Reflections on Small Woodland Creation

It was my dream, as a child, to own a woodland (ideally with a castle in the middle of it!). Unfortunately, life tends to get in the way of such childhood aspirations – as do land prices! ???

However, I am now in a very lucky position: working for an agricultural college which owns a lot of land, it has been possible for me to create new wooded areas – and to be (somewhat) in charge of them. In fact, I have created seven new woodlands in the last ten years at Myerscough College, some not much bigger than a large back-garden, three from 1.3 to 2.1 hectares in size. All are “happy playgrounds” for myself – and, if I can motivate them to go outdoors, my children too!?

Having created quite a few new woodlands, I thought a short article reflecting upon what I’ve learnt through the process might be worth sharing. Perhaps it’s your dream too, to create a new wooded area – and if I highlight some of the problems that can occur, you could then anticipate and avoid them.

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Quicker than you’d think?

As many regular readers will know, I like a good bit of time-lapse photography – so I will illustrate my first point with a couple of those. Although laypeople will generally think that trees grow slowly, that’s not the case if you plant them in good ground – and ensure there is sufficient weed control in early years. Within three years, a planting of 40-60 cm whips is soon a young woodland with a canopy over one’s head – and, importantly, with a need for judicious maintenance.?

It is so important to go back – and to do so on a regular basis - to a new planting. Many problems can arise that can be dealt with swiftly when seen, rather than for that problem to become more and more… err… problematic! Besides, in my woodlands, I like to do some formative pruning, beating up (i.e., replacing dead or failing trees/shrubs with new ones), and I do my best to get all the plastic tree guards/spirals off in good time. We have been more recently working on establishing native woodland flowers too. ?

I have moved from using polypropylene mulch mats (which are very effective, but real devils to remove later on, as both the trees/shrubs and weeds tend to root into them) to using woodchip mulch – so checking on weed control needs is now a priority on my list whenever I revisit a planting. I hope to be able to invest in a higher proportion of biodegradable tree shelters for future plantings – but that is quite budget dependent.?

?In terms of design, I always give generous space to the edges of my woodlands – and plant ranks of shrubs near to those edges too, so fewer liabilities will arise later, as the woodland grows. Other than that, I plant in big 2 m x 2 m blocks – knowing that some tree losses, and my thinning/coppicing work will open up the woodland to have a more complex design as the trees develop. It’s good to carry out ‘cluster plantings’ of the same species, in 5s, 7s or 9s, so that there are distinct groups of the same tree species, ensuring that some of each species make it through to persist in the woodland in the longer term.

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Early Positive Changes?

It’s not just important to go back – it’s often fun to go back too – and enjoy the rapid change that is occurring. Young, wooded areas are highly used by local wildlife because they offer shelter, havens, nesting sites and food sources that adjacent industrially farmed fields do not. The first woodland that I created over a five-year period now boasts regularly visits from a tawny owl, I have had native partridge nesting in there, families of hedgehogs overwinter in it, and during the COVID lockdowns, I found what should really be night-time wildlife, a fox and a barn owl, out hunting, as well as my more regular visitors - a local hare and a stoat. The varieties of insects present are innumerable, but it has been pleasing to see speckled wood butterflies making use of my recently coppiced areas.?

I deliberately manage my woodlands to be quite inaccessible for human beings, through strategic plantings of thorny shrubs and the retention of ruderal herbs (esp. nettles/thistles) and brambles. This means that, when I enter the wood, you can hear animals scatter and the birds chattering away, telling me off for coming into THEIR territory. Although there has been a long campaign in the UK to make more of our countryside accessible to people, if you truly want biodiversity to thrive in a small woodland, it’s better if almost no-one accesses it at all. ?

I plant mostly native trees/shrubs, with some non-natives such as pines, Douglas fir, redwoods and sycamore – mostly for their sheltering value. Woodlands with an evergreen element are known to support a higher biodiversity (Bradwell et al., 2022), and one cannot plant hollies (Ilex) successfully in my part of Lancashire, and yews (Taxus) only really establish once a woodland is semi-mature in this coastal part of Lancashire. I am just starting to introduce yews into my first planted woodland.?

