Author: Rich
-
RSPB – SWOG Meeting 2022
Update May 2022 We are rerunning this meeting as there were a lot of people who weren’t able to make it last your due to the pandemic, I was one of them! If you were too and would like to attend, please let me know. It will be taking place on the morning of July…
-
RSPB Meeting
-
UK Squirrel Accord – Project Update
There has been an interesting progress report from the UK Squirrel Accord, who are midway through their project of finding a species specific oral contraception for the invasive non-native grey squirrel.
-
Building a New Old Barn part III
Well this Barn project continues, albeit in fits and starts. I guess there’s never a good time to have a global pandemic as many of the medieval builders may also have found, however after 3 months of relatively little activity it’s nice to get back to being a bit more productive and pushing the project…
-
Low Impact Milling in Small Woodlands
Forestry can sometimes look like quite a destructive process. Felling on a large scale will often leave a site looking harsh and barren, scarred by the ruts and compaction left by the movements of huge machines.
-
SWOG Meeting at Flatropers, East Sussex
In contrast to last year’s event at this beautiful woodland in East Sussex, the heavens opened and stayed that way for most of the guided walk around the reserve. Despite the weather, Alice Parfit from the Sussex Wildlife Trust enthused the attendees, and no one left disappointed – only a little soggy.
-
Building a new ‘Old Barn’ Part II
It’s been a long and challenging year in the life of this project. We have been transforming 20 or so standing woodland oak trees, about 100 years old to a standing oak framed barn which hopefully will last for many more years than that.
-
Butterflies Flutterby
Many thanks are owed to Martin and Marilyn Garwood of Crow Wood, part of the Old Park Wood in Goudhurst. They hosted a wonderful afternoon of butterfly ID and general ‘woodie’ type chat in their wood in July.
-
Gimme Shelter – Building a Simple Woodland Shelter
Once you’ve spent any amount of time in the woods, you’ll probably discover that you need some kind of protection from the elements. Or as Mick Jagger once sang “If I don’t get some shelter …Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away” .
-
Building a New ‘Old’ Barn – Part I
As a tiny acorn can eventually lead to much bigger things, so has the seed of an idea I had of building a new barn to season my wood and store my forestry equipment. I have been managing two small woodlands on the edge of the High Weald AONB of East Sussex for 3 or…
-
Butterfly Workshop 30th July
The last in our series of butterfly workshops was held at Combwell, an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) in the heart of the High Weald of Kent. It was well attended by about 18 owners and other interested parties who enjoyed a breezy, but mostly sunny and dry tour of the woods.
-
Butterfly Workshop 23rd July
If our last workshop at Plattershill proved to be the perfect conditions for spotting and identifying butterflies, this weekends event was almost exactly the opposite. It was promising sunshine as I drove along the bottom of the South Downs to the event at a woodland close to the village of Small Dole in the Adur…