Over the last fifty or so years, many of our freshwater ecosystems (rivers, streams and ponds) have been polluted – particularly with nitrates and phosphates.  This pollution has lead to eutrophication : an overgrowth of simple green algae and subsequent loss of biodiversity.  The million ponds project seeks to create new ponds, with clean, unpolluted water. The question might be posed “why not clean up and manage existing ones?”  Of course where this can be done, then it should be done but new ponds allow one to start with a clean slate.  They can be created in places where their water supply will be clean throughout the pond’s lifetime, and generally creation is cheaper and simpler than the restoration of an existing pond. Read more...

Further to the woodlands post about ‘bees and weather’, the British Beekeepers Association has announced that honey yields from hives are substantially down.  The average annual yield per hive is about 13.6 Kg but this year the figure is averaging 3.6 Kg per hive  – down by over 70%.   The worst results were for the London hives, where the figure was down to 2.5 Kg / hive. Most beekeepers have attributed this fall to the (wet) weather.  Bees had a poor start to the year as the poor weather this Spring (April onwards) limited the bees foraging - for early crops, such as oil seed rape.  The rain was also a feature of early summer - June and July, for much of the country. Read more...

Before we go foraging for mushrooms - Care is needed when picking mushrooms, mushrooms can come in different shapes and sizes and are only easy to identify once mature. A small immature mushroom also known as a button mushroom will have different characteristics to one that is mature. A button mushroom may not grow a stem until later in its life and may be different in colour. Having said this, don’t leave it too late to pick them.  Maggots have a tendency to eat and live within over-mature mushrooms;  these mushrooms should be considered inedible. Read more...

The woodlands blog has previously posted about hygienic behaviour that is seen in some bee colonies, this involves the removal of dead bee larvae and pupae. These could act as breeding grounds for mites and other insects that make “their home” in a hive. Mites, such as the varroa mite, are small spider-like creatures that attach to bees and ‘suck their blood’ and in so doing inoculate the bees with various viruses such as acute bee paralysis virus, deformed wing virus, and slow paralysis virus etc.   Mites are endemic to both wild and domestic bee colonies, as are insects such as wax moth larvae.  Wax moth larvae can burrow into the combs of a hive / colony destroying the cells where the larvae etc. are developing and growing, and where honey is stored. Read more...

The world store of terrestrial carbon is estimated at 2860Pg (petagram = 1015 g), of this, some 1240 Pg is ‘locked up’ in woodlands – that is over 40%.  Much of  woodland carbon is ‘locked’ in dead leaves and decaying wood – in the form of complex organic molecules (carbohydrates, proteins, lignin, cellulose, pectates etc) that make up a plant. However, with time these molecules can be degraded, broken down by the activities of micro-organisms (bacteria and fungi) – though the first stage of the process may be a physical disruption by beetles (saproxylic) and other burrowing small animals.  The activity of fungi is more obvious / visible at this time of year (autumn) as their fruiting bodies Read more...

“I don’t  need to attend a chainsaw course: I have been shown how to use one by someone who has been using a chainsaw for years, read a book, and have all the protective equipment required.” That’s what I thought until I attended a course with my son, who I had shown how to use a chainsaw safely. I have been using a chainsaw for five years, for clearing overgrown tracks, and feeding the voracious wood burning stove that provides all my heat and hot water at home. My chainsaw usage couldn’t be all bad – I had survived five years use without any problems, and only one near miss, that wasn’t that near anyway. However, my son and I decided that the time had come to go on a training course Read more...