One genus that is very useful on the lowlands of Lancashire is Salix: There are a wide range of willow species present locally, including many naturally occurring hybrids.?Willows grow fast – they cope with the wetter ground in some of my wooded areas – they cast only a light shade – and they do not sucker (unlike poplars). I use a lot of willow cuttings – which come for free – trying to pick out male trees to clone, as female willows will produce a lot of white feathery seeds in the late spring, which can cover the place like snow. Willow coppices easily and the scrubbier willows such as Salix caprea, S. cinerea and S. x reichardtii (which I would call ‘sallows’) are great nurses for other trees, such as oak and limes, as they do not reach a great height but establish very quickly to provide much-needed shelter. The biodiversity value of willows is also very high – and some of the local herbivores do not eat them much.

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Problems to look out for?

Well, having mentioned herbivores, when you plant out you can expect some losses through herbivory. Ideally, just a small percentage would be damaged/lost (< 10%) and your planting can cope with that and then there’s no need to go out culling native animals to protect the trees. Two of my woodlands have regular visits from hares – so using hare-height guards (75 cm) is the way to go: as a native animal, hares deserve their place in the UK – and their population has dramatically declined (by 80%!) in the last century (Hare Preservation Trust, 2022).?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

?At College, rabbit populations have fluctuated greatly, due to outbreaks of myxomatosis – and currently the population is coming back after a severe drop-off due to ‘myxie’. Some of my sites are quite wet and have no banks or raised areas – and this means no rabbits. A more common problem for my plantings is meadow voles (Microtus agrestis), which can squirm their way underneath tree guards to feast within. I’ve noticed they have a strong preference for chewing through young hazel plug-plants, so I now plant hazels at a larger size and they are establishing far better. This perhaps helps to explain why one rarely (if ever) sees a hazel tree establishing on long-grassed motorway verges – the voles probably do away with them all.?

Roe deer are present at the edges of College campus, and you certainly get to see them in my small woods. However, I’ve had few losses due to them – and some benefits, as they love to graze on brambles – and one ate the tops off a wide clump of rosebay willowherb, providing better light levels for my planted trees. The presence of deer does mean you need to be conscious of the risks from deer ticks – and the potential infections you might get (Trees for Life, 2022), so long socks and checking your legs after a visit (especially inner thighs) is a good idea.?

?Where surface flooding can be a problem, I put in linked shallow ditches and the occasional balancing pond – or I plant willow and aspen. It’s wrong to drain such wet areas where I work – wet woodlands are one of the rarest and most depleted habitats in Lancashire (JNCC, 2008) – and shunting the water downstream only leads to increasing other people’s flood risk. Who knew forestry involved working with flood water? – but it does.?

Lessons Learnt

I am continually learning valuable lessons, as I put in new woodlands and manage existing ones as part of our Arbor Day UK efforts. I’m keen to achieve high biodiversity gains, which comes from planting mixed species (majority native), using the land in a way that suits it, coppicing some areas and making my woodlands inaccessible to other human beings. As the woodlands develop in height, some are very likely to be visited by grey squirrels – and I’m already considering a couple of strategies to prevent severe squirrel damage to my trees, as they enter the pole stage.?

References

Bradwell, J., Foyer, C. and MacKenzie, R. (2022) Forest innovation to tackle the climate and biodiversity emergencies. BIFor White Paper. University of Birmingham.

Hare Preservation Trust (2022) Web pages on UK hare population. Available at: https://hare-preservation-trust.com/species-status/brown-hare-history-status/ - accessed 15.01.2023?

JNCC (2008) Wet woodland: UK BAP priority habitat descriptions. Available at: https://data.jncc.gov.uk/data/2829ce47-1ca5-41e7-bc1a-871c1cc0b3ae/UKBAP-BAPHabitats-64-WetWoodland.pdf - accessed 15.01.2023

Trees for Life (2022) Deer tick facts and information. Available at: https://treesforlife.org.uk/into-the-forest/trees-plants-animals/others/deer-tick/ - accessed 15.01.2023

About the Author?

Dr. Duncan Slater is a senior lecturer in arboriculture at Myerscough College, Lancashire. He is also a co-ordinator of Arbor Day UK (#ArborDayUK) – an action group that seeks to put new trees and woodlands back into the landscape. To support or sponsor these Arbor Day efforts, please contact Dr. Slater at any time.

*** This Article First Appeared in the Spring Edition of Pro Arb Magazine, 2023 ***