10,000 Trees and an LoWS

Look at this! My little local woodland has now become a LoWS (Local Wildlife Site). Not exactly SSSI and this doesn't give the wood any legal protection, but the status has to be taken into account for any future planning activities.

Not only that…

While everyone watches and hopefully contributes to the topical discussion about the Forestry sell-off in England, our little local conservation group has taken matters in our own hands. With a huge  amount of planning and support, we are going to plant 10,ooo trees.

A pipe-dream? Perhaps, but when you consider 3,300 were planted last week, the target is not so far fetched as it might seem.

If you are wondering how this has been achieved then I will give you a very brief history.

I live very close to an ex-USAF airfield, which is still MOD property. The MOD still use the facilities for a variety of purposes and the runway is still active for Air Cadet gliders. There are a number of civilian workers who work on the base. About 7 years ago I canvassed them to form a Wildlife Group. One very active member was later made the Sustainability Manager for the site and of course had access to MOD resources and a direct link to Defence Estates which we were able to tap into.

With her relentless work and a little assistance from the rest of us carrying out site surveys of birds, mammals and plant life, we put together a compelling business case to ask for assistance to conserve and develop the area. The surveys have turned up some interesting finds like the rare Oxlip. Essex Wildlife Trust and the Woodland Trust took an interest and have also been heavily involved resulting in the LoWS status for the wood. A certain amount of financial assistance from the MOD helped fund the planting of the 3,300 trees with (hopefully) more to come during this year.

The planting was completed by a local woodland company. The trees are typical British woodland trees (Hornbeam, Oak, Ash, Beech) with lower lying shrubs like hawthorn around the edge. I’m trying to get the actual planting plan, but apparently the company took away the only copy.

The ‘new’ wood is actually an extension of an existing wood called Ostend Wood which is outside of the base. I am canvassing to get a few trees diverted to extend “my” wood (Park Wood) which is inside the fence. You can understand now why everyone was so keen for me to remove the fallow deer from inside the base (which, by the way, seems to have worked.)

The nest step is to get the area LNR (Local Nature Reserve) status, which means that it will get a certain amount of legal protection. Let’s hope the cutbacks don’t scupper the project too much.

10,000 Trees and an LoWS

Look at this! My little local woodland has now become a LoWS (Local Wildlife Site). Not exactly SSSI and this doesn't give the wood any legal protection, but the status has to be taken into account for any future planning activities.

Not only that…

While everyone watches and hopefully contributes to the topical discussion about the Forestry sell-off in England, our little local conservation group has taken matters in our own hands. With a huge  amount of planning and support, we are going to plant 10,ooo trees.

A pipe-dream? Perhaps, but when you consider 3,300 were planted last week, the target is not so far fetched as it might seem.

If you are wondering how this has been achieved then I will give you a very brief history.

I live very close to an ex-USAF airfield, which is still MOD property. The MOD still use the facilities for a variety of purposes and the runway is still active for Air Cadet gliders. There are a number of civilian workers who work on the base. About 7 years ago I canvassed them to form a Wildlife Group. One very active member was later made the Sustainability Manager for the site and of course had access to MOD resources and a direct link to Defence Estates which we were able to tap into.

With her relentless work and a little assistance from the rest of us carrying out site surveys of birds, mammals and plant life, we put together a compelling business case to ask for assistance to conserve and develop the area. The surveys have turned up some interesting finds like the rare Oxlip. Essex Wildlife Trust and the Woodland Trust took an interest and have also been heavily involved resulting in the LoWS status for the wood. A certain amount of financial assistance from the MOD helped fund the planting of the 3,300 trees with (hopefully) more to come during this year.

The planting was completed by a local woodland company. The trees are typical British woodland trees (Hornbeam, Oak, Ash, Beech) with lower lying shrubs like hawthorn around the edge. I’m trying to get the actual planting plan, but apparently the company took away the only copy.

The ‘new’ wood is actually an extension of an existing wood called Ostend Wood which is outside of the base. I am canvassing to get a few trees diverted to extend “my” wood (Park Wood) which is inside the fence. You can understand now why everyone was so keen for me to remove the fallow deer from inside the base (which, by the way, seems to have worked.)

The nest step is to get the area LNR (Local Nature Reserve) status, which means that it will get a certain amount of legal protection. Let’s hope the cutbacks don’t scupper the project too much.

Another Good Day Hatfield

It was great to meet so more people at Hatfield Forest. We had a great deal of interest in our growing collections of feeding signs, droppings (always popular with the kids!) feathers, and a guest appearance of Henry, the fallow deer pricket skull.

We managed to entice a couple of people on a short walk around the small pond, where fallow and muntjac tracks were found. We also found a pair of claws from a signal crayfish. The gave rise to a suspicion that something must have dragged it out of the pond and eaten the rest of it, leaving the claws. Low and behold, a little  further away down-stream, JP found what is very possibly a single mink paw print.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to talk to us. As a reminder, the next course for families at Hatfield Forest is in one month’s time; Sunday 6th March. Please see the Countryside and Woodland Awareness Course page to book or contact us at info@woodlife.co.uk.

Another Good Day Hatfield

It was great to meet so more people at Hatfield Forest. We had a great deal of interest in our growing collections of feeding signs, droppings (always popular with the kids!) feathers, and a guest appearance of Henry, the fallow deer pricket skull.

We managed to entice a couple of people on a short walk around the small pond, where fallow and muntjac tracks were found. We also found a pair of claws from a signal crayfish. The gave rise to a suspicion that something must have dragged it out of the pond and eaten the rest of it, leaving the claws. Low and behold, a little  further away down-stream, JP found what is very possibly a single mink paw print.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to talk to us. As a reminder, the next course for families at Hatfield Forest is in one month’s time; Sunday 6th March. Please see the Countryside and Woodland Awareness Course page to book or contact us at info@woodlife.co.uk.

