The Woodlands.co.uk Blog - June 2010
Reconnecting to the Landscape
Huw Woodman is a man with a mission – to “reconnect to the landscape” and that is the strapline of The Bushcraft Magazine. Read more…
Welsh Battle over Badgers Begins
Do badgers spread Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) and, if so, is it sensible to kill the badgers to reduce losses to dairy farmers? On these issues, a great argument has been raging for several years but there are now likely to be a series of skirmishes on the ground in West Wales. Read more…
National Insect Week 21st / 27th June, 2010.
World wide some million different types of insect have been identified and named, even in the U.K. some 24,000 species can be found. Insects, like bees and bumblebees are economically important in the pollination of many crops (apples etc) and flowers; others like the saproxylic beetles have a role in the recycling of the materials and nutrients from dead and decaying wood. Read more…
Horse Chestnut : National Survey of Leaf Miner Moth
The woodland blog has been reporting on the various threats to the Horse Chestnut tree for some years: see blogs for May 2006, Aug 2006 , Sept 2008 and Dec 2009 . Basically, the tree is under attack by : – Read more…
Natural birth !
Last year Fran and Nick bought a woodland in north Wales through Woodlands.co.uk. They are now actively managing it and are progressively taking out the conifers so that ash and other native broadleaves can take their place through “natural regeneration” (self-sown seedlings developing into new trees). This couple have engaged in another more personal type of natural regeneration and recently decided to have their second baby “al fresco” – in their own woodland. Read more…
Our changing flora
Our changing flora
All of our present plants have arrived in the U.K. since the end of the last Ice Age, about ten to twelve thousand years ago. Plants and animals moved north as the sheets of ice gradually retreated; they were able to do this as ‘we’ were still joined directly to parts of Europe -by a great plain with meandering rivers, so that present-day East Anglia was linked to parts of The Netherlands and North Germany. Read more…
Sled Dog Training
Sled Dog training in Warleigh Woods. We were invited by woodlands.co.uk to use Warleigh Woods as a training ground for our teams of Siberian Huskies. An opportunity quite rare to us, as we are normally faced with lots of red tape and battles with the Forestry Commission. Read more…
Red Band Needle Blight
This is an interesting and dramatic condition that affects various pines, especially Corsican Pine. Thetford Forest in East Anglia has been severely affected by it. Of the 25,000 hectares of that forest, about 13,000 ha are Corsican Pine. Read more…