General outlook


Wurthymp Wood is a 17 acre / 6.9 hectare plot, divested from a mixed woodland 30 acre farmland project planted by others in 2006.

From 2014 it has stood as a stand-alone woodland conservation project in a wider landscape mosaic.
The woodland is privately owned and funded and is run on a break-even sustainable basis, resources are shared with the Meadowcopse Orchard Project a few miles to the north.

The primary objectives are mixed:-
a, Wildlife habitat conservation (trees, grassland and ponds).
b, Rotational coppice woodland management (thinning, regeneration, rural craft materials and firewood).
c, Selective long-term forestry tree management (coppice with selected standard trees left long-term).
d, Community, education & research engagement, (the promotion and understanding of wildlife & sustainable conservation in a wider landscape context).

Sunday, 2 April 2017

March 2017

After the final months of winter being a bit grey and wet, with rain making  a ground conditions difficult for work, Spring finally arrives.

Hedgelaying regrowth has reasuringly appeared and although by no means competition standard, the length cut gives me some ideas for reworking and reujuvenating the hedge along the roadside over the next couple of years.


Coppice regrowth has begun in a small area selectively felled (this has been done to vary the age and height profile of a relatively uniform young woodland, as well to create sustainable multiple trunk stems to rework several years later.


And a week later...



There are around 530 birch trees on the plot, mainly planted in a single row around the track edges.
Some are leaning due to the general wind direction.
I've started to coppice around every fithth tree (repeating on an approximate 5 year cycle), again to create multiple stems as regrowth.
On a long 'to do' list is making birch sap wine and birch sap syrup.



Footpath edge habitat enhancement (preparations) are ongoing. This is to make the Public Footpath more obvious and usuable throughout the year.
The increased width gives greater scope for varied vegetation margins and benefits for wildlife biodiversity.


Ash Die Back finally discovered by visual inspection. Classic symptoms and confirmed with dialogue and a sample sent to Forest Research as part of their monitoring scheme.



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