So what's happening right now?

Spring has finally sprung......

Footpath work is finished along the Brenda Parker Way. 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 and hibernating creatures. Thank you.

Creatures will continue to hibernate until the weather warms sufficiently for them to wake and look for food. The first brimstone butterflies are awake and feeding on the early primroses and we have seen red admirals and comma butterflies too already.

Birds are setting territory and building nests, so watch and listen for them when you wander through the woods.

Bluebells and other spring flowers are flowering. Keep an eye out for the wood anemones, the primroses, celandines, violets, bluebells, wood spurge and stitchwort amongst others!

We were granted three 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 bursting bud and 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 already have a few elm 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 have  come to the end of our volunteer sessions for this season. Our first job was to line the 'scrapes' we have created with a natural clay called 'bentonite' so that they hold water long enough for newts to breed or to provide aquatic habitat as ephemeral ponds. We are also making habitat around them including building up a bank between the path and the wetlands. We'd appreciate dogs staying out of the scrapes so anything that does try to use the water for breeding doesn't get killed! We had to remove an ash with die back from beside the footpath and have just heard we have  permission to thin the trees so we can create a glade there, which would be good for the scrapes, apparently. It currently looks untidy but we will clear the area of debris when the ground is hard enough to bring in equipment.

We have replaced the sign posts (which someone thought it a good idea to remove some months ago) and will start work to repair the damage to the desire paths that have been created in the past as people struggled to get out of the mud along the footpath.

We also spotted a very wet area beside the bridleway last year and decided to use that to make an ephemeral 'pond'. 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 'pond' is holding water better than the scrapes along the Brenda Parker Way, so we chose a good spot for that scrape!

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. (A big branch from th oak beside it has fallen right over it. We'll needto clear it away and repair the protection as soon as we can get to it. Another job to do!)

Coppicing started again at the beginning of November after any dormice managed to get to the woodland floor to hibernate and we have been able to do more hedge laying.  So far, we have had to cancel a few volunteering sessions due to the wind which is holding up our endeavours but a dry and quiet January and February has seen us forging ahead with the coppice rotation. Work now stops to allow the birds to build their nests in peace. We still have coppice stools to protect and a few bits of the new hedge besdie the gallops where we need to complete the frame, so you will still see us out and about!

We have also bitten the bullet and have been granted another felling license to do more radical clearing of trees throughout the woodland, but only in a very considered and careful way. We want to improve this space, not destroy it, so we will update the website with information as things become clearer.

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!

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!