Woodland Conservation

18th February 2025

Shepherdleas' Bluebell Slope

What a beautiful sunny day for today’s session.

A fantastic sixteen volunteers - our highest ever Tuesday number - clocked up 47 hours in this area, creating a glade: brambling, removing diseased and dead trees, removing competitive species like holly, and coppicing others like sycamore, beech and wild cherry, all to enable light to reach the woodland floor to regenerate dormant woodland flaura.

Next spring, watch out for new woodland species in this area.

Team-work - we work together to get things done and to solve problems.

Chopping up some larger poles into smaller, more manageable pieces.

Pulling up a long bramble. Some of them reached 10-15 feet!

Making fine adjustments to the hedging.

A dead/diseased trunk being carried and placed in the dead hedge. Woodland animals will be able to use the hedge as habitat or as a safe corridor in which to move around the woodland. When the wood rots down, it will attract a range of other wildlife.

Everyone can get involved with dead hedging and brambling. No special skills are needed. Contact: Oxleas.volunteers@gmail.com if you would like to help.

Here, brambles are being removed to expose the masses of bluebells hidden beneath.

In the centre, you will see a huge, dead trees. We are creating a glade around this tree to allow as much light as possible to reach this area. Nothing is wasted. All the newly felled wood is used to create a dead hedge to protect the area from trampling.

A typical sample of the contents of the full sackful of rubbish we collected in this small area! It’s all damaging to the woodland ecology.

Coppicing - trees are cut down to a low level. New stems/branches will grow back from the stump.

Here you can see a tree which is just beginning to fall.

Hard work but, as you can see, it’s fun!