You might think a wilderness is just a wild, untouched space where you let nature do its thing. However, on our small island, so many wild spaces have been shaped in some way by centuries of human activity, both good and bad. The woods and fields at WiseWoods were left untouched for decades, and it didn’t do them any favours.
Biodiversity sometimes needs help
If you leave land to its own devices, without managing what grows, you might be lucky and find that an incredible variety of plants will grow and wildlife thrive. In an area like Strines, however, there is more likely to be a ‘survival of the fittest’ scenario. Dominant and invasive plants will take over and crowd out smaller and less prolific species. This is bad news for our rarer native plants.
At WiseWoods, the clearest illustration of this threat to biodiversity is the overwhelming invasion of Himalayan balsam. It has colonised large sections of the riverbank and invaded the woods and grazing. It grows fast and tall and doesn’t give other plants a chance.
It’s not just its size and spread that ensures Himalayan balsam outcompetes native plants. The balsam offers a mass of sweet flowers that bees love so much they often stop pollinating native flowers.
The years of neglect allowed other plants to take over, too. You saw in a previous blog how impenetrably dense brambles covered the top grazing field. Hundreds of self-seeded willow and birch trees are also dotted throughout the field. In the bramble-swamped areas, there was very little chance for grass and wildflower species to grow because they hardly saw any sunlight! While dense brambles might offer a safe home for small creatures, others, such as the deer who used to regularly visit the field and entertain diners at the neighbouring pub, struggled to make paths through the vicious thorns.
Improving biodiversity
Despite only recently clearing areas of balsam, we are already seeing an increase in the coverage of native plants.
The slideshow below lists the wildflowers we’ve photographed at WiseWoods since April. (If I’ve mis-identified any, let me know!)
The wildflowers are all pollinators, some attracting bees, others butterflies, moths, hoverflies, and small beetles. These small native flowers are making a start at replacing the mass fast food provided by the balsam. We’ll find ways to support more native wildflower growth alongside our efforts to remove the balsam.
The grazing has recovered unbelievably quickly since we removed the brambles. But it’s an ongoing process. Brambles are very determined to return, so we mow the field every two weeks to prevent them from reestablishing. Mowing gives the grasses a boost, but of course, risks cutting the wildflowers that are just re-establishing themselves in the grazing. We keep the cutting blades on a high setting, and there’s still plenty of scrub and border areas that are not mown. So on balance the wildflowers still have a better chance than when the field was buried under brambles.
Our efforts in the top field seems to be paying off. It’s been teeming with butterflies all summer.
There are still masses of brambles left, except now they are accessible for the horses (and visiting deer) to nibble and for us to pick the blackberries.
Trees need care too
Leaving a woodland to ‘just get on with it’ can have benefits. It can develop into a complex habitat, perfect for diverse wildlife to thrive. Deadwood that falls naturally creates a home for beetles, mosses, fungi, small mamals and birds. Organic matter that remains undisturbed on the forest floor creates a nutrient rich soil for the trees and stores carbon.
On the other hand, some woodlands need human management, and WiseWoods is an example of this.
Much of the woodland was planted several decades ago with the intention of harvesting the trees. A large conifer area started as a Christmas tree plantation, but most of the trees were not harvested. Another large area was planted with trees such as cherry and ash, again for timber extraction that never happened. Both areas were densely planted, but the necessary thinning out was not done while the trees were younger. Consequently, we now have crowded areas of woodland with trees that have grown much taller than intended, which is not necessarily good news.
Problems from the lack of woodland management
- Densely packed trees that have grown tall and whippy are less stable and more likely to fall in high winds. We’ll need our forestry expert to help us work out a plan for thinning the trees in a way that doesn’t leave the remaining ones even more vulnerable to wind damage.
- Trees in overcrowded woodlands compete for light, water and nutrients, so more of the trees are likely to be unhealthy. As we experience climate change, especially drier summers, we need to consider the best density of trees for the available water.
- Diseases spread faster in overcrowded woods. Many of the ash trees have been affected by ash dieback. If they’d been thinned at a younger age, the spread of this devastating fungal disease might have been reduced.
- Huge quantities of tree seedlings have grown, along with a lot of holly, making it difficult for a diversity of wildflowers to establish on the woodland floor.
With careful management over the next ten years or more, the woods will become healthier, more sustainable and a better environment for biodiversity.
Finding a balance
Our main challenge at WiseWoods will be finding the perfect balance. On the one hand, we want to nurture the grazing land and woods for the benefit of nature. On the other hand, we need the place to be a safe home for the horses and a welcoming, accessible venue for our expanding range of life coaching activities.
It won’t be easy, and I’m sure we won’t get the balance right straight away. But if we keep our eyes open, the plants and animals will hopefully show us what’s working and where we’re going wrong.