Woodland management work begins across sites

What’s with the dots?

Over the next few weeks (November 2024), you might spot coloured dots of paint appearing on trees around some of our parks such as Beacon Hill, Jubilee Wood, and Sheet Hedges Wood.

Trees on these sites are now mature enough to require gradual removal as part of our Higher Level Stewardship grant work. This selective thinning process provides improved light conditions to the woodland floor, creates room for tree growth and provides space for new generations of tree to develop and mature. The woody materials left behind provide vital dead wood habitats, this is especially important for any young woodlands we manage.

Our long-term plan is to maintain woodlands which are rich in biodiversity, incorporating a variety of tree and shrub species of differing ages, heights and densities. This in turn will provide a home for a greater variety of birds, bats and invertebrates.

Before the grant work is carried out, our rangers carefully select the trees to be cut, carry out mensuration (the measurement of trees to calculate the volume of wood to be removed from the woodland), then mark the tree with paint. Once the trees have been measured and marked, felling will take place outside the bird breeding season to minimise the disturbance to our wildlife.

The ranger team is too small to carry out all of the forestry work, so will be using an outside company to cut and extract the wood. By marking up the trees in advance, we can ensure that only the right trees get felled. The grant work will be completed by the end of December 2026.