1. WOODLAND MANANGEMENT FOR BIODIVERSITY
CALCOT CENTRE, 9th JULY 2012
Butterfly Conservation
Saving butterflies, moths and our environment

2. ORGANISERS & PRESENTERS
Hampshire & Isle of White WLT
Buckinghamshire, Berkshire & Oxfordshire LWT (BBOWT)
Forestry Commission
Butterfly Conservation Trust
Game & Wildlife Conservancy Trust
Deer Initiative
Hampshire & IOW WLT facilitated the day
BBOWT provided a speaker and hosted the afternoon walk round Moor Copse, one of their sites (SSSI)
All presented in the morning with the exception of Jamie Cordery from the Deer Initiative who did his bit as we walked round in the afternoon

3. STRUCTURE OF DAY Presentations Lunch Visit to Moor Copse
Principles of woodland Management and the importance of management to biodiversity – Karen Davies (BBOWT)
Management of woodland and woodland grants available to support this work – Jonathan Rau (Forestry Commission)
Key species and survey techniques: A case study on butterflies and moths – Dan Hoare (Butterfly Conservation Trust)
Game management in woodlands – Peter Thompson (Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust
Lunch
Visit to Moor Copse
Led by Andy Coulson-Phillips (Reserves Manager BBOWT) & Ian Stevenson (Reserves Officer BBOWT) with Jamie Cordery (South East Deer Initiative)
Karen Davies was knowledgeable, had a good presentation and was a competent speaker
Jonathan Rau had good material but was a poor speaker and overran
Dan Hoare was brilliant and brought the house down – It was a pity that Dan had to loose part of his presentation to get the timetable back on track
Peter Thompson was also very good
Jamie Cordery was very good and handled a ticklelish subject well with humour

4. PURPOSE OF THIS PRESENTATION
Distil key elements from the day - where applicable to Groups in an urban or urban-fringe setting
Will concentrate on the biodiversity issues of woodland management
Will only cover issues of forestry harvesting, grants & deer management where they effect us

5. TARGET AUDIENCE Land owners Land Agents Land Managers
within the area of North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Land Agents
Land Managers
Conservation Groups

6. BIODIVERSITY = VARIETY
Woodland provides a dark & cool environment
Variation can be introduced by:
Coppicing / Pollarding
Opening up rides within the wood
Opening up areas within the wood:
Clearings
“Sky-lighting”
Profiling the boundary of the wood

7. BIODIVERSITY = VARIETY
Woodland under the canopy provides a dark & cool environment
A habitat in it’s own right
A mix of species and ages is better than a monoculture
Trees are better spaced out rather than planted close together
Trees are often planted close together to force them to grow tall & straight – produces straight timber – requires gradual thinning to allow selected tress to mature
Often not done due to resource issues

8. WOODLAND HABITAT RESOURCES 1
Leaving fallen timber is GOOD
Leaving felled timber is OK
Leaving “standing dead” trees (“monoliths”) is OK
Fallen or felled timber left to rot naturally is a fantastic resource for invertebrates

9. WOODLAND HABITAT RESOURCES 2
Processing arrisings (“brash”)
“Habitat Piles” can be OK
Distributing throughout the wood may be Better
Chipping can be expensive but useful
Dead hedging OK but is not “stock-proof”
Burning is to be Avoided
Be careful about habitat piles – they can used by rabbits as a protective “fort” from which to forage/pillage the surrounding woodland
Distributing arrisings in a low density way is only possible in areas not subject to public access – difficult for most groups.
Both methods (piling & distribution) are labour intensive but chipping is expensive and can be disruptive (moving heavy equipment around)
Dead hedging is not a solution to keeping out deer or rabbits – deer will push underneath fences rather than jumping!
Burning is to be discouraged as it bakes the soil – If it must be done, the fewer the fire sites the better (= more labour to move arrisings)

10. BIODIVERSITY = VARIETY
Coppicing / Pollarding
Woods partitioned into sections (“Stoops”)
Rotational felling
Mainly Hazel
Traditionally frequency of rotation determined by:
Use of wood products
Availability of labour
Rotation now determined by:
Dormice
Without Dormice = 7-10 years
With Dormice = 15 years or more
In the south east, most (large) hazel woods/coppice will have dormice. Where Dormice are present, a longer rotation can be used and the work only done in winter – when the dormice are dormant

11. BIODIVERSITY = VARIETY
Opening up the canopy allows in light and warmth
All Woodland Edges can be structured in a similar way
Edge Progression:
Short grass
Long grass + small shrubs
Larger shrubs & coppice
Mature canopy trees

