In May 2025 my husband was on one of his usual runs and saw a sign saying woodlands for sale. We have looked for many years for a piece of land near to our home and this one turned out to be 12 minutes from where we lived. We found the particulars and made a visit to a 24 acre parcel of land which had one third covered with ancient woodland, and the rest being a pony paddock and a field. We put in an offer which was accepted and three months later we found ourselves the custodians of this beautiful 24 acre site . The land when we took it over 3 weeks ago was in quite a poor state. The previous owner had solely used it for her 3 horses, so the ancient woodlands, which contain mostly broadleaf oaks, was neglected and is in need of a huge amount of work. On walking the site over the last few weeks we have discovered a huge amount of fallen trees, very saturated ground and poorly cared for trees. The amount of brambles and nettles on the site is astronomical and will be a mammoth task to clear. In the last week we have managed to strim a path right around the perimeter to our fence line. The site has become our “happy place “ which our adult children also love. We have big plans for its future, creating paths, educating future generations and becoming good caretakers for the future of this beautiful place. “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our future generations.”

I am in the process of becoming qualified to become a Forest School Leader, with the aim to run sessions in the future for all age groups. I have created a ‘policies and procedures handbook’ which includes risk assessments for every activity, accident plan, vision statement, qualifications, forest school principals, safe working procedures, risk benefit plan, and insurance details. So far, I have taught a range of lessons over a couple of weekends to a lovely family where they are learning new skills, cooking on the fire, and learning how to protect our woodland environment. Most importantly, they’ve had valuable time as a family where they can bond over their woodland experiences and chat whilst toasting marshmallows over the fire.  The first session was an introduction to what Forest School is all about and snippets of what I aim to deliver over the next few months. I met them at the station car park and walked them up to the woodland site and gave them a site orientation, identifying the boundaries and the admin area. They had a chance to explore the woods for themselves and then I gave a knot tying lesson. I demonstrated a few different types of knots including the reef knot and clove hitch, and they were able to practice these by making a rope swing, putting up ponchos and making a tripod chair. The real challenge was to see if they could sit on it with their whole-body weight!  Fire starting was the next activity and they got stuck in straight away and collected deadwood from the ground and formed the sticks up. After a few attempts at striking their flints and lots of perseverance, they got the fire going and layered on the sticks to keep it a light. This was not complete without toasted marshmallows on sticks, s’mores and a hot chocolate! Listening to the crackling of the fire, the warmth on their faces, the gooey marshmallows and good conversations were their favourite part of the day. They also had a lesson on a different type of fire, a Dakota firepit. Here, they learnt the benefits of having an underground fire and what they can cook too on it. Like every lesson, we talk about leaving no trace, so it was important that the end of the session we cleared away all the burnt sticks and logs and picked up any litter.  The second session we learnt about the layout of a woodland and all the animals. Working from the ground layer all the way to the canopy, we identified different animals and species that live or roam here. We discussed the benefits of natural habitats, human disturbance, and how we can encourage animals into the area. By learning to appreciate our surroundings, our respect and love for the outdoors will last forever.  After giving them a few ideas, they individually went away and made their own habitats. They came up with really creative ideas and it was fantastic to see them thinking about how they can protect the animals and keep them safe. They came up with a bird hide, tripod shelter, bug hotel, and tee-pee tent. It was great to see them using their knot tying skills from the previous session and putting it into practice. At the end of the lesson, we all walked around everyone’s habitats so they could describe and show off what they have made. Today’s session was all about cooking on the fire. They went straight into collecting sticks to burn on the fire, logs for the boundaries, and sticks for whittling so they can put their food onto them for toasting. The first challenge was preparing the food mixture to make damper bread; they got all the ingredients into a bowl and made a very sticky job of mixing it with their hands! Once they had a nice doughy mixture, they spun it around their sticks and started toasting them on the fire. Having a nice burnt, crispy outer dough with a drizzle of hot honey was by far the favourite!  Next, we learnt how to cook on the embers, and of course, there are only two ways to teach this, popcorn and chocolate banana boats! This went down a treat as they hadn’t had this before; they prepared their chocolates in bananas, wrapped it up in tin foil, and using a fire glove, they put them onto the embers for 5 minutes. 5 minutes of cooking, 30 seconds of eating and they were all gone, success! The popcorn was also a hit, listening to the popping against the tins and then drizzling hot honey sauce over them to make them nice and sweet. With all this tasty work, we couldn’t go a miss without having a hot chocolate. We put stakes into the ground either side of the fire pit, laid a log across the top and hung our kettle from the middle over the flames.  What was really nice to observe was the fact that they were all communicating when making the damper bread, chatting away whilst collecting sticks, and having a laugh whilst waiting for their food to cook was priceless. Meaningful conversations in an outdoor environment are so valuable and good for everyone’s wellbeing and this is at the forefront of why I want to become a forest school leader.  Laura  