Gathering Our Thoughts

The countdown to the Wilderness Gathering has begun . Not only is this a great social event, but it’s also a great opportunity to show people what’s on offer from Woodlife Trails.

JP and I will be taking our usual nature-based exhibits down with us to show people what tracks and signs can be found on the woodland floor (now dubbed our Table of Death – on account of the skulls and skins) and our high-powered microscope which opens up a whole new world. This gives people a taster of what they can expect when they come on our Bushcraft and Tracking courses.

The owl pellet examination area will also be there for the youngsters (and adults) to extract the small mammal bones from the pellet. There will be a new competition called “Match The Track”. No prizes for guessing what that’s about!

We are delighted to have George Aitchison with us helping out on the stand. He will be displaying and demonstrating some primitive tech.

Our demonstrations will also include friction fire-lighting, spoon-carving, tracking and anything else we can fit in by popular demand.

My only ‘official’ duty this year is to give a talk on Saturday about “Bushcraft and the Law”.

As usual, we will be responsible for the Extreme Baking competition. All the proceeds of this goes to charity.

 

Of course, we will be promoting the Woodlife Network as well as Woodlife Trails, and, new for this year, we will have a limited number of Woodlife polo shirts for sale. The shirts are more of an olive green/brown than pictured with the Woodlife logo on the left breast.

For the first time, I can reveal the 2011 design of the Woodlife key-fob, which will also be on sale…

I didn’t realise that people were actually looking forward to seeing this year’s new design. Some people have collected all the previous year’s – so I hope you like this one. It was designed by Mrs P who slaved away helping me put them together. She was paid well though. She got a key fob!

Here are the previous designs in case you’ve missed out…

2009

2010

It’s a lot of organisation and still a bit to be done but we’ll get there. If you are going along – we hope to see you there. If you’re not, there’s still time to get your ticket.

Thanks for the visit.

Gathering Our Thoughts

The countdown to the Wilderness Gathering has begun . Not only is this a great social event, but it’s also a great opportunity to show people what’s on offer from Woodlife Trails.

JP and I will be taking our usual nature-based exhibits down with us to show people what tracks and signs can be found on the woodland floor (now dubbed our Table of Death – on account of the skulls and skins) and our high-powered microscope which opens up a whole new world. This gives people a taster of what they can expect when they come on our Bushcraft and Tracking courses.

The owl pellet examination area will also be there for the youngsters (and adults) to extract the small mammal bones from the pellet. There will be a new competition called “Match The Track”. No prizes for guessing what that’s about!

We are delighted to have George Aitchison with us helping out on the stand. He will be displaying and demonstrating some primitive tech.

Our demonstrations will also include friction fire-lighting, spoon-carving, tracking and anything else we can fit in by popular demand.

My only ‘official’ duty this year is to give a talk on Saturday about “Bushcraft and the Law”.

As usual, we will be responsible for the Extreme Baking competition. All the proceeds of this goes to charity.

 

Of course, we will be promoting the Woodlife Network as well as Woodlife Trails, and, new for this year, we will have a limited number of Woodlife polo shirts for sale. The shirts are more of an olive green/brown than pictured with the Woodlife logo on the left breast.

For the first time, I can reveal the 2011 design of the Woodlife key-fob, which will also be on sale…

I didn’t realise that people were actually looking forward to seeing this year’s new design. Some people have collected all the previous year’s – so I hope you like this one. It was designed by Mrs P who slaved away helping me put them together. She was paid well though. She got a key fob!

Here are the previous designs in case you’ve missed out…

2009

2010

It’s a lot of organisation and still a bit to be done but we’ll get there. If you are going along – we hope to see you there. If you’re not, there’s still time to get your ticket.

Thanks for the visit.

Let There Be Life

I realised that it was before Christmas since I was in Poor Park wood. My excursions have been mainly in my immediate area, chasing fallow deer, trips to Hatfield forest and, at least in the last week, nursing a bad back at home.

It was nice to get out today. The temperature was hovering just above zero as I walked slowly through the woodland. I am now so used to this woodland, I can tell the difference even in a few winter weeks when all is meant to be quiet. The wood is now virtually see through and as I wandered through it I thought that it would probably never get any more transparent as today as soon, early spring growth will start to appear.

No sooner had I thought this, I saw a nice show of hazel catkins. They won’t be ripe quite yet, but already they are turning yellow.

All over the woodland floor, there were small sproutings of Dog’s mercury – one of the first woodland plants to emerge. Don’t enlarge the picture. It’s blurred but gives you an idea.

Squirrels are now digging up their reserves of nuts and the woodland floor is full of little excavations. The fruits of their labour was evident on one of my favourite areas where I normally have a cuppa. I call this area Muntjac camp as it seems to be a favourite area for them. This was again confirmed by the droppings in the area. A couple of summers ago, I was charged by a Muntjac here. It was probably defending a youngster – an act that isn’t uncommon. They aim to miss,of course, but it’s a really unnerving experience.

The main paths had quite a bit of human activity and this was mixed with fallow and muntjac tracks.

As the sun tried to breakthrough the cold looking clouds, I decided to check on the nearby badger sett. Again, there was plenty of activity with old bedding bundled into large balls outside the entrance hole where the badger had been clearing out the sleeping chambers. In fact this might possibly be a clean out in preparation for new arrivals which will be born underground very soon.

Please check in mid week for a ‘good news’ post about my local woods. Hope the see you then.