Forestry Commission Liaison

Forestry Commission Liaison Meeting – 26/4/16.

8 members met Phil Rudlin for our annual outdoor liaison meeting, which started in the Forestry Office! Phil showed us the plans which formed the joint Forestry Commission/Natural England vision for the forest up to 2065. The plans foresee a mainly Oak forest with some Douglas Fir and Larch and 20% of the forest managed as coppice. As Phil explained, this is the vision for the next 50 years, but will no doubt be modified and amended out of all recognition well before then.

Having seen the plan, we then drove into New Parks to see the first area of coppice to be started. The trees were felled in Winter 2015 and the brash cleared by volunteers. Contractors then planted the area up in random groups of 9 trees. It is planned for the whole of New Parks to be thinned by the felling of conifer.

We moved on to Wimperhill where 2 planted areas are being managed for dormice. Dormice were found in the area in the mid 1990’s, but have not been seen since 2002. The 2 areas were planted in 2006 and 2011 and include 10 dormouse boxes in the area, which have so far shown no results. In 2016 about ⅓ of the Brandwood area is to be clear felled.

Further up Wimperhill we revisited an area, which was being cleared by pigs on our last visit. It is now more open and is being managed in part as heathland. 3 areas of 3 hectares each are being created within ½km of each other to allow reptiles to disperse. The area, which was clear felled 10 years ago, was mainly Western Hemlock and Lawson Cypress. After felling the brash was baled and removed, then pigs introduced to remove any regeneration and bracken. Natural England wants the area to remain as open space and heath, but some planting has taken place. All regeneration except Scots Pine has been removed and Phil pointed out 2 separate types of tree protection on the site. The original aim was to protect any oak saplings that has established, but there were too few of them, so some new oak planting has taken place. The type of tree protection identifies the plantings form the natural saplings.

Having driven to the top of Wimperhill, we returned to the office where Phil was thanked for an interesting and enjoyable morning, blessed with (mainly) fine weather.

Stuart Leadley