Fallow deer were probably introduced to England in Norman times and soon established themselves in woodlands and forests. Indeed, deer hunting was a popular ‘sport’ [for royalty and the aristocracy] for centuries. Fallow deer tend to live in isolated, single sex groups. At the time of the annual rut (September to October), the sexes come together and young are usually born in the following May / June, and weaned by October. The herds tend to forage over a wide area. staying only for a short time in any one place. They are herbivores and grazers.  They feed on ground vegetation, particularly during spring and summer. They may also take the bark from trees, this can  cause distorted growth of grazed plants or  result in the death of young trees or prevent the  natural regeneration of woodland.  Allow the entry of disease causing bacteria or fungi.  Recently staff from Bangor and Reading university have investigated the diet of fallow deer in some detail.  They studied deer in three woodlands in the Elwy Valley (North Wales).  The researchers use a DNA sequencing technique termed metabarcoding, which can identify which plants are present in deer droppings.  Samples from droppings were collected  from the woods every month for two years.  Samples were also collected from deer in a local zoo for comparison.  The researchers expected the deer droppings to contain lots of grass DNA all year round, with material from broadleaf trees at certain times of year.   However, the results were surprising in that bramble made up to half of the diet of the woodland deer in late summer, and rose to 80% in winter.  Perhaps unsurprisingly they ate large quantities of acorns in autumn, and leaves from the broadleaved trees in Spring and Summer.  Grass turned out to be a small part of their diet, reaching a peak of 6% in the Autumn.  Also rare was DNA from coniferous trees. A survey of the vegetation in the woodlands showed bramble (Rubus fruticosus) was abundant, offering edible material throughout the year.  It was a consistent food source. The ‘dominance’ of bramble in woodlands may be the result of the opening up of tree canopies as a result of severe storms [more frequent in recent times], and the death of trees from disease.  Access to light, means that brambles can regrow quickly and colonise open ground, where trees have fallen.  Brambles can form a prickly barrier around young trees, which protects the saplings from the browsing of the deer.  However, it can also smother young trees and shade out some of the woodland ground flora.  Intensive deer browsing can limit the growth of brambles, so there is a balance to be struck.   Analysis of the different plant DNA’s in deer droppings [faeces] of the six deer species in the UK will help build an understanding of the ecological role of deer in our woodlands. Full details of the DNA metabarcoding work here :  https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2688-8319.70008 or https://www.bangor.ac.uk/news/2025-02-10-why-the-study-of-deer-poo-in-north-wales-could-shed-light-on-the-future-of-woodland  

A good friend of mine is tragically dying of cancer. He has spent a good part of his retirement chopping and stacking logs for his home and he sees this as part of his duty to look after his wife. He has often explained to me how to make kindling and how to split logs efficiently and safely and, like me, he has always been interested in how other people stack their logs. This picture is one of his own log piles. Storing firewood is far more than piling logs in a corner. In the UK’s damp climate, how you stack and season wood makes a big difference to how well it burns. The secret is to keep it dry, to create airflow and to make it accessible. A rule of thumb among woodfuel users is that a well-stacked pile may be about 70% “solid wood” with about 30% air gaps, whereas loose heaps might drop to only 40% wood or less and are hard to handle. Stacking also allows you to go higher and a wood stack can be used as a temporary wall for a screen or a windbreak. Logs should be off the ground (often on pallets or a raised plinth) and arranged with small spaces between them rather than in a random heap. Ultimately moisture levels need to drop below 20%. Many people - such as my friend - use the straightforward “row stack” method: logs laid horizontally, tightly but with small air gaps, in rows on a raised base, with a cover on top but open sides. It’s functional, efficient, and relatively quick. However, more decorative or artistic stacks have become popular, sometimes as garden features, but also as a way of celebrating wood itself. One example is the Holz Hausen or "round house" where logs are arranged in a circular, inward-leaning structure to shed rain and encourage drying. Another system is crisscross or “grid” stacking (alternating orientations by layer) to add structural strength while allowing airflow. Sometimes hobbyists create log mosaics or colour-sorted stacks, either by colour of the wood or the bark to build visual patterns. There have even been stacks shaped as domes, cubes, or sculptures. Some “log art” images show stacked owl or heart shapes, or wood as garden sculpture. The Dull Men’s Club is a UK group celebrating “mundane” hobbies and they frequently share pictures of beautiful wood stacks. In some rural UK properties, it’s not unusual to see stacks that form entire sheds or rows along wood sheds measuring over 10 metres long. Some woodland owners will harvest and stack multiple seasons’ worth of fuel, turning their woodlot into a homegrown energy store. The Dull Men's Club website says that they do a lot "more than watch the paint dry." An emerging idea is that wood fuel is virtuous as a locally grown energy source. People with small woodlands or hedgerows may plan rotational coppicing or tree thinning with the intent to supply their own heating. The idea is: plant a tree today, in 20–40 years it's fuel, stack it well, burn it in winter. Fuel from your land, stacked carefully, can contribute to sustainability. The old saying is that it warms you three times - when you cut it, when you handle it and when you burn it. Stacking firewood is a humble but fascinating intersection of craft, utility, and sometimes artistry. Smart stacking is almost as important as the wood itself.  And for those treating wood as a renewable, grown-on-your-land fuel, it becomes a statement of independence and planning. For some people their "firewood legacy" will be more than just the years' supply of firewood they have left behind, but will also be what they have passed on to others about how to handle and store firewood.

