We asked the chatbot, ChatGPT to use its artificial intelligence to come up with its "thoughts" on how to best manage a woodland in winter and this is what it said using its AI algorithm. Woodland management is an ongoing process that requires careful consideration throughout the year. However, winter presents its own set of challenges, and it is essential to take a proactive approach to ensure the health and longevity of the woodland. This blog will explore four key areas of woodland management in winter: ponds, coppicing, fencing, and planting. Ponds are an important feature in any woodland, providing essential habitat for wildlife, improving water quality and helping to regulate the local water table. In winter, it is essential to check ponds for any signs of damage or erosion, and to clear out any fallen leaves or debris. This will help to prevent the pond from becoming clogged up and will also ensure that it remains accessible to wildlife. Coppicing is the process of cutting back trees to encourage new growth and to maintain the health of the woodland. In winter, coppicing can be a useful tool to manage the woodland's overall structure and composition. Coppicing will also help to reduce the risk of disease and pests, and to encourage a range of different habitats and species to flourish. This is particularly important in the winter months when many species are in a state of dormancy and will benefit from the extra light and nutrients that coppicing provides. [caption id="attachment_30295" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Chestnut coppice[/caption] Fencing is an essential aspect of woodland management, particularly in winter when the ground can become wet and boggy. It is important to ensure that all fencing is in good repair and that there are no gaps or holes. This will protect the woodland from outside threats, such as livestock. Fencing also provides a visual boundary for the woodland, helping to define its limits and to create a sense of enclosure. Planting is an important aspect of woodland management and is best carried out in the winter months. Winter provides ideal conditions for planting, with the soil being moist and easier to dig, and the dormant period allowing the trees to focus their energy on establishing roots. It is essential to choose the right species for the location, taking into account factors such as soil type, aspect, and the surrounding vegetation. Planting a mixture of native species will help to promote biodiversity and to create a woodland that is both diverse and resilient. In conclusion, winter provides its own set of challenges for woodland management, but by taking a proactive approach to ponds, coppicing, fencing, and planting, it is possible to ensure the health and longevity of the woodland. Whether you are a seasoned woodland manager or just starting out, taking the time to consider these four key areas will help to ensure that your woodland thrives for many years to come. We asked ChatGPT if it had ideas on the best way for woodland owners to use artificial intelligence to help with woodland and forestry management and this is what it said: Artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize woodland and forestry management by providing insights and predictions based on vast amounts of data. Here are some ways AI can help: Forest inventory: AI algorithms can be trained on high-resolution imagery to automatically identify, map, and quantify different tree species, sizes, and densities in a forest. Predictive harvesting: AI models can analyze data on weather patterns, soil moisture, and other environmental factors to predict the optimal time for harvesting trees, reducing waste and maximizing profits. Disease and pest detection: AI algorithms can be trained to detect signs of disease and pest outbreaks in forests, allowing for early intervention and reducing the risk of widespread damage. Sustainable management: AI can be used to optimize forest management practices such as planting, thinning, and pruning, to balance environmental, economic, and social objectives. In general, the use of AI in woodland and forestry management can help to make operations more efficient, sustainable, and profitable.

Firstly think trees Perhaps not the youngest tree around Someone crazy about bricks and mortar? There's two of these trees by the sound of it ? Would you find this tree close to the sea? There's nothing fancy about this tree If you're up one of these, you definitely stuck! Morecambe, San Francisco and Bengal have this tree in common Now think flowers and plants Who is the patron saint of gardeners, horticulture, florists, brides and brewers? What is pomology the study of? Vanilla flavouring is derived from which flower? Which fruit was cultivated from crossing a blackberry and a raspberry?  What colour is a Welsh poppy?  Which football team is nicknamed the Cherries, after their stadium was built on a cherry tree orchard? What is the biggest seed in the world? These emojis might signal a tree or two 🐒🧩 🍬♟🥜 🦀🍎 🐍🖋 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🅿️9️⃣   Answers  here  

