Today there are more deer in the UK than at any time since the last Ice Age.  They no longer have any natural predators in woodlands or fields. Total deer numbers are conservatively estimated at about 1.5 million and the rapidly expanding deer population threatens woodland biodiversity.  Over-grazing and browsing, particularly in ancient woodland, continues to have two very unfortunate consequences for conservation.  First, it can lead to a decline and loss in plant species in a given area, which often includes oxlip and bluebells.  Deer frequently damage saplings and cause other damage by stripping bark with their antlers. Read more...

irrCharles Flower inherited a 25 acre Berkshire woodland a generation ago and had a vision for its restoration.  He points out that, "small amounts of management, particularly in rides and glades where most flowers and insects occur, can yield enormous benefits."  What shines through Charles' book is that he learnt almost everything about woodland management on the job as so many buyers of small woodlands do and this approach did the wood no harm at all.  Indeed, as he says, "it is only when you have the privilege of really getting to know one of these ancient woodlands that you become aware of their importance .... these woodlands are literally irreplaceable." This new book is as much a viewing as a read - Mike Bailey and Steve Williams have illustrated the book copiously with pictures depicting how a well-managed woodland can look and also showing management operations in progress.  But the story is an odd one - Steve and Mike were helping Charles Flowers with his earlier book ("Where have all the Flowers gone") when they found out that he owned a woodland and they started photographing his wood just for fun.  Read more...

You may well have heard that bees are in trouble. Domestic honeybee hives seem to die more often than they used to, and some of our wild bees have disappeared altogether; for example, three of the UK’s twenty seven bumblebee species have gone extinct. The big, long-term driver of declines has been farming intensification; where once we had plentiful hay-meadows and chalk downland, rich with flowers, we now have flower-free monocultures of wheat or silage grass. Pesticide use is also contributing to the problem, particularly new generations of systemic, persistent insecticides called neonicotinoids that get into nectar and pollen of both flowering crops and wildflowers. Read more...

This week’s other “must-read” book is “The One Planet Life : a blueprint for Low Impact Development “ by David Thorpe, which explains the idea of One Planet living, and the One Planet Development planning policy in Wales. David Thorpe is a writer and consultant on sustainability issues. He is a Special Consultant on Sustainable Cities Collective, the primary website for urban leaders globally; a founder and core group member of the One Planet Council; and the author of several books on sustainability, including: Energy Management in Buildings, Energy Management in Industry, Solar Technology and Sustainable Home Refurbishment, all in The Earthscan Expert Guide series. Prior to this he was the News Editor and Opinion Writer of the UK’s Energy and Environmental Management magazine for 13 years. Before that he was director of publications at the Centre for Alternative Technology. Read more...

The quagga mussel was discovered in a river near London recently and many are concerned about the havoc that it might wreak not only on native freshwater species, but also the damage that it can cause by blocking pipes, fouling lock gates and boat hulls. A number of species from the Caspian and Black Seas have made their way across Europe and are now poised to invade the U.K.   The woodland blog has previously reported on the threat to native ladybird species due to the ‘invasion’ of the UK by the harlequin ladybird. Now Dr Bethan Purse, an ecological modeller at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and Dr Helen Roy, have investigated the spread and distribution of the harlequin ladybird in different U.K. habitats.   Dr. Purse was able to make use of the data collected in the UK ladybird survey. Read more...

When I last saw Oliver Rackham I was infected by his curiosity.  Someone suggested, as we walked though a woodland, that one spot might have been historically used for making charcoal so Dr Rackham dived into the undergrowth armed only with a set of keys and dug into the soil and he soon emerged triumphant with some old charred remains, proving definitively that this location had in fact been used for charcoal making.  This sort of curiosity and dogged ferreting for facts runs through his new book on the ash tree.  He considers what threats the ash tree faces, but he also uses the book as a platform for a wider diagnosis of the state of British woodlands.   Read more...