Autumn is a season we associate with many things in relation to nature, it could be bird migration, fruitfulness, a dying back for winter, and of course blustery weather. For me it is the season of fungi, with rotting vegetation and warm moist air prompting all manner of weird spore-laden fruiting bodies to suddenly appear. Even those with only a passing knowledge of natural history, know that they can come in all kinds of peculiar shapes and colours. Buckenham Woods, retaining much of its ancient woodland character, is particularly good for fungi species. A survey carried out in January of this year recorded ninety-five different fungi in that one month alone. Over two hundred species have been recorded in total.🍂🍄🍄‍🟫📈     

Update on Buckenham Wood Management works

Anyone visiting the woods over the last few weeks will see that our expert arborists have been hard at work, carrying out tree safety work and our planned woodland management. This can look quite drastic at first glance, but the proven long-term benefits to the wood, and its wildlife, are considerable. This has involved the removal of some trees to ground level, pollarding of others, or the ring barking of some to create standing ‘deadwood’. This work has predominately been carried out on the sycamores. The sycamore tree, although having been in the UK for many centuries, is not native. It can grow rapidly on all soil types, has few pathogens and pests to arrest its dominance, and comes into leaf quite early in the spring. Most UK woodlands, left unmanaged, will become overrun by this invasive species. They shade out not only the ground flora, particularly the spring flowers, like our beloved bluebells, ransom and wood anemone, but other trees too. Our recent volunteer days have been invasive species focussed, and the pulling of sycamore saplings across the bluebell beds has been one of our main tasks to date.   

The lying, and standing deadwood, will provide homes and food for current woodland species, and will encourage new creatures to colonise. This will increase biodiversity, particularly insects, and in turn bird life. Breeding bird, bat, fungi and butterfly surveys have taken place, and it is intended to carry out other surveys such as moth counts (moth diversity is a fantastic measure of an eco-systems health). This work will track improvements over the years and inform any future woodland management work.  As the wood rots, it is food for fungi and countless numbers and varieties of invertebrates. 🐦🪺Bird nesting and 🦇bat roost cavities are being carved into some of the managed trees. Discreet metal nest-hole plates are fixed to many, and these will help prevent predation of eggs and young chicks by grey squirrels. 

Much of the ‘cord’ wood will be left to rot in situ, or employed to line the paths, this we hope, will remind visitors to keep to the marked tracks, plus it should stop the paths becoming too wide and encroaching onto the bluebell carpets. Some of the brushwood will be chipped and laid on the paths, whilst some will be deployed as barriers around saplings, and act, along with the tree guards as a deterrent against muntjac browsing. Any brushwood left where cut will quickly rot down, and these clumps are great for wildlife - nature loves ‘untidy’. It also beneficial to lay brushwood in areas where bluebell recovery is needed, as it stops trampling by feet and helps prevent grazing by muntjac (they have a taste for bluebell bulbs). Although you may not see the carpet of blue beneath the brushwood, the plants are doing fine and prospers by spending time maturing under a tangle of branches.  

Any woods-person knows the old country saying, ‘hawthorn is the mother of oak’. And the planting of native ‘thorns’ such as hawthorn, buckthorn and blackthorn will help protect the hazel, field maple and hornbeam saplings, as well as the oaks. Thick clumps of ‘thorns’ are of course ideal for nesting birds. Chestnut fencing encircling the heart of the woodland will also discourage muntjac and provide an undisturbed area for breeding birds and wintering woodcock. The wood for the fencing is locally sourced and will darken with age. It will very quickly blend into its surroundings when brambles and honey-suckle grows through and around it. Increasing the understorey of a woodland is vital for its long-term health and survival. Formerly the British Isles ‘wild’ forests, would have had 🐈lynx and 🐺wolves to keep 🦌deer browsing and grazing in check, and long-lost eco-engineers such as 🦫beavers, Auroch and 🐗boars would have created diverse habitats.  Many British woodlands maintained much of their current fauna and flora diversity by the happy accident of long-term human woodland activities.  

🪓The selective felling of timber, pollarding and coppicing replicates natural processes, and ancient woods thrive when this is regularly carried out. The decline of the old woodland traditions has been to the detriment of many UK woods, and it is something we are restoring to Buckenham Ancient Woodland.          

 Autumn is natures reset button, with winter being a period of recovery for some and a battle for survival for others. However, our wildlife is finding it increasingly difficult to survive or recover. Demands for land and resources, continuing pollution and climate change are all having a dramatic effect on our natural world. However, just as the seasons change so can we, more people are coming together to protect and improve our environment so future generations can feel nature’s generous embrace. The Buckenham Ancient Woodland Trust, thanks all our visitors for their patience during this autumn and winter work programme, and our members and volunteers for their continuing support.

If you would like to find out more about the management of Buckenham Wood click here.