How Glorious Woodlands will renovate your woodland
Glorious Woodlands will help you understand the benefits of natural woodland processes. We will help you manage your woodland to become invaluable to wildlife and build its ecology.
Deadwood
Instead of tidying your woodland, it’s best to leave deadwood and dying trees as they are homes for a large variety of wildlife. For example, bats, fungi, lichens and mosses. Also, around a third of woodland bird species nest in holes in trees, insects such as the rare violet click beetle are found in hollow trees, and birds such as woodpeckers feed from insects under the bark. Standing dead trees and deadwood on the ground also provides different habitats. Encouraging natural processes is essential for woodland ecology.
Creating piles of wood stacked in shady areas creates a deadwood habitat. The Royal Forestry Society recommends neat piles of wood can overcome the need to tidy up the woodland, this is much better than removing the wood completely. Piles for habitats should not be firewood as this will be damaging to creatures who have made the pile its home. Ivy has significant wildlife value and is not damaging to trees. Ivy on trees provides shelter for nests and food for birds and insects.
Regeneration
Planting new trees is valuable for visual and age diversity. To continue an age spectrum of trees in your woodland, dense growth of young trees makes a valuable habitat. Establishing new trees can make your woodland more visually interesting as well as desirable for introducing new species. New trees can be allowed to grow naturally from seed or from planting. Glorious Woodlands design’s includes a range of options from small saplings to large mature trees ready to be planted.
Natural regeneration is the process by which existing woodlands regenerate. The advantages of this are the species will be matched to the site, a natural and uneven distribution will result aiding structural diversity and there are no costs for planting new trees. However, protecting young trees is important so tree protection may be required.
Thinning
When trees are growing so closely together that sunlight is struggling to get through to the woodland floor, thinning might be the answer. Thinning removes the less healthy or less desirable trees, providing more space for remaining trees to develop. Having more sunlight on the woodland floor invites a wonderful understorey of small plants, shrubs and trees. Natural thinning occurs when weaker trees die naturally, so helping your woodland in its natural course is good. However, increasing too much space might allow wind to cause damage. Glorious Woodlands will analyse the canopy to see how much sunlight is getting in as this guides us to whether we will recommend if thinning is needed.
