An Idiot's guide to Ancient Woodland management

[roys]

Yip I like chick footage as well ?

what we talking about again.

[Rushes]

Have you and the LL thought about getting this more widely publicised?

Having some activity that those interested could follow or support  *prior* to doing this could make it a powerful story and get the message out about how this is worthwile, but needs an income source to support it.

 

 

 

 

 

Ever thought about bodging? ?

[AJStrees]

TVI - I have to look after quite a few hectares of woodland on a few different sites. I am looking to find the best guidance on the management actions to take with these. I have read the Chris Starr book twice and tried to read up on everything I can find but am not much wiser as a result as to where to start and what to get going with. Of course the woodlands are all different and have their differences, can you point me in the direction of what best to read up on to get the idea of what practical steps I should take? 

 

[the village idiot]

On 25/11/2020 at 20:15, AJStrees said:

TVI - I have to look after quite a few hectares of woodland on a few different sites. I am looking to find the best guidance on the management actions to take with these. I have read the Chris Starr book twice and tried to read up on everything I can find but am not much wiser as a result as to where to start and what to get going with. Of course the woodlands are all different and have their differences, can you point me in the direction of what best to read up on to get the idea of what practical steps I should take? 

 

Hi AJS,

 

That is a bigger question than it sounds

 

This answer to the question of 'where to start' really boils down to 'what are the expectations/desires of the owners', and 'what are the make up of the sites'?

 

Can you give us some more background information?

 

Have you met with the local FC woodland officer?

[AJStrees]

18 hours ago, the village idiot said:

Hi AJS,

 

That is a bigger question than it sounds

 

This answer to the question of 'where to start' really boils down to 'what are the expectations/desires of the owners', and 'what are the make up of the sites'?

 

Can you give us some more background information?

 

Have you met with the local FC woodland officer?

Have been in touch with the Woodland Officer, hoping to get a visit after this current lockdown. Will see how that goes. But yes I agree I need to get them out to the woodlands. 

 

As regards the expectation and desires of the owners:

Two of the sites were purchased for the building that was on the land and thus there has been no real attention on the many acres of woodland. The largest site was an old school that happens to have 40 acres of woodland connected to it. the school before the current owners had done little with the woodland and it had been left to its own devices. I have been given the job of looking after the woodlands.  I would like to make these sustainable so there is some purpose in getting them into a managed state. 

 

There are a few plots one of them looks to be an oak plantation in a pasture area with older hedgerow trees surrounding it. There are other areas within the woodland that are open pasture and then a very varied mix of planted poplars and then looks to be willow, holly and older trees within that area. boundary fencing and gates don't really exist. The site is mostly Sussex green sand from what I can tell and there are old rocks at one edge with beech, oak and other older horse chestnut. Quite a mix. A fair amount of cherry, birch and quite a few fallen birch at one end of the woodland. 

 

There are a fair few large fallen trees (wind throw) and areas that are inaccessible due to this. Along with some hazel, ash, willow which have self-seeded by the look of it. Of course having fallen deadwood is a good thing in most instances, but I imagine opening up the rides and tracks would need to be done to get on with management. 

 

 

 

[Little188]

On 24/11/2019 at 15:22, the village idiot said:

The aerial photo in the first post is the Woodland I look after. It covers 200 acres and is designated as Semi Natural Ancient Woodland. 

 

The term 'Ancient Woodland' is applied to any significant area of woodland that has persisted since 1600. If the area was wooded in 1600 it is likely have been under trees since the end of the last ice age. The 'semi natural' refers to the fact that there has been human intervention. I believe all ancient woodland in the UK is semi natural as all has been 'managed' at some point. There is precious little truly unmanaged woodland left anywhere in Europe.

 

 

 

 

The map above shows the Wood in birds eye view. It is roughly split into three sections. 

 

Area 1 is around 130 acres and has seen some significant interventions over the past 80 years as eagle eyed Khriss has spotted (more on that later).

 

Area 2 is around 50 acres and is separated from area 1 by an old steam railway line. Area 2 had been largely untouched since coppicing ceased before the second world war.

 

Area 3 is around 20 acres and is close to, but separate from, the main Woodland. This area has also seen some pretty major forestry interventions in the recent past.

 

The Woodland fits into the British National Vegetation Classification (NVC) as W8 (Ash and Field Maple over Dogs Mercury). These are the main species you expect to find given the soil conditions (mostly heavy clay) and local climate. Within the Wood there are many more tree species represented including Oak, Birch, Hazel, Hawthorne, Holly, Sycamore, Aspen, Willow, and quite unusually for this site- Beech and Sweet Chestnut.

 

The Wood is in private ownership. It belongs to a fantastic local land owner who splits his time between farming, business ownership and charitable organisations.

 

Fun Fact: One of the woodland owner's businesses is Global Recycling. If any of you have Bandit machinery you may well be familiar with this company.

 

Next post I'll tell you a bit more about some of the unusual activity in the Wood over the last 100 years.

 

 

 

 

So this is nr Grantham?

[Little188]

On 25/11/2020 at 20:15, AJStrees said:

TVI - I have to look after quite a few hectares of woodland on a few different sites. I am looking to find the best guidance on the management actions to take with these. I have read the Chris Starr book twice and tried to read up on everything I can find but am not much wiser as a result as to where to start and what to get going with. Of course the woodlands are all different and have their differences, can you point me in the direction of what best to read up on to get the idea of what practical steps I should take? 

 

Get stuck into the following authors: Oliver Rackham, George Peterken, Charles Watkins, Keith Kirby, Ben Law..... they should all between them offer some varying guidance and plenty of good quality wider reading. 

[Khriss]

Also have a word with yr local historian,  may be some interesting monument areas or connections there.  K

[Khriss]

( good for help dating yr older Oaks) 

[eggsarascal]

17 hours ago, Little188 said:

So this is nr Grantham?

It's Raydon in Suffolk, Hadleigh/Ipswich way.