Council and National Highways. We have been watering them all through the summer but hopefully, thanks to the rain, our efforts here can slow down a bit!.

We have another 400 Wild Service trees to plant this coming season and we still have some other trees in our own tree nursery so there will be more planting next season.

Sadly, as we have huge herds of fallow deer wandering through the Copse, we have had to make a decision to have deer fencing erected around the new trees to give them a chance to get away. We anticipate that it will have to be in situ for about 10 years. Because of rodents, we still have to protect individual trees for their first few years of life. Apart from a few tree guards, they are all either recycled or compostable. The few others will be sent for recycling when their use is finished. We have tried to do this as sustainably as possible. The bigger trees have sadly really struggled with the frost, cold winds and then the heat. How many will survive remains to be seen. But as Monty Don said, you can't tell until a year has passed whether a tree is truly dead. Next spring/ early summer will be the indicator of how many we have lost.

We are in the process of creating an outdoor learning area for the use of local schools and have recently put up a couple of benches along the rights of way, so we are still busy. 

We have a license to thin out the oak and this will hopefully be begun soon - or as we can get to it! As this work will be taking place in the old woodland we will be using a contractor who works in a more sensitive way, using floating tyres and doing as little damage to the soil ecology as possible. He will also be looking to retain trees which provide good habitat and only taking out those which will give maximum benefit to the woodland through their removal. We will be identifying potential 'veteran trees of the future' and halo felling around them to give them maximum chance of becoming old men/ women of the woods! A very strategic operation! But it will only happen as the wood from the plantation is sold and that has not yet been completed, so it may be delayed a bit.

We are planning the winter coppice for this coming season. Again, we will be careful not to take out too much this year but material we gather can then be used to repair areas of hedge laying or dead hedging that have been damaged over the summer months.

Footpath work was finished along the Brenda Parker Way in summer 2024. Thank you again to everyone who has helped make this possible.  

Cllr Mellor has made a generous contribution, which has been a huge help. Thank you!

Please do stick to it now to avoid doing damage to the ground flora. Thank you.