So what's happening right now?

Autumn has arrived......

And Felling of conifers is complete! This needed to be done as the trees were planted as a crop many years ago and never harvested. As a result, they were 130+ feet tall, thin and dangerous. We will be replanting with native broad leaved deciduous trees over the next couple of years. For now, the land rests. The process of the mulch rotting will begin, and we hope to start replanting early in 2026.

We also have a license to thin out the oak and this will also be done from mid September. As this work is 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 damamge 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!

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.

Brambles have been amazing this year - in fact all the fruiting trees and bushes have exceeded themselves! But it has come early which is a concern because creatures which need to fatten up before the cold winter will not have anything left to fatten up on. We hope the winter is hard so that those animals that hibernate can get a full winters sleep and not wake, burning up their limited resources.

We were granted five Dutch Elm Disease resistant trees from the Hampshire Forest Partnership which we collected in January and planted alongside the bridleway where everyone can enjoy them.  They are now looking well clothed in leaves. This is really exciting as these trees will add more to the biodiversity of the site, providing food for the white hairstreak butterfly amongst others. We had a few very skinny tall elms hiding in the conifers, so believe these trees should do well in this site. Here's hoping..... Our thanks to the HFP for this opportunity. 

We  spotted a very wet area beside the bridleway last year and decided to use that to make an 'ephemeral pond' or 'scrape', much as wild pigs would do in a woodland. The area was dug out last summer and we have lined this with bentonite and created a habitat beside it using the spoil from the digging, some logs and vegetation to create a thatch. We hope this will provide an overwintering home to amphibians, reptiles and insects. The scrape held water better than the scrapes along the Brenda Parker Way, so we chose a good spot for it! Dragonflies have been seen in that area recently, so keep your eyes peeled.

You may notice up the bridleway, there is a tree which we have already coppiced and is now protected by stock proof fencing. This is a rare Wych Elm which we have been very concerned about as it has been looking increasingly poorly, with many of the stems dead or dying. The advice we were given was to coppice it right back and see if it can now recover. Fingers crossed! We don't want to lose it. At the moment, the new growth is looking good.

We recently had a visitor to site who is knowledgeable about fungi. It seems we have a good selection! These amazing life forms are so crucial to the health of the woodland and very under rated. Please enjoy and respect them when you spot them! They are just beginning to appear now.

So, if you see us at work, do come and say "hello". We love to chat about what's going on and it is a great excuse for a short break too!