Looking after what we love

Don’t worry – if you see us cutting down trees, leaving piles of wood around the forest or avoiding mowing the grass, all these things mean we’re doing active forest management, helping to support the forest and make sure it’s resilient, so we can still experience it for years to come.

Where are all the trees?

Have you spotted any gaps in the forest, or perhaps a tree-covered spot is now full of stumps. That means we’ve been coppicing.

This is a traditional system of woodland management, done to many native trees. Trees are cut close to the ground on a regular cycle, regrowing from dormant buds at the base of the stump (known as the stool) to create dense groups of multi-stemmed trees.

Notice the odd tree remaining amongst the stumps? We choose older and established trees to keep within the coppice. Shading from their canopy won’t compromise the growth of other trees or ground vegetation and provides habitat for those species that depend on mature trees.

We also encourage natural processes in these areas like ground layering, where trees can be regenerated without planting additional trees. A few stems from the coppiced tree are kept on the stump, bent and pinned to the ground, then new trees grow from them. We’ve begun this traditional practice in many of our managed coppice areas.

Why the messy piles?

Fallen branches, rotting stumps and dead trees are crucial to the woodland’s ecosystem. Decaying wood recycles nutrients back into the soil and creates specialist habitats for a number of species, including a variety of fungi – so we leave the leaf litter to do its thing. We also help by creating habitat piles amongst the forest. We pile up small stacks of cut wood, which provide a home for small mammals, invertebrates and reptiles. There’s a whole world thriving underneath those little piles!

The No Mow way

You may be wondering why the grass around the location is so long – and no, we’re not just lazy!

Grassland provides an important, diverse habitat for many UK species, particularly insects like bees and butterflies, and small mammals, birds and reptiles. Over the last century, 97% of meadow grassland in the UK has disappeared, so we want to help enhance these habitats with a mowing regime across our locations that will encourage more species to thrive.

We leave the grass to grow, and the flowers to bloom between May and August. The wildlife – and we – can enjoy it, then it’s cut late in the season after the flowers have seeded.

So what does this all mean for the forest? By maintaining different habitats, we can help encourage biodiversity by supporting different creatures to thrive. We even see new species returning to the forest thanks to some of these changes.

We make sure we keep an eye on how we’re changing the forest, carrying out ecological monitoring and management in the areas we work on to understand our impact.

So next time you’re wandering, you’ll know that if it’s looking a little messy, it’s probably doing a world of good for the wildlife within.