The Woodlands.co.uk Blog - Conservation
Woodland Courses 2009 Pt 2
Whatever you want to learn, there’s a course out there for you. Here is a brief selection from some of our favourite suppliers for the rest of the summer and up to the end of the year. Read more…
Coppice.co.uk - a resource for coppicers
Many woodlands in the UK have historically been managed as coppice, yielding high productivity and benefiting biodiversity. In recent decades the management of coppice woodland has declined due to mechanisation, conifer plantations and cheap imports of timber. But now, as more people focus
on sustainable wood production, sourcing local produce and promoting biodiversity, the interest in coppicing as a woodland management method is rising again.
A Guide to Common British Plants
Now that it’s the time of year for bluebells, we turn our thoughts to woodland flowers. Read more…
Woodland Butterflies
With Spring approaching butterflies are starting appear once more. Peacocks and Comma butterflies, which overwinter as adults (wings closed to blend in with wood and old leaves), can be seen on Spring days. The fast and purposeful Comma often aggressively patrols clearings at about head height, often returning to the same location every few minutes. If you startle one, just take a step back and wait quietly for it to return.
Family Forestry
Woodlands.co.uk aims to promote ownership of woodlands by people who will conserve and enjoy the woodlands through active, hands-on management. Very many of the buyers of small woodlands are families. For many woodlands family ownership and management has lots of advantages over traditional methods:
Chestnut Coppice - The Alternatives
Coppicing is one way of protecting the biodiversity of ancient woodland. Each winter, an acre or so of the woodland is felled, and in the spring a glorious carpet of flowers erupts from what seemed to be barren ground. The next year, too, the flowers may appear, and with them some butterflies and bumble bees enjoying the nectar and the sunshine. But the sunshine also brings out the brambles and bracken and, by the following year, these will have shaded out the flowers. Later in the cycle, the re-grown coppice also shades out the bracken and bramble and the ground returns to its apparently barren condition. So, in order to have flowers and encourage bees and butterflies you need to coppice successive acres each winter, progressively moving over the ground year by year. But, it’s hard work coppicing. Is there an alternative? Read more…
Bats in the Woods - Bat surveys
Now that the weather has turned colder, most bats will have found their spot to hibernate for the winter. November is a good time to carry out a bat survey of your wood, when the leaves have dropped from the trees and it’s easier to see possible bat roosts.
Wet Woodland
No-one likes getting their feet damp, but wet woodland has its place and is certainly valuable from the perspective of diversifying habitat.