Woodlea

Our team were pleased to see that almost all the surviving trees are in excellent condition and displaying robust growth. It is clear that the landowner has worked hard to maintain the trees, by weeding between trees and within guards, and straightening and replacing guards and stakes.

There is a slightly lower survival rate and more frequent stunting in the plot's centre, while the trees closer to each edge are generally highly vigorous and large. One small patch of low survival was directly under a large oak canopy - presumably having been shaded out by the larger tree.

There is some evidence of deer presence on-site, but the landowner reports it to not be a significant threat to the saplings.

The meadow planting has been unsuccessful, despite trying a yellow-rattle seed mix, exactly the same type of meadow failure as at Pantpurlais. Our team spotted one Himalayan balsam plant on site which we removed immediately. It has largely been eliminated here, but neighbouring properties still have pockets of it on their land.

There are a mix of plants occurring naturally across the site with plenty of common sneezewort, sharp rush, bird's foot trefoil, and lesser stitchwort, as well as some smaller areas of ragwort, thistle and sorrel.

The landowner carried out the survey for us this year and took these photographs. We were pleased to see that some of the fast-growing species are already above the protective guard level, some up to 1.5 metres tall. However, the grass is also benefiting from these conditions, overgrowing the mulch mats we laid the year after planting to give our saplings a better chance.

Loss seems concentrated in some patches. Mortality seems to be the highest in the wettest areas where rushes are the densest in the field. Overall, the survival rate is 82%.

On our third visit to the site, we brought along some mulch mats to deal with the fast growing grass. We do this occasionally because sometimes the grass will have grown very long and will actually be competing with the tree for the nutrients in the soil. The mulch mats smother the grass and weeds and actually keep in the moisture too, greatly increasing the tree’s survival chances during the hot, dry summers we seem to be getting more and more frequently.

We invited local volunteers to come and help Phil and the landowner as there were around 450 to do. Summer events are normally more pleasant, and this was an ideal day as it was warm but overcast so we didn’t get too hot. As usual, this friendly landowner provided drinks and biscuits, and everyone took a break to enjoy a picnic around 1pm.

Once the volunteers had finished and headed home, Phil went to check on the rhododendrons he had removed last year. As anticipated, they are very hardy, and don’t give up easily, so Phil needed to spend another day dealing with the regrowth.

Our second visit was by Phil, who, along with his machete and loppers, cleared out some of the rhododendrons that were encroaching on the ground. These plants, while superficially pretty, are actually quite a pain.

Rhododendrons are tough and spread rapidly, making them very difficult to control. They can cause a number of problems in the wild as they tend to form dense plants which block sunlight from reaching the floor of the woodland, thus leading to native plants being shaded out and to a loss of biodiversity. Their leaves are acidic and decompose slowly which affects the PH value and nutrients in the soil as well as releasing chemicals which inhibit the germination of other native plants. Rhododendrons in a woodland can reduce the availability of food and shelter for birds, mammals and invertebrates. They also contain pathogens such as Phytophthora Ramorum which causes sudden oak death and affects many other tree species too.

We don’t want a monoculture, which is what the rhododendrons want. So, out went Phil with his tools, cutting back branches to reach the main trunk, then cutting that down and burning the cuttings. The rhododendrons will grow back unless treated, so Phil did that too. He was very pleased with the result, but we will need to keep an eye on the situation over the next few years to make sure that they don’t regrow.

Planting season gets very busy, so we like to start as soon as possible. Bare root whips, the cheapest saplings, are not available until mid- to late-November, depending on the weather, so for this October planting we purchased cell-grown trees which cost a little more but can be planted at any time.

Our team from Protect Earth led a group of volunteers in a very successful initial planting here. It was smaller than most of our plantings, a modest 454 trees and shrubs. They were planted at random with at least 3m between them to leave room for natural regeneration. It was quite wet underfoot so this will give our saplings a good start.