A magnificent book about a woodland which dominates south London, even though only pockets of the woodland remain.  The author pulls off the trick of using the story of the Great North Wood to relate centuries of social history and much about woodland ecology.  It's gritty, too, and it soon becomes apparent that Christopher Schuler doesn't just volunteer in Dulwich Woods, a sizable remnant from the Great North Wood, but he also loves the woodland. The Great North Wood was really big - several thousand acres in extent - stretching seven miles from Croydon to Deptford and even the remaining segments run from Dulwich to Norwood (a shortened version of "North Wood").  It was also an important resource for many centuries mostly for firewood, building timbers and of oak trees for naval building.  But Schuler demonstrates the richness of its history and the contradictions in the way it has been managed - in the 18th century cash payments were made by the parishes to anyone bringing in badger heads or other "vermin", which we would now consider valuable wildlife. One tradition which Schuler explains went on for centuries, was the "beating of the bounds" where on a set day on April (25th, Rogation Day) every year the Parish boundaries were followed on foot by a formal group.  The members of this group would literally beat sticks against trees along the boundaries and mark some by carving crosses into them.  In order to make sure the boundaries were remembered they made sure that old men were included who remembered earlier "beating of the bounds" and teenage boys who would be expected to remember the boundaries for decades to come.  In order to help them remember more clearly their hands were sometimes pricked at key points so that they would be more likely to recall the spot. Often there was merriment and drinking on such occasions but there was also a seriousness as at certain notable points the priest would say prayers.  One of the more famous spots was the Vicars Oak at the end of the road which is now called Crystal Palace Parade.  This was a tree on the boundary of three different parishes and being at the top of a ridge was visible for miles around. [caption id="attachment_36450" align="aligncenter" width="650"] The North Wood[/caption] Many bodies influenced the course of the woodland - for a long period it was forbidden to cut any oaks for other than naval use in order to ensure the navy had enough timber which could be moved to a navigable waterway. The dominant owners over the centuries were various church organisations, although the freehold of most of Dulwich Woods now belongs to the Dulwich Estate and Southwark Council.  Both organisations tried to build housing on the woodlands in recent decades but this has been successfully resisted by conservationists, and the London Wildlife Trust (LWT) now manages most of the Dulwich Woods part of the Great North Wood.  Many people volunteer for the LWT and some have fought hard to stop oak trees being felled for bridge repairs or other expedient reasons. Christopher Schuler's "The Wood that Built London" will be the defining work on the Great North Wood for a long time to come. It was through the industry of London's labourers, as Schuler states,  that "the Great North Wood fuelled - quite literally - the growth of the great city that would ultimately consume it."

I grew up in the woods in New England. My parents were South Africans who replanted themselves several times, first in Zimbabwe, then London (where I was born), and finally, and quite accidentally, Connecticut. We didn’t really fit in there, and people often treated us as strange and exotic.  However, amongst the trees that surrounded our house, there was no judgment or expectation. There was no need to explain myself. The woods offered the joy of exploration, the comfort of sheltering branches, and a sense of having entered into another, quite separate, self-sufficient world. I’d dam tiny streams, spy on wildlife, discover endangered flowers, find out which trees were prone to caterpillar infestation and which had bark that tasted like spearmint that was good to chew. And I always felt that I was amongst friends. I was very lucky. Read more...

Christmas is a good time to go for a woodland walk .... and for presents. For children, there's nothing better as a motivator than a quiz. So we are offering to send entrants a prize of a woodlands notebook and tree poster which we will post to you as soon as we get your entry if it's valid - maximum 40 prizes. Read more...

The answer is that we don't fully know but we probably soon will.  The land registry has been pushing for all the unrecorded parts of England to be registered and Guy Shrubsole and others have been pushing the Land Registry to put more of the information freely into the public domain.  What we do know so far is very well documented in Guy's book which is both analytical and full of relevant anecdotes.  England is 32 million acres in size with over half being agricultural and several million acres is natural waste such as mountains and bog so the urban area is only around 12% - less than 4 million acres.  The book establishes that there are some very chunky landowners such as the government, but there are also large holdings that go back, in effect, to the year 1066 such as the many estates where the owners can trace the titles back to the Norman conquest to say nothing of the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster which are "sort of" owned by the Royals.  With help from ace researcher and collaborator Anna Powell-Smith, Guy Shrubsole was able to work out that about 12% of England is owned by public sector bodies if you include the Crown and Church and conservation charities.  A further large proportion (around 5%) is held by the top 100 land-owning companies in England and Wales where the biggest owners including utility companies (United Utilities 140,000 acres and Welsh Water 78,000 acres). Read more...

Three quarters of the way through Macfarlane’s dazzling book he recounts a conversation with Robert Mulvaney – a palaeoclimatologist and ice-core expert at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge. After handing Macfarlane a phial containing grains of sand, Mulvaney explains that they were extracted from a kilometre deep inside a glacier and they prove that  below the ice there was once a Sahara. “They’re beautiful” says Macfarlane. “ Desert diamonds from the bottom of the world” “I can tell you are not a scientist” replies Mulvaney.  It is an unfair jibe. Scientist or not, Macfarlane serves science brilliantly well in his latest work, Underland - A Deep Time Journey. With every chapter he demonstrates his talent for explaining science and communicating the sheer wonder of the world through scientific goggles. The ambitious scope of his storytelling steps lightly from geology to linguistics to geomorphology onto folklore via nuclear physics and meteorology – all brought into focus with elegant prose and sprinklings of poetry. Like a skilled mixologist he serves up cocktails of scientific knowledge that delight and deliver more than the sum of the factual parts. Read more...

Some further woody related words to impress your scrabble playing friends with! I: Iceni: A tribe of ancient Britons inhabiting an area of south-eastern England in present-day Norfolk and Suffolk. Their queen, Boudicca, led an unsuccessful rebellion against the Romans in AD 60. SCORE = 7 Igneous :  A type of rock, formed from solidified lava or magma. SCORE : 8 Ingle: A domestic fire or fireplace. SCORE: 6 Inglenook: A small recess that adjoins a fireplace. SCORE: 14 Read more...