Winter Tree Planting and Woodland Care
Our warden team and volunteers are heading into one of the busiest and most rewarding times of the year for hands-on conservation.
At Coton Reserve, the new trees for this winter’s planting will arrive at the end of November. Our first tree-planting session will be with ARM, one of our corporate partners, on 3 December, with another session planned with Illumina in January. Our regular volunteer team will also be planting trees throughout the winter, helping to strengthen woodland and hedgerow habitats across the reserve.
Alongside the planting, volunteers have been carrying out hedge-laying and pond maintenance around the car park, and continuing habitat work at Long Meadow. Here, they’ve been cutting back and rejuvenating areas of scrub, the mix of shrubs and small trees that provide valuable shelter and nesting sites for birds and other wildlife. This work helps maintain the natural balance between open meadow and scrub, ensuring a mosaic of habitats that support a rich variety of species. Denser areas of scrub are being retained or re-established to provide safe nesting areas, while open glades ensure light reaches the meadow plants below.
At Wandlebury, the focus has been on pond and woodland management. Volunteers recently helped clear vegetation around Cherry Pond to allow more sunlight into the water and prevent it from becoming overgrown. Meanwhile, corporate groups have been assisting with our ongoing woodland restoration project.
This work involves carefully removing or coppicing some trees to create variation in the age and structure of the woodland, which in turn supports greater biodiversity. Areas of woodland that haven’t been managed for many years can become what ecologists call “overstood”, meaning the trees are all roughly the same age and height, limiting light, regeneration, and wildlife diversity. By reintroducing a healthy rotation of growth, we create more dynamic woodland with glades, younger saplings, and older trees coexisting, a structure that supports many more species. Another aspect of our winter woodland work is ensuring that dead or diseased trees that pose a risk of falling on visitors are made safe.
If you visit Wandlebury you may notice our woodland work in action and occasionally we will need to close a path while we work.
It takes a couple of years for the results of woodland regeneration to really start to become visible, new glades, more light, more variety and new microhabitats springing to life.
As always, our approach balances managing our spaces for people with managing spaces for nature so both can thrive together.
