Coppicing of sweet chestnut in Kent and Sussex is a traditional activity which goes back hundreds of years.  This involves not only the regular cutting of chestnut poles but the processing of these into useable materials. Such processing will usually include debarking and splitting - all of which is done in the woods where the chestnut is cut.  Chestnut coppice products are mainly used for fencing and are still very much in demand and because chestnut coppice is a hardwood they tend to last for a several decades.  Chestnut paling and post and rail fencing is in high demand and is even exported to mainland Europe. Read more...

Heathland is a threatened habitat.  Over the last two hundred years, the U.K. has lost some 150,000 hectares of heathland.  There is now only  58,000 ha of heathland left in the U.K; this represents one fifth of the world's total.  Areas of heathland can be found in the High Weald of Kent (Ashdown Forest) and the Breckland of East Anglia.  Breckland is a particular type of heathland, being a dry heath.  The average annual rainfall is only 600 mm or so and  it experiences hot summers and cold winters, together with frequent frosts. Read more...

For those wanting to follow up on the different forms of wildlife in their woodland, the following organisations / societies might be of interest / use.  For each there is a link and a snippet from the organisation's website. Website of the British Arachnological Society (wiki.britishspiders.org.uk). "Here you can find information on those fascinating animals, arachnids. Our emphasis is on British spiders but we don't exclude other arachnids such as Harvestmen (opilionids), Pseudoscorpions and Scorpions". Read more...

Many people have been following the various blogs (and contributing comments) on the problems that Horse Chestnut trees have faced over these last few years.  These problems include :- bleeding canker leaf blotch fungus leaf miner moth The horse chestnut leaf miner moth, which originated in the Balkans, first appeared here in 2002/3 in the South East, but it has since rapidly spread to many areas of the U.K. Read more...

Rats (brown and black) have been ‘camp followers’ of humans ever since we adopted a ‘settled’ existence.  In modern cities, it is often said that one is never more than 20 yards from a rat.  Whether this is true or not, rats have been a pest throughout the millennia, most notably associated with the spread of disease such a bubonic plague but also Weils Disease (Leptospirosis). Read more...

Making more use of small diameter wood Tim Parry is passionate about putting small diameter timber to good use. He has worked in Gloucestershire woodlands for over 25 years after initially training as a tree surgeon. In 1987 he first saw the need for more active woodland management while clearing up windblown timber in Sussex, following the "Great Storm".  At that point he realised just how much wood goes to waste and he is constantly working out ways to make the most of all the timber produced by coppicing. Read more...