12. PROFILE OF A WOODLAND EDGE
Medium height shrubs & coppice (felled every 5-20 years)
Canopy Trees – mixed species/age
Fence line or centre of path/track
Long grass & small shrubs (mown/cleared on a 1-3 year cycle)
Short grass (mown twice or more a year)
Width of transition should be as wide as the height of the canopy

13. ELEMENTS OF A WOODLAND RIDE OR PATH
“Scallops”
Long Grass & Small Shrubs
Short Grass
Medium Shrubs/Coppice
Rides are best aligned east-west to get maximum sun.
Scallops provide additional variation in aspect
Pinch points allow species of the canopy/mature woodland to move around
Mature Canopy
Pinch Point

14. WOODLAND EDGES Woodland rides, paths and access tracks:
At least as wide as the height of the canopy
Wider on rides aligned north/south where possible
Woodland/Field boundaries
Edge can be formed on the woodland side of any (deer-proof) fence
The wider the better = more sun = warmer

15. WOODLAND CLEARINGS - 1
Clearings can mix & match edge elements depending on size of clearing
Where paths or tracks cross can be used as focus for a clearing.
Created by:
Felling
“Sky-lighting” = ring barking one or more trees
The wider the better = more sun = warmer

16. WOODLAND CLEARINGS - 2 “Sky-lighting” = ring barking one or more trees
Progression to standing Dead Wood:
Small branches will fall in first summer
Larger branches will fall in second summer
Tree will soon (5 years) start shedding bark
Standing dead wood will son be used by woodpeckers – Loose bark can be used by bats for a summer roost

17. COPPICE STRUCTURE >5% in temporary open space
>15% in stands 1-10 years old
>10% non-intervention (Mature trees):
3 fallen/laying trees >20cm dia per hectare
4 dead standing trees per hectare
Coppice always has some isolated or Maiden trees embedded within the hazel stoops

18. LINKING THE LANDSCAPE Linear Features Landscape scale
Well maintained hedges
Landscape scale
Using scrub to link areas of woodland
Maintaining grassland habitat
Hedges were not discussed but the same principles of woodland edge could be applied to hedgerows

19. HOW TO LINK ISOLATED WOODS - 1
Before After
Mature Canopy Woodland
Mature Canopy Woodland
Meadow with planted Scrub
Meadow
Mature Canopy Woodland
Mature Canopy Woodland

20. HOW TO LINK ISOLATED WOODS - 2
Before After
Mature Canopy Woodland
Mature Canopy Woodland
Scrub allows some woodland species to “jump” the gap
Meadow with planted Scrub
Meadow
Mature Canopy Woodland
Mature Canopy Woodland

21. HOW TO LINK ISOLATED WOODS - 3
Before After
Mature Canopy Woodland
Mature Canopy Woodland
Sufficient Meadow to allow grassland species to move
Meadow with planted Scrub
Meadow
Mature Canopy Woodland
Mature Canopy Woodland

22. ANCIENT WOODLAND -CHARCTERISTICS
Continuously managed since the 1600’s
Have their own Ancient Woodland Indicator (AWI) Species
Primarily plants – 60 species
“Common” species include:
Wood Anemone
Sweet Woodruff
Wood Sorrel
Archangel
Mouchel (aka Townhall Clock)
We have a number of fine ancient woodlands in the Basingstoke area

23. ANCIENT WOODLAND - VULNERABILITIES
Easily damaged:
Soil disturbance/compaction from wood processing or vehicles
Very slow to recover
AWI plant species are often very slow to colonise adjacent areas
Some can be very fussy as to soil conditions, location, aspect or state of canopy
Example - Wood Anemone
Most of its seed is sterile
Does not persist in seed bank for long
Rhizomes are very slow to establish
Needs dappled shade
Need to plan work carefully

24. BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS - 1
How can we measure the effectiveness of our management regime?
Monitor butterflies:
Easy to identify
React very quickly to changes in their habitat or breeding conditions
Hoverflies can also be used
Much more difficult to observe/catch/identify

25. BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS - 2
Example – Duke of Burgundy Fritillary
Allegedly very slow to colonise new areas
Southeast Woodlands Project – :
Three sites
Denge Woods nr Canterbury, Kent
Rother Woods nr Rye, East Sussex
Tytherley Woods on Hampshire/Wiltshire border
Results (annual transect) from Denge Woods
Before