Copse & Robins

It seems a while since we were doing mental 'rain dances' in sympathy with our parched gardens. Well, they worked with a vengeance. Today, though, has been a quite perfect day, dry bright and sunny - ideal conditions for a walk in the woods where some of the oaks, hornbeams, chestnuts and sycamores are holding their leaves despite weeks of torrential rain and high winds. I suppose it just hasn't been cold enough for them to completely defoliate.

Many of the woods in the High Weald have traditionally been coppiced over the centuries. Historically a coppice would have contained coppiced wood (underwood) and standard trees such as Quercus robur (English oak) grown for timber. These standard trees also had the hugely important function of maintaining habitats for a huge variety of insect life, fungi and lichens.

Coppicing is a management system which provides not only an important renewable source of wood without the need to replant, but also a particular wildlife and wild flower habitat. The re-growth from cut stools can be fast, with some species putting on a couple of metres' growth after their first year. Native hardwoods like oak and ash will coppice well but other species such as hazel and sweet chestnut tend to grow faster and obviously can be harvested more often. Wood production is either on a long or short rotation. For instance, a short rotation would include willow, hazel and sweet chestnut, with willow being the fastest growing species and thus being able to be harvested every two to three years, whilst at the other end of the scale, oak would be cut every eighteen/thirty-five years. Each type of timber has a different use with willow used to make baskets, willow fencing, plant supports and sculptures, hazel being used for fencing, hurdles and thatching spars and chestnut for fencing posts, gates and hurdles. Happily, there are signs that derelict coppices abandoned as being uneconomic are being worked again after years of being left to their own devices.

The Woodland Trust, a Lincolnshire based charity, has as its four primary objectives the following: 'To prevent further loss of ancient woodland, the biodiversity of woods restored and improved, an increase in the area of new native woodland and an increase in people's understanding and enjoyment of woodland'. They say that 'if there is a conflict of objectives they favour the interests of biodiversity' but most importantly their objective is to conserve woodland for 'its beauty, tranquillity and timelessness'. Thankfully, the Trust now owns over a thousand sites across the UK including ancient woodland and newly created native woodland totalling 5,000 hectares. In 2007 they acquired Brede High Woods in Sussex after a huge local and national fundraising campaign. This site contains ten named ancient woods and includes a huge variety of habitats. Fifty-five ancient woodland plants and trees have been recorded amongst the myriad species of both to be found on site and birds at Brede High Woods include the spotted flycatcher, nightingales, hobbies and buzzards - the latter an uncommon sight in Sussex. Invertebrates include a population of glowworms and Brede High Woods is the only UK location for the flea beetle which was thought to be extinct!

Going back to the coppiced woodland, every time the trees are cut as part of a rotation cycle, the vegetation underneath these trees is affected by increased light levels. This in turn influences the fauna in the immediate area. After the second year of cutting, what would have been sparse vegetative growth will emerge with spring flowers starting off the season and with the extra light coming in on to the woodland floor, seeds which have been dormant for years, germinate. I noticed that there were huge swathes of foxgloves in the woods near here this year after a worrying few weeks of contractors wielding chainsaws a couple of winters ago. Eventually you'll have a thick tangle of foliage of 'pioneer plants' such as birch and bramble until the upper canopy grows up again and the light is once more reduced. In the third year after coppicing, these managed areas can support double the density of small mammals like the Common dormouse. Interestingly, this creature also needs a well developed upper tree canopy to move around the wood in safety and this need has to be considered when managing woodland.

You'll have read that we have just had National Tree Week which culminated in the Tree O'Clock tree plant-in last Saturday when the public were asked to plant a tree between the hours of 11 am and noon and record the event. Several thousand people were involved in an attempt to plant 650,000 trees in the UK and break previous records. I went to Kew yesterday and the Head of the Arboretum, Tony Kirkham, told us that he'd given twelve media interviews in the past few days encouraging people to get involved and in particular, the young, with the view that engaging children at an early stage is a step towards interesting them in a 'long-term environmental commitment'. Planting young whips of native trees, as they did, is both ecologically sound and the quickest method of planting. Whips are very young trees with no lateral branches and these can be planted into a slit in the soil with ease. However, it's true that many of these will not survive without a modicum of aftercare but thousands will. It's a perfect time to plant now whilst the soil still has some warmth because although the deciduous trees will obviously not put on any top growth, the roots will settle in and continue to grow until it does get cold. In fact with a mild buildup to the end of the year as we have had this season, new young trees will have very little dormancy before they start to put on growth in the spring. It's interesting to hear that professional foresters continue to plant through until April but now is a good time for us to get planting.

What to plant? If you are starting from scratch and planting your own piece of heaven, have a look to see what species of woodland tree grow happily in your area and on your soil. If you're not sure what soil type you have, you can test it yourself or get advice from organisations such as The Woodland Trust or English Woodlands. If you are interested in planting woodland to encourage woodland butterflies, it would be good to consider their particular needs - and they are particular! The huge Purple Emperor (Apatura iris) for example, which is a spectacular woodland species, needs an oak or perhaps an ash tree as its 'master tree' as it is a territorial butterfly. However, the female needs willows to lay her eggs on. These butterflies live high up in the woodland canopy but can occasionally be seen in all their iridescent glory coming down to drink from pools on the woodland floor. Another spectacular woodland species is the White Admiral (Limenitis camilla) which needs honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) and in a shady place to boot, to lay its eggs on and as its sole food source. So plant trees and if you only have room for one, plant an oak. It is said that the native English oak plays host to an astonishing tally of 350 species of insects as well as providing nesting sites for birds and roosting sites for bats.

Sue Whigham can be contacted on 07810 457948 for gardening advice and the sourcing and supplying of interesting garden plants.