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Tree planting vs Natural Regeneration? And a film
Woodlands TV has just released another film, which discusses the pros and cons of tree planting in an area, as opposed to allowing natural regeneration. Many years ago, Kenneth Mellanby [Director of a...
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Mistletoe Wood
High up in the Chilterns stands Mistletoe Wood, a semi natural ancient woodland. It is comprised of beech and oak with a smattering of other native species. My brother and I have been custodians of...
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Fire in woodland ecosystems
Many natural ecosystems are periodically exposed to fire. After a fire, there is often reduced competition and increased nutrient availability (from ash etc.). The plants and flowers that grow after...
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Natural woodland formation
Monks Wood is an area of woodland in Cambridgeshire. It has been subject to extensive and intensive ecological studies for many years. The site is described by Natural England as one of our...
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Earth, wind and fire – now rain and hail.
Australia has experienced some of the most dramatic effects of climate change - with the unprecedented burning of vast areas of its countryside (see previous blogs). Recently, the weather turned to...
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Winged seeds
What do the seeds of ash, sycamore and maple trees have in common? They all are enclosed in a wing-like structure that helps them disperse - away from the parent plant and indeed each other. Wind...
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Forest and grassland fires
In early Spring this year, both Norway and Sweden reported wild fires in their forests, due in part to a run of dry weather. More recently, fires have been reported in many parts of the world -...
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“Neolithic mushrooms”
Some years back, the blog talked about a 5000 year old ‘mummy’ - called Otzi. Otzi was a Neolithic man, and was found frozen, high in the mountains between Austria and Italy. Careful examination...
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July’s Fungi Focus: Ash Dieback (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus)
Members of the kingdom of the fungi can essentially be divided into the two basic categories of basidiomycetes and ascomycetes. The basidiomycetes form and release their spores on specialised cells...
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A busman’s holiday, part 2
Having put in place the basic infrastructure so that I can store tools, equipment and firewood and have somewhere for shelter and to work, my attention turned to the top two priorities on my ‘to do’...
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“The dream comes true – finding the perfect woodland”
We had talked about buying land for about 15 years and had been looking seriously for about 7 years. We had a fairly big wish list, private, quiet and secluded, not too near a road, but with good...
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How George Peterken helped to save Britain’s ancient woodlands, and his new...
I met up with George Peterken, the man who has probably done more than any living person to protect Britain's ancient Woodlands. He continues to study woods in fine detail to find out how they...
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More productive forestry trees (and Dr Steve Lee).
Since 1960 commercial trees in the UK have become about 25% more productive. This has been achieved through selective breeding, mostly of Sitka Spruce and Scots pine where plants have been chosen for...
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Bud burst and street lights.
Street lighting may make our roads and homes safer places, but it also contributes to light pollution. The bright lights of towns and cities make it difficult for us to see the stars and...
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How are owners and woodland managers responding to climate change?
Gabriel Hemery of the Sylva Foundation has a deep interest in how woodland owners behave. He wants to know what’s really happening out there so he’s been asking people – particularly about how they...
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The new ‘must-read’ tree book : “The Ash Tree” by Oliver Rackham
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...
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The Harcourt Arboretum
When in Oxford, it is always a pleasure to visit the Oxford Botanic garden but until now I have never made it out to its ‘satellite’ – the Harcourt Arboretum. The arboretum is only some six miles...
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Coppice and wood pasture.
After 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...
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Ash dieback – what to do? Pre-empt, plant, persevere, keep calm and carry on.
The last ice age endured for about 100,000 yrs. Some 18,000 yrs ago, mammoths, sabre-toothed tiger and woolly rhino (preyed on by prehistoric man) roamed our land. Thick ice sheets lay to the North,...
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Yurts, Yurtmakers and camping in a yurt
Recently, I visited the Sustainability Centre in Hampshire where a brand new yurt was being erected. Intrigued, I fell into conversation with the yurtmaker, Henry Dowell (of yurtmaker.co.uk). He...
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