Professor Julian Evans demonstrates an easy way to determine soil type in the latest Woodlands TV video clip - sandy, clay, loamy, silt?  No special equipment required - just your fingers and bit of spit! Read more...

Despite their reputation for causing damage, it might be time to review the notoriety of the wild boar.  The very thing that makes farmers and landowners in Kent and Sussex shudder, can also help regenerate woodland.   Despite being a native of the British Isles, wild boar have not been seen in this country in any great number since medieval times, probably hunted out.  James I and Charles I attempted to reintroduce to them to royal parks for hunting, but not with much success.  By the late 17th century, they had cross-bred with domestic pigs to extinction.  Read more...

It's a simple question, with many answers.  In the latest video clip, Woodlands TV asks some woodland owners why they bought their's. Read more...

Our diary for 2007 records “the driest April on record”.  This enabled Rodney to use his tractor freely to move logs around, cutting them to length and storing them off the ground.  We reflected on what had been achieved in our first year of ownership, and marvelled at the re-emerging beauty of our very own woodland. Read on ....” Read more...

These are surprisingly interesting animals which might turn out to live in your woodland. The first surprise is that they are not mice at all, although they are rodents.  There are two sorts of dormice you might come across – the edible dormouse (Glis glis) and the native dormouse, sometimes called the hazel dormouse and technically known as Muscardinus avellanarius. The edible one was only introduced into Britain in 1902 and is only found in a 200 square mile area around the area near to where it was introduced – Tring in Hertfordshire. It was farmed for eating in Roman times and is still eaten as a delicacy in Slovenia, but in England it is protected and therefore, despite its name, is not on any menu. Read more...

Hedges are important for our landscape and wildlife but how do you go about planting one?  We’ve written some general guidelines on the tree planting blog  .  However, a hedge is a bit different in that it is usually planted for quite different purposes – as a windbreak, to keep animals in, to provide a “corridor” along which wildlife can move, and for diversity of plant life.  It is also maintained differently - you will not be thinning it. Read more...