As part of the The Woodland Trust's commitment to identifying and restoring ancient woodland features, I've been carrying out some ancient woodland surveys, mostly in Plantations on Anciently Wooded Sites to map the ancient woodland features which remain and identify interventions which can help protect them. Such interventions need not be dramatic, a lot of ancient woodland features can be satisfactorily protected even within commercial plantation with careful management interventions. The key is having the features identified and mapped so that they are not overlooked during operations and so that conservation efforts can be focussed, especially when resources are scarce.
This is the first few metres of a 200m stretch of hedge which is being laid this winter after we secured a Hedgerow and Boundaries grant for the trust which owns this farm. This grant will help rejuvenate the hedgerows on the farm over the next two years. Hedgerows are often a forgotten aspect of the country's treescape. Like linear woodlands, they act not only as habitats in their own right, but as corridors by which woodland specialist species can migrate between otherwise isolated woodland blocks. They are also important refuges for some woodland species in areas where ancient woodland habitats have been degraded. In addition to the grant application, we also produced a bespoke GIS application to keep track of the hedgelaying work, standard trees, hedge quality and future strategy so that the long-term management of the farm's hedges can be planned and monitored consistently into the future.
Autumn sees me trying to finish up the year's woodland surveys. Surveying over summer gives the best impression of the woodland as things like ground flora and canopy shade are easier to assess. A full woodland survey is essential to any management plan, ancient woodland assessment or operational plan. Not only can it highlight areas of opportunity for forestry objectives, but it is a legal requirement to have shown due diligence in checking whether operations will have an impact on protected species and sites. Surveying is not what it used to be when I first started out though, with a measuring stick, clipboard, pencil, paper, relascope and clinometer... Now I just take a smartphone with GIS application and relascope/clinometer application. I still need the stick though, smartphones can't help get through brambles yet.
I'm currently working with the Woodland Trust in the South West, helping to update their ancient woodland reporting work to make use of Geographic Information Systems. We hope that having reporting templates on GIS will make assessing ancient woodlands more efficient, freeing up consultant's time to get on with the real work of helping to protect and restore ancient woodland features. We also hope that using GIS will make communicating options with the client easier as reports can be easily produced from the same data-set which are tailored to the particular needs of the client.
Cutting a section of woodland can sometimes seem quite dramatic, leaving nothing but a bare floor of fallen leaves in winter can be quite a impact. Coming back to a section of woodland in which we carried out some regeneration felling last winter, this is what we found. It makes it worthwhile to see such a great show.
Cabilla and Redrice is a 80Ha , mostly ancient, woodland in the Glynn Valley, managed by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. Having written the management plan and woodland management grant application for this beautiful woodland, we are now in the process of overseeing the re-coppicing operations there which we hope will start this winter. The woodland is mostly made up of even-aged Oak and Birch re-growth and we hope that coppicing it in stages will make the woodland more resilient as well as perhaps add some diversity to the ground flora there.
Rhododendron and Cherry Laurel can be a significant problem in ancient woodlands, cutting out the light to the woodland specialist ground flora even during spring when the trees are bare. This site is a SSSI for which we obtained grant funding to assist with the removal of over 3Ha of Rhododendron. As with most grants, the starting point was a proper survey and management plan to ensure the work fitted into a long-term plan.