An Idiot's guide to Ancient Woodland management

[mr_magicfingers]

Looking into the entrance to the wood

 

This is the sort of over stood coppice all through the wood.

Here we opened up a central clearing and are building a small shelter for when the weather's less cooperative. There's a fireplace for brews and some log benches around it

 

More of the woodland

 

Looking down the larger ride from one end, this winter I'll continue opening down the bank to the left.

 

and looking back from the other end, you can see the difference it's made so far. The bank to the right goes down to the stream, we've put some leaky dams across it on the advice of the local biosphere people and the bluebells came back rapidly last spring, hopefully there'll be more along there next spring as we continue to open this ride up.

Edited November 15, 2021 by mr_magicfingers

[Stere]

This might be helpful:

 

https://ptes.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Restoration-of-neglected-hazel-coppice.pdf

 

 

 

 

[mr_magicfingers]

Thank you, that's great. 

[dingosbaby]

Hi TVI,

 

I've just spent the morning reading the entire thread, and even signed up just to leave this reply. I hope your woodland is still going strong and I'm looking forward to seeing how those rides are doing this year, the difference so far has been incredible.

 

I have no knowledge of woods apart from occasionally going for a walk through them, but now I've fallen in love with them and I'm incredibly envious of your lifestyle!

 

You mentioned a little while back in the thread that you were looking at possibly opening up the woodland to the public in some form, given the last couple of years that probably got put on hold, but are there any plans to allow people to come and see the amazing work you've been doing? I would love to have a wander around your woodland one day.

[the village idiot]

3 hours ago, dingosbaby said:

Hi TVI,

 

I've just spent the morning reading the entire thread, and even signed up just to leave this reply. I hope your woodland is still going strong and I'm looking forward to seeing how those rides are doing this year, the difference so far has been incredible.

 

I have no knowledge of woods apart from occasionally going for a walk through them, but now I've fallen in love with them and I'm incredibly envious of your lifestyle!

 

You mentioned a little while back in the thread that you were looking at possibly opening up the woodland to the public in some form, given the last couple of years that probably got put on hold, but are there any plans to allow people to come and see the amazing work you've been doing? I would love to have a wander around your woodland one day.

Hi dingosbaby,

 

What an absolutely lovely message. Thank you so much!

 

I have sorely neglected the thread over the last year or so. I'll certainly do some updates in the spring so you can see how the rides are developing.

 

The woods are always open to people who send such fantastic messages. Where are you based?

 

I'd also be interested to know how you stumbled upon this thread nestled deep in the arbtalk archives.

[Stubby]

Hey VI . How you been ? Good I hope . I just wondered do you have any Ravens in your wood . Got quite a few near me . I just love them . 🙂

[dingosbaby]

37 minutes ago, the village idiot said:

Hi dingosbaby,

 

What an absolutely lovely message. Thank you so much!

 

I have sorely neglected the thread over the last year or so. I'll certainly do some updates in the spring so you can see how the rides are developing.

 

The woods are always open to people who send such fantastic messages. Where are you based?

 

I'd also be interested to know how you stumbled upon this thread nestled deep in the arbtalk archives.

I look forward to the updates!

 

I am based in Kent currently and thanks to this thread have also added Blean Woods to my "must visit" list.

 

I may very well have to take you up on the kind offer to visit your woods too later in year - also happy to offer any help an unskilled but enthusiastic person can provide the day 🙂

 

As for how I came across this thread, about 7 months ago your thread was linked on a reddit post where the subject of buying woodland was mentioned. I'd saved the post to read later and finally got around to it today!

 

 

[Mr. Ed]

stop being nice to each other! You're going to break the internet - it's not what it was made for ....🧐

[marktownend]

Mr. Ed, this is by far the best thread I've seen on this forum, and the internet still seems to be working since those posts back in February, and with the world how it is I think some niceness is the perfect thing for the internet. It's also a thread that's managed to keep fairly on track on the topic for 68 useful pages whereas many on here rapidly get towards that length with bickering and the sort of offensive messages that would get posters banned on many forums. So please play nicely hey?

[Terrain Aeration]

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.

 

 

 

 

Sorry if I repeat others but only just found thread. I’m loving it thank you. 
dogs mercury the more you have tells you the age. Where I worked we had Ancient woodland with special wildflowers not found anywhere else.