Blackberries are one of the best-known fruits in the rose family. They’re often collected in the wild from hedgerows and woodlands.  September and October are usually the peak months for blackberry forays, but this year blackberries [with the exceptional warmth of the Spring and summer months], they have been ripening early.  Some ripe fruits were spotted back in June!  The fruits start off green, but as they mature they become red and finally black from stem to tip. The bramble has a perennial root system with biennial stems. In the first year, the stems (sometimes called canes) grow vegetatively, but in their second year they produce flowers and fruit.   Then they die back but the dried stems together with their prickles / thorns can persists for some time.  It is a good idea to wear some protective gloves when rummaging for these fruits. The leaves of the bramble are compound, with 3 - 5 - 7 leaflets which have serrated edges.  Its flowers are white to a subtle shade of pink.  They have 5 petals and first appear in early Spring.  They are attractive to pollinators such as bumblebees. Blackberries are a nutritious fruit, rich in Vitamin C but also contain other nutrients, e.g. Vitamin K and manganese.  A cup full of blackberries can provide 7 grammes of dietary fibre.   The colourings of the fruits (anthocyanins and flavonoids) are a source of antioxidants. Blackberries are a food source for wildlife food, many birds, foxes, and many small mammals (for example the dormouse) feed on the berries.  However, this earlier appearance of autumnal fruits may cause problems.  For example, some birds feed upon insects in the Spring and summer months but by autumn they move over to seeds and fruits, like blackberries. But what if the fruits have come and gone, and there are just the shrivelled remains of once juicy fruits.  There could be a 'food gap', this would be especially series for animals trying to prepare for the relatively barren days of winter.  Deer may feed on bramble leaves. If large amounts of bramble are allowed to grow in a woodland, it can affect the microclimate of the ground  layers.  This influences the growth and development of other plants. Whilst brambles can offer protection from browsing by deer and / or rabbits of young tree saplings, they can also suppress the development of light loving species.  A thicket of brambles can also offer a home to some birds, like the nightingale. Further reading - see here

My husband and I bought Lighthouse Meadow in 2022 from woodlands.co.uk.   I’d always wanted to plant my own woodland and see the wildlife changes as the land evolved from grazed grassland to biodiverse woodland.  Our preference was to avoid using plastic tree guards due to the environmental waste. The site is also windy so we wanted to encourage wind-induced root development to have stronger, more wind resistant trees: tree guards can limit strong root development, resulting in weak, top-heavy trees which are more prone to damage in strong winds. The protect the young trees from predation by deer and rabbits, we installed a deer fence with rabbit mesh. Featured image is a male fallow deer peering through our fence wishing he could eat one of my hazel saplings.  We used mulch mats around the base of each young tree, held down with five bamboo pegs. Over two years we have planted 3000 trees using this method. I won’t lie, it is hard work! We used mulch mats made from jute, a 100% biodegradable natural fibre. Their purpose is to suppress the growth of grass around the young tree. They are permeable, allowing air, nutrients and water to pass through them which also helps in reducing moisture loss. In the above photo, Tim has secured a mulch mat around a hazel sapling using a bamboo peg at each corner and a fifth peg to fix the flap of the mulch mat in place. NB : we found that a rubber mallet was kinder on knuckles than a metal one! We are now 18 months on from planting our first trees so I’ve had a chance to assess how well the mulch mats have performed. Last year (2024) had a wet summer and the grass grew very tall. We found that many of the mulch mats had started to biodegrade around the one year point. Our field is steeply sloping which meant that tall grass at the top end of the mulch mats tended to flop over, swamping the shorter saplings like wild plum and oak. So we needed to do quite a bit of maintenance, uncovering some of the trees and trimming the grass. The mulch mats had worked very effectively to suppress the grass immediately around the sapling. The  photo below shows a hornbeam sapling we planted 18 months ago. I’ve pulled back the grass which had flopped over. Although the mulch mat has completely biodegraded, you can still clearly see the square shape where it once was and the grass growth immediately around the sapling continues to be suppressed. The tree is healthy and now tall enough to be above the grass. We planted our second lot of trees in November 2024. However, we have had to reaffix and replace some of the mulch mats we used then