Woodland Management on Walton Hill

Iron Gate and Bird House Coppice.

During 2011/12, staff, volunteers and Bournville College students began an on-going project to develop new coppice wood systems on part of Walton Hill. The area, below the slope of Iron Gate Covert stretching down towards Bird Hide Wood, appears to have been grazed until a few decades ago. Since then it has developed as a hawthorn woodland of questionable value, with one block of impressive oak, some ash plantation, and small wet patches and flushes of biological interest.

Around this time we brought what few hedges we have on site into management using traditional laying techniques, which requires a good supply of hazel for stakes and binding. Something we are currently unable to produce from our land at the Clent Hills, but have sourced locally – at a cost – from the Woodland Trust’s excellent Pepperwood site at Bourneheath, where management as coppice with standards is being used.

After 12 months?

Hazel - planted in 2012 - which will be
allowed to grow for 7-15 years
before harvesting for timber
production.

What had been a poor quality area dominated by sycamore with no understorey or nectar rich field layer was cleared and replanted with hazel at around 1 metre spacings: close enough to encourage tall straight growth. During the first year the field layer has become dominated by fox gloves – a biennial, so 2013 will see an amazing flush of purple and mauve when this comes into flower. This will be superb for invertebrates.

Among the fox gloves can also be found other flowering plants such as dog violet, gypsywort, marsh thistle, and ragwort – these latter two, although of value for invertebrates, will need to monitored to prevent their becoming dominant. These along with new grasses and rushes, and the ubiquitous opposite leaved golden saxifrage.

Until it matures to produce shade, wildflowers can thrive beneath
young hazel. Here, fox gloves have thrived during 2012. In 2013
area 1 will take on a purple hue and provide a new nectar source
for invertebrates.

Area 2 – 2012/13

Being prepared for planting during 2012/13, area 2. The majority of hawthorn will be felled, with some retained and pollarded to mark the edges of coppice blocks - or coupes. Follow-up managment will need to prevent the area becoming dominated by bramble re-growth.

Being less wet underfoot, we should see a different species assemblage in the second area. Already, struggling beneath the brambles and among the sycamore re-growth, we have found a large number of male fern clumps. What new species are waiting to emerge as the work continues, we will have to wait and see.

Male fern (hybrid?) will benefit from the new
management regime.Whilst still apparent in the area,
it is succumbing to ever increasing bramble dominance.

We will retain a number of the hawthorn in core non-intervention areas which hold the most mature specimens, and also as linear features to mark the edges of these new coupes: these we will attempt to pollard, in order to encourage new growth, and promote more advanced age characteristics such as rot holes which provide niche habitats for a range of invertebrates particularly hoverflies.