Stormy weather

                 Recent storms have left their mark in Crow Wood with a fair number of trees down and lots of debris scattered over the ground. Many of our Sweet Chestnuts are "overstood". They were originally planted as a cash crop in the 1850s and lived their lives being coppiced to make hop poles every 25 years or so. Many of ours were last cut like this in the early 1980s and have since grown very tall. The soils beneath the wood are poor with sandstone layers not far below the surface and the trees are not able to put their roots down very far. Their root "plates" are shallow and thus the trees themselves are pretty vulnerable to high winds and even more so when the ground is wet. There are dead trees in there too which are especially prone to succumb to strong winds. In the scheme of all things natural this is just part of the wood's history. It is not all bad news however - as trees fall in times like this more light reaches the woodland floor to benefit other plants and animals along the way. But in a small, heavily used wood like ours there is a big job to be done to make the trees safe and many of those affected will need expert attention to get them to the ground. Trees leaning on and caught by others are very tricky to fell and we will have to bring in the specialists in due course.

                Meanwhile this early Spring with its warm temperatures is stimulating the "greening" with many Snowdrops now showing their colours. The promise of pollen is getting the bees restless too.

Signs of activity at our friend's bee hive

 the shallow root plate of a striken Chestnut tree

in amongst the storm debris, the first Snowdrops

There is lots of small debris brought down

Two large Birch trees felled by the winds

A dead Scots Pine broken off at height

wet ground in some places has helped the wind do its worst

A Sweet Chestnut "stool" broken in half as the trees fell, one of several like this

Caught up.......a Scots pine pushed over and now leaning dangerously