East Cambridgeshire Reserves - Mark Ricketts, Reserves Manager (East Cambs)

Fleam Dyke

Since the Wildlife Trust BCN acquired Fleam Dyke, most of the practical work has been on the now ex-arable land that we are turning into chalk grassland.  This winter we received the required consent from Natural England to start working on Fleam Dyke itself.

There will be lots of follow up work required to keep on top of the clearance work.

It has been done before several times (when not under ownership of the Wildlife Trust BCN) but although fairly easy to clear scrub, it has proved too difficult to stop it returning just by cutting and removal. So we will be doing things a little differently….. watch this space!

Hayley Wood

This winter we have completed our annual coppicing in Hayley wood, creating temporary open space in the wood to maintain the diverse mosaic of habitats.

As you can see from the pictures it makes quite a difference. With the help of a corporate work party, we have also planted up last year’s coppice plots to make sure that we continue to have a nice dense understory in the years to come. The main pedestrian gate at Hayley didn’t survive the storms over the winter so we have temporarily replaced it with a Heras style gate.

Waresley and Gransden Wood

At Waresley wood the main ride has been coppiced and we have been undertaking a lot more tree planting to restock after recent forestry work.

We are trailing 2 new tree shelters along the main ride, one is made from “British grown natural wood residue and plant resins” whilst the other is a “unique blend of potatoes, wood, corn and a custom biodegradable polymer”. We will see how these fair in the years to come, and how they compare to the cotton based shelters we have been using for a few years now.

All that in mind, the current method we have used for most of our planting is without guards. After some successful trials with this method, we have found that planting twice the number of trees ,and having suitable deer management, works just as well as using guards and is much cheaper.

Fulbourn Fen

In Fulbourn the wardens have had some new tools (see main photo). Along with their volunteers they have been tree popping, clearing and burning scrub and have stripped out an old fence, in preparation for a new installation by the reserves staff.

Cambourne

In Cambourne Reiner and his team have been mostly hedgelaying and clearing boundary access tracks, but have also found the time to begin installing some new benches across the site.

Very positive feedback has been received about this work.

News from the Trumpington Team - Rebecca Green, Senior Ranger

Trumpington Meadows

Over the last two winters we have started a project to lay the hedge alongside the cycle track in the Southern part of the Nature Reserve. This January we layed around 50m over two volunteer sessions, one a Wild Work Day with a team from corporate supporters Cambridge University Press Assessment and one our own regular mid-week volunteer team.

Coppiced hazel poles from Lower Wood were used to provide the stakes and the willow binders came from the local Countryside Restoration Trust farm at Barton.

We recently carried out our annual checks of our swift next boxes to see which ones were used last summer. We don’t clean them out as the debris supports lots of invertebrate species that do no harm to the swifts, and sometimes young swifts prepare a nest one year to use the next. Three of the boxes have cameras so we can keep an eye on them through the nesting season.

Cherry Hinton Chalk Pits

The stormy weather during the late summer and through the autumn and winter caused lots of trees suffering with ash dieback to fall across paths in Lime Kiln Close. We were often out with our chainsaw gear to open the paths back up again, wondering which would be the next one to fall!

We have continued with the help of some volunteer work parties and Wild Work days to keep on tackling the scrub and invasive species in East Pit. We would really like to have a regular weekend work party at this site again. If you live locally and would be interested in getting involved then get in touch with the Trumpington Team at TrumpingtonMeadows@wildlifebcn.org

Lower Wood

Alongside the annual coppice work carried out by the woods volunteer group we have been looking to push back the bramble on the ride edges to enable easy maintenance of the ditches and encourage the water avens to spread.

Another windy autumn has seen us busy clearing the fallen ash as we continue to feel the effects of ash dieback across the woods - you can find out more about our ash dieback appeal here: Ash Dieback Fund | Wildlife Trust for Beds Cambs & Northants With all the dead wood we’ve had a real glut of fungi, including the fantastic scarlet elf cup.

Beechwoods

With the help of our Trumpington Meadows volunteer team, we opened up the glades in the younger woodland. These will provide sunny and sheltered areas where chalk grassland can develop and provide habitat for may invertebrates, including hopefully some more small blue butterflies, which have been seen again on this site recently.

