woodlandtrust:

Bringing ancient woodland back to life

“Four years ago I bought a 27 acre (11ha) plantation on an ancient woodland site (PAWS) near Llanfair Caereinion in Mid Wales. The following summer, I made contact with Alastair Hotchkiss, one of the Woodland Trust’s ancient woodland restoration officers, who kindly agreed to help me by preparing a management plan for the wood.

“As far as we could work out the wood is on its second crop of conifers – about 4ha of 28-year-old Sitka spruce and Japanese larch, and 5ha of 15-year old Douglas fir.

“My plan for the wood was to thin the conifers, drag the timber out using my heavy horse and sell it to help fund the management. I also wanted to increase the amount of broadleaved trees in order to improve the wildlife value.

“It’s going to take nearly 50 years to fully restore this wood, but at least the work has started.”