Winter


Spring


Head Greenkeeper, Jim Lake, admits he is a tree lover and goes to great pains to rear some species, like oak and horse chestnut, from acorns and conkers


new Forest of Mercia. Around 1970, the first trees to be planted were mostly grey poplar. Today, the poplars are about 80 feet tall and their bark supports a number of species of lichen with their characteristic insect communities. The green woodpecker, too, has recently discovered that it can drill its nest-hole into one of the mature trees. On the downside, the heavy leaf- fall means more effort on the part of the greenkeepers to keep the golfers happy. Forty year old silver birch, with its craggy bark growing even more lichen species, is the dominant deciduous tree on the course, forming part of the diet of seed-eating birds like winter migrants redpoll and siskin. The lichens are collected by the long-tailed tit to decorate its nest. During the breeding season of chiffchaff and willow warbler, the young leaves are food for the tiny caterpillars of moths that these summer migrants depend on. This is the tree which, at leaf-fall, not only feeds the earthworms in the semi-rough but creates lovely autumn tints to be found in the best of arboretums.


The birch’s leaf-fall adds fertility to the mycelium of several species of fungi, notably the fly agaric with its white- spotted red cap, and the edible birch boletus. Occasionally, edible agarics like the horse and field mushroom appear, once coveted by an early-morning jogger friend.


As the birches have matured, so has the density of these fungi. In contrast, stands of mature pine and larch each have their own characteristic fungi, whose fruiting bodies appear at this time of year through the needle carpet. The Corsican and Scot’s pine seem to favour the insectivorous long-tailed tit, coal tit and goldcrest, family parties of which are initially identified by their distinctive high-pitched contact calls. Jim Lake admits he is a tree lover and goes to great pains to rear some species, like oak and horse chestnut, from acorns and conkers, growing them on in a tree nursery. He has also transplanted oaks, up to eight or so feet tall, taken from the margins of the course whose seeds have been forgetfully buried by grey squirrel and jay.


Yews that have grown in the wood, mentioned below, have also been transplanted along the wood side of the 7th. The trees originated from yew berries collected and eaten by mistle thrushes that had taken them from a mature yew well outside the confines of the course. Knowing of Jim’s dependability in caring for trees, I donated four English walnuts that I had grown from Herefordshire nuts. These, like all the trees planted on the course, are thriving and I may help them along sometime in the future by a donation of my own ashes, knowing full well that any nuts they might bear will be filched by the grey squirrel.


1994 saw the launch of the local Forest


of Mercia Woodland Scheme, whose aim was to increase the amount of woodland in the area of Walsall, the Metropolitan area covering Aldridge. To date, Jim reckons in excess of 20,000 trees of some thirty-five species have been planted on the course. In addition, at its heart, there is a one-and- a-half acre ancient bluebell wood - Nuttall’s Wood - where the dominant tree


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