because they were damaged during Storm Darragh. We found that the extra strong storm winds were able to rip up some of the mulch mats, despite being pegged down with five bamboo pegs. However, we weren’t the only ones needing to do some maintenance following the storm. Our neighbour has been planting trees using tall plastic tree guards and stakes. His trees also suffered during the storm and he had to re-stake and re-affix many tree guards. So although we found ourselves doing a fair bit of extra work to reattach the mulch mats, other tree protection methods had also suffered and required maintenance. The above photo of a young oak we planted Autumn 2024 shows how the strong Storm Darragh winds have torn up the mulch mat. So, would I use mulch mats again in future? Yes, because after 18 months I can see that the impact of using mulch mats is still benefitting the trees, despite the mulch mat having degraded. However, we have learnt a lot in the last year and we’ve bought a petrol mower (with a ‘drive’ function) and have regularly mowed strips across the field trimming the grass along the top end of the mulch mats to reduce the risk of tall grass flopping over the saplings. We have also learnt that our field has a very substantial population of field voles and the mulch mats don’t protect the saplings from voles gnawing the bark. We have lost around 5% of the trees to vole damage. Tree guards also wouldn’t protect a sapling as the voles can still easily get up inside the tree guards. We are therefore adopting a nature-based solution and will be erecting tall perches for birds of prey. We wish to encourage tawny and barn owls, buzzards and other raptors to the field to feed on the voles. For more information on our use of mulch mats, we made a film for WoodlandsTV, Plastic Free Tree Planting. We are also going to follow the recent WoodlandsTV film by Jack D’Gama and George Hassall on Birds of Prey Perches: one way to reduce rodent damage to young trees as inspiration for our owl and buzzard perches to manage the vole population.

I was born in the 1950s, a time when black smudges began to appear mysteriously on the trunks of sycamores in Britain. The culprit: sooty bark disease, a fungal infection caused by Cryptostroma corticale. Back then, I had no idea my life would unfold alongside a slow but steady parade of arboreal afflictions. But looking back now, I can measure the years not just in milestones and birthdays—but in the trees we lost along the way. Sooty bark disease doesn’t get the headlines these days, but it was a grim marker of post-war environmental change. Sycamores, long naturalised in Britain, would suddenly wilt and die, the bark flaking away to reveal a sinister black fungus. We didn’t yet understand how much stress—particularly from the hot, dry summers of the 1950s—played into its spread. It was an early sign: a warning that trees are far more vulnerable than they seem. Then came the true giant of tree diseases: Dutch elm disease. It began making headlines in Britain in the late 1960s and ravaged the landscape through the 1970s and '80s. Caused by a fungus (Ophiostoma novo-ulmi) spread by elm bark beetles, this pandemic decimated the native elm population. It’s estimated that over 25 million elms were killed in the UK alone. I remember the shift in the landscape. Once-common elm-lined avenues and hedgerows simply disappeared. As a child, I’d climbed elms in the park; as a young adult, I watched them vanish almost overnight. Dutch elm disease wasn’t just a biological tragedy—it was a cultural one. It marked a turning point, an awakening to the vulnerability of our treescapes. The decades ticked by. Chestnut trees became a familiar sight in my children’s drawings. But by the 2000s, I noticed the conkers looked smaller, sadder. Bleeding canker of horse chestnut, caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. aesculi, began spreading rapidly across the UK. It causes a sticky, rust-coloured ooze from the bark and often leads to dieback and death. The disease didn't just affect the health of the trees; it diminished a cultural icon—conker tournaments and autumn walks lost something in its slow assault. Around the same time, sudden oak death (Phytophthora ramorum) emerged, though it affects more than just oaks. First identified in the US in the 1990s, it reached the UK in the early 2000s, causing widespread concern in woodlands and nurseries. It targets a range of species including rhododendrons, larches, and beech. The name alone—sudden oak death—carried a dramatic finality. Then came perhaps the most alarming of all in my later years: ash dieback, or Hymenoscyphus fraxineus. First identified in Poland in the 1990s, it reached the UK in 2012. It’s a true scourge, expected to kill up to 80% of the UK’s ash trees. These aren’t just forest trees—they line our roads, dominate hedgerows, shade our back gardens. Their decline feels intimate. Walking in ash woodland today is like passing through a ghost forest. The signs are unmistakable: leaf loss, crown