Update from West Cambridgeshire Reserves - Eamonn Lawler, Senior Reserves Officer (West Cambs)

Brampton Wood

Our Brampton Volunteer Group have worked hard this winter opening even more of the Great Glade along the southern edge of the wood. Work began in 2023 by clearing scrub beneath the larger trees and stacking it at the back to build a dead hedge. Trust staff followed up in January ’25 by felling some of the larger trees to promote sunny and sheltered areas where grassland can develop. A handful of trees still needing to be taken out next season but the hard bit is done now. A great effort by all.

Ride side coppicing got underway last October and continued up until February ‘25. Efforts focused on a section of conifer plantation along the edge of Main Ride North. The trust has systematically removed large areas of conifer plantation from the wood over the years with the aim of replacing it with more native broadleaf trees in its place.  

As well as Scots Pine and Corsican Pine there were plenty of oaks and some hazel and Field Maple as well nearer the edge. After felling ended, volunteers spent two days shifting all the brashings produced to the back of the plot helping to exposing the soil surface to more light for saplings to come through and allowing staff to return in the summer with machinery to extract hundreds of wood logs to sell on. All going to plan, the ride edge will transform into a scrubbier habitat with a mix of native tree and scrub species ideal for our Black Hairstreaks found nearby.

Meadow Lane Field (Upwood)

Just up the lane from Upwood Meadows National Nature Reserve, hidden behind a curtain of scrub and away from prying eyes, is a little site by the name of Meadow Lane Field.

Though it may be small, it packs quite a punch in terms of its wildlife. Turtle Dove and Great Crested Newts have been recorded here recently and it’s wide, dense hedges are frequently alive with birdsong. But it’s to the hedges I draw your attention. Blackthorn is aplenty and has been gradually creeping further and further out through the stock fencing onto our lovely grassland. As well as this, some of the larger trees behind are in dire need of some attention and a bit difficult to get to. So, this winter, we set a plan in motion with the help of our West Cambs Thursday Volunteer Group. Never underestimate the amount of work a small work party can get through on a very cold day. Stood still for more than a minute and you might freeze. So, off they went to keep warm and before you knew it, they had knocked back a nice big chunk of thorny scrub helping to clear the way for us staff to return later and get to the trees behind. Oh, and behold, there is a fence there after all!

Grafham Water - Greg Belcher, Senior Reserves Officer

Two things occupied the cold winter months at Grafham this year and both were tangled and spiky, scrub work and hedgerows were our focus. 

Scrub management depends on the age, composition and location of the scrub with two alternate methods being applied.  Areas of very dense scrub which tend to consist of typical species like Hawthorn and Blackthorn, particularly those that need to be managed on a short rotation such as underneath power lines, are coppiced on a varying rotation of 3-10 years. 

Whilst this looks initially devastating, these areas provide temporary open ground within the woodland and once they start growing back are excellent for ground nesting birds and invertebrates.   

Where the scrub is more open, species are more varied and tree species such as Willow, Oak and Ash can be present.  Here a layering approach is used.  The stems are cut about ¾ of the way through and allowed to fall (unless there’s a path or track they’d block!). 

The rotation period for these areas is typically somewhat longer from 6 -20 years.  This provides a slightly more open structure to the scrub producing a microclimate for invertebrates and immediate useable cover for a variety of nesting birds.  All this work was undertaken by staff aided by a stalwart band of volunteers who attend every Wednesday, rain or shine.

Grafham has a total of over 1km of hedgerows scattered through the site, most of which were planted during the Trust’s presence on site. They therefore range from 20 to 35 years old. 

Common wisdom says hedges are best managed on a cycle of around 20 years and a lot of the Grafham hedges have been laid, many by teams learning the craft on wildlife training workshops. 

Few lengths of hedge are as they were originally planted and those stretches that are unmanaged are not long enough to host another workshop.  So, this winter staff members got stuck in and laid one of the last remaining hedges left to do.  Although quite not to competition standard the result is pleasing and drew many positive comments from passing members of the public.

Other hedges, that were previously laid were, shall we say, very successful and grew beyond their original bounds.  These are too thick to relay so once again the volunteers are called in to help thin down the hedge to its original line before Laying takes place in the next year or two.