Land use, Habitat changes and my favourite wood.
Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:00 pm
Habitat changes.
As a schoolboy in the 1950s, along with two other school friends, I frequently visited a wooded area west of the River Severn in Gloucestershire. It was by pure chance that when chatting about Butterflies and Moths, another classmate piped up saying he had White Admirals in his garden! Otherwise we would never have known about this wood. We cycled out there and sure enough, they were there. His garden backed onto an extensive woodland which then had a wide and interesting variety of wildlife species.
Our visits became more frequent but it was a fair old trip on a push bike and sometimes we’d take the train ~ putting our bikes on the train then cycling to the wood. As all three of us were also railway and transport enthusiasts, it was nice to combine the two interests in one trip. All those little stations, halts and branch lines also long gone…
... Such is progress. Some of you may have seen that old black and white print of schoolboy me with the Butterfly Net taken during one of those trips.
Since those fabulous far away days of the 1950s, I’ve kept an eye on my favourite wood with occasional visits even when I lived in London from 1960-71. I have seen many changes, sadly mostly not for the better as far as wildlife there is concerned. Indeed, during the asset stripping, profit is god 1980s the wood became a darkened light starved commercial softwood desert . Horrible. 100% commercial softwood ….. Yes, very darkened and not even a shadow of it’s former self. A lot of that softwood still remains but, will be harvested over the coming years. Where Pearl Bordered Fritillaries and a little later, Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries flew in their hundreds during the 1950s and as recently as 1968 when I last saw them in good numbers, huge dense plantations of various softwoods some over 100 feet high now exist. This is what I mean ~ pictures taken last week : ~
It would be hard to locate Honeysuckle there where in a bygone August, I could locate fifty White Admiral Ova or larvae in as many minutes.
Some of those Softwoods are well over a hundred feet tall ~ there are even denser plantations elsewhere in the wood. I believe these closer pictures show Redwood and Ch. lawsonia although not having checked, could be wrong on both counts. The old memory aint what it used to be…
On my most recent visit last week, I found that things may just have taken a turn for the better. My own little nature reserve is not far away so I drop in when time allows. I again met the owner of the shooting rights there and what he told me about the current management plans leads me to believe there’s just a chance that woodland could return to the way I remembered it. The plan is to harvest the mature softwoods and return the whole area to 80% hardwoods. Indeed I observed many recent plantings of various tree species with protective sleeves as there are Deer, Squirrels and Rabbits in the area which would make short work of that tender young bark.
He directed me to a part of the wood that has been cleared of much of the softwoods and the work is continuing. I took the following pictures and these areas will be much more suitable for a wider variety of wildlife and plants with the passing of a year or two. Note the slender Oaks where for years they struggled for light survival against the faster growing softwoods around them … with the softwoods gone, they can again thrive.
I am very cheered by what I’ve seen and will keep a closer eye on this wood from now on. Over the past two years I have not seen any of those woodland butterflies mentioned above, but, it’s not all gloomy news, the delightful little Wood White is there today ~ it was never present back in my schooldays.
Ongoing....
As a schoolboy in the 1950s, along with two other school friends, I frequently visited a wooded area west of the River Severn in Gloucestershire. It was by pure chance that when chatting about Butterflies and Moths, another classmate piped up saying he had White Admirals in his garden! Otherwise we would never have known about this wood. We cycled out there and sure enough, they were there. His garden backed onto an extensive woodland which then had a wide and interesting variety of wildlife species.
Our visits became more frequent but it was a fair old trip on a push bike and sometimes we’d take the train ~ putting our bikes on the train then cycling to the wood. As all three of us were also railway and transport enthusiasts, it was nice to combine the two interests in one trip. All those little stations, halts and branch lines also long gone…
... Such is progress. Some of you may have seen that old black and white print of schoolboy me with the Butterfly Net taken during one of those trips. Since those fabulous far away days of the 1950s, I’ve kept an eye on my favourite wood with occasional visits even when I lived in London from 1960-71. I have seen many changes, sadly mostly not for the better as far as wildlife there is concerned. Indeed, during the asset stripping, profit is god 1980s the wood became a darkened light starved commercial softwood desert . Horrible. 100% commercial softwood ….. Yes, very darkened and not even a shadow of it’s former self. A lot of that softwood still remains but, will be harvested over the coming years. Where Pearl Bordered Fritillaries and a little later, Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries flew in their hundreds during the 1950s and as recently as 1968 when I last saw them in good numbers, huge dense plantations of various softwoods some over 100 feet high now exist. This is what I mean ~ pictures taken last week : ~
It would be hard to locate Honeysuckle there where in a bygone August, I could locate fifty White Admiral Ova or larvae in as many minutes.
Some of those Softwoods are well over a hundred feet tall ~ there are even denser plantations elsewhere in the wood. I believe these closer pictures show Redwood and Ch. lawsonia although not having checked, could be wrong on both counts. The old memory aint what it used to be…
On my most recent visit last week, I found that things may just have taken a turn for the better. My own little nature reserve is not far away so I drop in when time allows. I again met the owner of the shooting rights there and what he told me about the current management plans leads me to believe there’s just a chance that woodland could return to the way I remembered it. The plan is to harvest the mature softwoods and return the whole area to 80% hardwoods. Indeed I observed many recent plantings of various tree species with protective sleeves as there are Deer, Squirrels and Rabbits in the area which would make short work of that tender young bark.
He directed me to a part of the wood that has been cleared of much of the softwoods and the work is continuing. I took the following pictures and these areas will be much more suitable for a wider variety of wildlife and plants with the passing of a year or two. Note the slender Oaks where for years they struggled for light survival against the faster growing softwoods around them … with the softwoods gone, they can again thrive.
I am very cheered by what I’ve seen and will keep a closer eye on this wood from now on. Over the past two years I have not seen any of those woodland butterflies mentioned above, but, it’s not all gloomy news, the delightful little Wood White is there today ~ it was never present back in my schooldays.
Ongoing....