dieback, diamond-shaped lesions. I’ve watched entire copses hollow out over just a few seasons. The cost is measured not only in timber or beauty, but in ecological networks—over 1,000 species depend on ash. And let’s not forget the oak processionary moth, which first arrived in the UK via imported oak trees in 2005. While not a disease in the fungal sense, it’s a threat nonetheless. Its caterpillars strip leaves and their tiny hairs can trigger allergic reactions in humans and animals. Forestry teams now issue warnings during their seasonal outbreaks. Oaks have stood proud for centuries, but even they are not safe anymore. There are others: sweet chestnut blight, plane wilt, the pine processionary moth, and new strains of Phytophthora that attack multiple species. The list gets longer, not shorter. So what’s going on? Part of the answer is globalisation. Trees, soil, and ornamental plants now travel easily between continents, bringing pathogens with them. Climate change plays its role too—stressed trees are more vulnerable, and warmer conditions allow pests and diseases to thrive. And while tree diseases aren’t new, our ecosystems today are more fragmented and less resilient. [caption id="attachment_8120" align="alignleft" width="400"] Leaf miner in Horse Chestnut[/caption]   What strikes me most, looking back, is how predictable this pattern has become. Every decade or so, a new name enters our vocabulary. Each time, we scramble to learn its symptoms, its vectors, its likely victims. And each time, the outcome is similar: loss, adaptation, then a wary lull before the next wave. Measuring my life in tree diseases might sound grim—but it’s also grounding. Trees are long-lived beings; their suffering unfolds slowly, deliberately. Watching them struggle is a reminder that the natural world is neither invincible nor immune to human action. The next great tree crisis is likely already on its way. But perhaps with better biosecurity, international cooperation, and public awareness, we can at least slow the tide. For me, though, the trees I’ve known—and the diseases that marked their passing—will always be a living calendar. A record of change, and of resilience.    

Many woodland owners build a cabin. As long as this isn’t a permanent dwelling there is often no problem with neighbours or planners. It can be used as a storeroom, a shelter from the rain or a place to stay overnight. In some regions of the UK, such as central Scotland, these structures have been positively encouraged by authorities and lobbied for by enthusiasts, such as those running the 1,000 huts campaign: https://thousandhuts.org/ The position of your cabin When siting your cabin there are many considerations: you may want a good view from a big window but not an unsightly view of the cabin itself - an eyesore on the landscape is unlikely to make you popular with neighbours and will encourage authorities to question its legitimacy. You may like being near a stream or you may want to avoid a spot near water because it risks too many unwelcome visits from mosquitoes. Even when you have established your location you may well want to camouflage your cabin or at least make it discreet - perhaps by painting it dark green or by planting climbers to grow over it. Most people build their own cabin but it is possible to buy ready-made woodland huts or portable shepherd’s huts. Another approach, if access is good enough, is to buy a shipping container and convert and camouflage that. These typically cost about £2,000 new but are much cheaper second-hand. They have the advantage of being secure and, should you change your mind, they can easily be removed or relocated. Off-grid living How you use your cabin will also be seasonal - in the winter you might want to hunker down inside but in the summer when it’s warmer you can use the space in front as an outdoors retreat - it can be a spot for outdoor cooking, for chopping wood or just sitting and contemplating life. Most cabins are off-grid in not having power or water or sewerage but you might want to put in a solar panel and a battery so that you have a light in the evenings. For lots of cabin-owners being off-grid is a big part of the attraction - getting away from it all, from screens and being closer to nature.  Security and protection Cabin owners protect their cabins very differently.  Some just close the door, lock it, and hope for the best while others protect their cabin by putting shutters over the windows - usually wooden and sometimes even metal.  Much depends on how exposed your woodland is to unwanted intrusion. Headaches can come from vandalism or planners and in both cases a “good neighbour policy” is recommended - so that neighbours don’t feel threatened and understand what you are trying to do. Good neighbours are often willing to keep an eye on your cabin when you are not there and they will be supportive if the planners ever challenge the existence of your cabin. Handled thoughtfully, your woodland cabin will be a little slice of paradise — not a headache.