Blog - herb layer

Woodlands and biodiversity

Woodlands and biodiversity

by Lewis, 29 March, 2018, 3 comments

Most regard woodlands as a beautiful and important part of our countryside, and feel that they can exert a profound and positive influence on our emotional state. Time spent wandering through the woods can have a relaxing and calming effect. Woodland only forms a small percentage of our countryside (about 13%), and some of that is dominated by conifers planted in the post-war period for timber production; however, the area covered by broad leaved trees is now increasing. Despite this, our woodlands do harbour a wonderful variety of wildlife (think of the red squirrel, the nightingale, the dormouse) but there is concern that woodland plants and animals face a number of threats - many species are in decline. Why is this ? Read more...

Coppice and wood pasture.

Coppice and wood pasture.

by Lewis, 6 June, 2013, 1 comments

pollardAfter the last Ice Age, plants, animals and humans moved back into the vast areas vacated by the retreating ice. Plant, and then, animal communities became established and much of the area was covered by what has been termed ‘wildwood’ – see previous Wildwood blogs. These areas would also have been home to human populations migrating from the hinterland of Europe and Doggerland. Communities developed and we may suppose that areas of forest/woodland/wild wood would have been cleared - for housing, the grazing of animals, to provide firewood/timber. Such forest / woodland would have been managed to a greater or lesser degree. Read more...

The Great Storm of 87

The Great Storm of 87

by Lewis, 18 October, 2012, 2 comments

Some twenty five years, the U.K. was battered by a storm – said to have been the worst that this country has experienced in three hundred years. Hurricane force winds raged across southern England and the Midlands before the storm finally exited via the Wash. It is often referred to as “The Great Storm” **. Millions of trees were uprooted, woodlands flattened, parks and gardens destroyed, the National Grid damaged, cars hit by falling branches and 18 people died. Places like Wakehurst Place, the Sussex outpost of the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew) had lost some 60% of their tree collection as a result of the storm. Read more...

My wood - part two

My wood – part two

by Matt Marples, 12 April, 2012, 0 comments

The second instalment to "my wood" has, like Spring, this year - sprung rather too soon. I’ve been away for most of the last week starting work on a new area of woodland in Norfolk that I hope to be able to bring to market in the early summer. So after nearly a week of absence , I hurried across the field as the light rose on Saturday morning accompanied by Stig who seemed even happier than me, tail wagging frantically in the bitter frost. Despite some savagely cold dawns, a couple of weeks of unseasonably warm weather has transformed the woodland. It has been more of a boom than a Spring bloom this year. My hornbeam is in leaf, the hawthorn is in blossom, Read more...

Wild Flower Guide

Badger

Read our guide to wild flowers of woodland and hedgerow

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