Lower Wood (Michael Barnes, Ranger)

With the beginning of the colder seasons, the work focus at Lower Wood has moved away from the species rich woodland rides and towards the coppice plots that edge them. Coppicing is a traditional woodland management technique that dates back millennia. It involves felling trees at their base to create a ‘stool’ where new shoots will grow. The process floods an area of woodland with light, allowing a wider range of plants to flourish, increasing the botanical diversity present. Each of our plots is at a different stage of the coppice cycle, providing a varied habitat structure and a softer gradient to the high canopy wood behind.

Coppicing is also one traditional area that Wildlife Trust volunteers have been heavily involved in, and Lower Wood is no different. Our enthusiastic volunteer warden, Duncan Mackay, leads work parties over the winter months with regular volunteers attending. Alongside the direct benefit to the woodland from their efforts, the coppice product they produce, mainly hazel, will be used at Trumpington Meadows nature reserve, where we will start the next section of hedgelaying with volunteers in the new year.  

Trumpington Meadows (Becky Green, Senior Ranger)

As you may remember from the last update in August, the Ranger team were working with contractors to install some new Clipex fencing around Edmundsoles at Trumpington Meadows nature reserve.  Since then we’ve installed four pasture pumps to provide drinking water, with help from Volunteer Officer Adam. Finally, in September, we were ready to welcome 17 Belted Galloways - 16 heifers and a bull called Jasper - part of The Wandering Herd . Belted Galloways are a native breed of cattle, very hardy so thrive being outside all year round, and they are helping us with essential grazing of the species rich meadows. Jasper and 10 others have since left for new pastures, leaving a core herd of 7 cattle that we hope will be a fairly regular fixture at the reserve. Ed from The Wandering Herd delivered some informative training to a group of volunteers who will be helping us out with “Lookering” – carrying out essential welfare checks on the herd. Look out for “Meet the Cows” events next year, and you might also bump into the herd at other reserves such as Fulbourn Fen, Cambourne and Wandlebury.

East Cambs Reserves Highlights

Mark Ricketts, Reserves Manager (East Cambs)

Fleam Dyke – Ex-arable conversion to grassland

The Wildlife Trust BCN recently purchased a section of Fleam Dyke SSSI between the A11 and Fulbourn. Alongside the SSSI we also purchased a 50m strip of arable land that we are now converting to grassland. This has been sown with a wildflower mix and will need to be grazed in the future.

During mid-November contractors were fencing the recently seeded area, so we can graze with livestock once the seed mix has become established.

The seed has germinated and can just be seen emerging from the ground in the photograph, along the sowing lines from the seed drill. Metal fence posts with a 30-year guarantee are being used so we will not need to add to the considerable existing staff time spent each year fixing rotten wooden fence posts.

Waresley and Gransden Wood - Ride reprofiling

This year we have been continuing our ride reprofiling at Waresley Wood.This is the second section of the main ride that we have reprofiled. The aim of the reprofiling is to create a new “whaleback” or convex profile to stop it from becoming waterlogged and then having footfall destroying the vegetation and turning the whole ride into a mud bath.

With this year’s work on the ride finished, it will now be closed to the public for 2 years to give the soil time to settle and allow the flora to start to grow again. The first section has recovered well and is back to being a wonderfully rich grassland habitat rich in wildlife flowers benefitting bees, butterflies and a host of other wildlife.

Alongside the ride we have also carried out ride side coppicing to diversify the woodland structure and create temporary glades alongside the rides. This will provide dense understorey for nesting and foraging opportunities for a range of wildlife. A range of wildlife will benefit from this cycle of light and shade as the coppice develops through the different stages:  How each stage of the coppice cycle benefits wildlife | Wildlife Trust for Beds Cambs & Northants

Grafham Water Update

Greg Belcher, Senior Reserves Officer

What;s been going on at Grafham over the summer?  Obviously, on a site with grasslands, the cutting/removal of the grass is a main priority. 

At Grafham some of the larger grasslands are cut with a tractor and flail collector an easy job for one man, but many smaller or more inaccessible areas have to be done manually.  Staff cut these areas and the arisings are raked up by the ever enthusiastic mid-week volunteer team. 

This task is aided by our four-legged mowers who travel over from Newmarket.  The cattle this year consisted of a highland cow with her calf and the ever present, and appropriately named, ‘Perry’ a pedigree shorthorn bull.  He has been coming to the site since 2021 when he arrived as an unsure 18 month old, no bigger than his Highland Cow companions.  I have watched him grow and by the time he left us this year he was twice the size with the proper outline of a beef bull, a thick neck and a big hump of muscle on his shoulders.

Another task that occupied large amounts of time through the summer was the housekeeping task of keeping the paths on site useable. Within the nature reserve we have approx. 5km of cycle track and another 4.5km of other paths, all of which are bordered by hedgerows or are flanked by vegetation.  This summer was a very good growing season which meant virtually constant cutting back of encroaching vegetation, all of which we have to do manually, partially because of access issues and partially to ensure any nesting birds and other wildlife are left undisturbed.  Once again my mid-week volunteers are invaluable in completing this apparently never-ending task.

Coming forward in time, I have at last, managed to get work at Valley Creek dipping pond sorted.  This pond, close to Mander car park, was originally dug as an educational resource with quite a deep profile and a dipping platform down one side.  However, over the years, the education team moved to Paxton Pits and pond was used less and less for its original purpose.  The platform was removed a few years ago as it had gone rotten and was no longer safe.  This left a pond that resembled no more than a short drainage ditch that led nowhere. 

This November I employed a contractor to reprofile it and now has shallower sloping sides and a greater area of open water.  Hopefully, once the vegetation reestablishes itself this will prove ideal habitat for all manner of aquatic life.

West Cambs Reserves Highlights

Eamonn Lawlor (Senior Reserves Officer)

Brampton Wood

Coppicing at Brampton Wood begins each year in October. We tackle a different sections each year on a twenty year rotation. Last winter, we focused our efforts along West Ride North on the far side of the wood. We returned this summer with a contractor to help extract the large quantity of felled wood to the storage yard on site. It would have taken us a long time to do it ourselves.

This September, we sold over 30 tonnes of Oak, ash and aspen for firewood which helped offset any costs associated with its extraction. More importantly, it allowed us to bring more of the ride side edges into better condition for wildlife.

 Wistow

This winter, we had volunteers from the West Cambs Volunteer Group planting trees into Wistow Wood. The area planted was coppiced back in the winter of ’23. Our efforts these past few years aim to coppice on rotation its southern boundary adjacent the road where it captures most of the light. In the past, we’ve had black hairstreak recorded using the old hedge.

To encourage more regeneration and to mitigate against climate change we’ve planted in a more diverse mix of trees to increase its resilience to changing conditions and to help replace the dying ash canopy. Species like Oak and Small leaved lime will help to fill gaps in the woods upper canopy whilst hazel, spindle, privet, crab apple and wild service tree will add to the midland hawthorn, blackthorn and field maple already present in the understory.

After a morning of planting 120 trees into the coppiced area, everyone enjoyed a festive lunch with hot mulled wine (non-alcoholic of course!) around the fire.