MANAGEMENT INVASIVE SPECIES


Approximately half is given over to sweet chestnut coppice, with the remainder a mix of oak, beech, birch, Scots pine, larch and small quantities of other hardwoods. When my wife and I bought the copse, our prime objective was to conserve the woodland and its wildlife. We had very little experience or knowledge at that stage, but were able to draw on the patient advice of a true woodsman, Jerry Brighton, who was employed by the company which had handled the sales transaction; and we became eager readers of Smallwoods. We knew we faced various challenges: nearly a hectare of storm-blown spruce had to be cleared and replanted; the sweet chestnut coppice rotation had to be restored; intrusive non-indigenous plants on the riverside forming one boundary of the wood would have to be tackled, notably a small patch of Japanese knotweed; and the


Space Invaders S


Robert Priddle clears intrusive foreign plants


todham Copse is a 10ha mixed wood on the acidic greensand of the Sussex/ Hampshire border.


steep bank rising some 100ft in an easterly direction from the river had been clear-felled of mature oak some 10-15 years before and inadequately restocked, leaving a mass of spindly birch and laurel and rhododendron which was encroaching on the adjoining compartments.


Clearing Our attention was first given to clearing and replanting the storm-damaged area. The sweet chestnut cycle was renewed. And the Japanese knotweed was successfully tackled. At that stage, I went abroad to work for a number of years, during which time the wood benefitted from little beyond basic maintenance. Two years ago, back in the UK,


we blitzed the Himalayan balsam which had over-run the river bank and finally set about drawing up a systematic Woodland Management Plan. By this time the rhododendron and laurel had galloped away and was dominating a third of the wood. It lined both sides of the rides in several areas, was up to 12ft high and was


impenetrable. Little could be seen over or through it. Tackling the rhododendron and


laurel was the first priority task in the new Plan, amongst a series of actions which included widening the rides and glade creation. Getting a Management Plan set up was a precondition to applying for a grant to support work to clear the rhododendron. The Forestry Commission paid what I thought was a generous grant of about £1000 to fund the Plan, which was a joint effort involving my new forestry advisor (Allan Lang), the FC, my son Duncan (who is a countryside ranger in Scotland) and myself. I drew up an initial draft, based on the standard template. Once the Plan was formalised, we were encouraged by Allan Lang, whom we had met on the recommendation of a contact in the South Downs National Park Authority, to apply to the Forestry Commission for Woodland Improvement Grant to help fund the rhododendron and laurel clearance. The grant was approved and a start to the work scheduled for November, 2012.


HEAD HEAD


Ian Hampshire's assistant, Rachel, clearing rhododendron in Stodham Copse (left). Laurel on one of the slopes (above) and the excavator on a ride while the rhododendron was in bloom (below left) and working (below)


I was fortunate enough to


get grants for the preparation of the Plan and for the clearance work. I do not know how the FC worked out the scale of the grant for the rhodo work, but there is a standard scale for this sort of work, and a fixed proportionate contribution, which depends on a number of factors, including the location of the wood and the difficulty of the task. In our case we benefitted from the fact that the Copse lies within the South Downs National Park and


that the work on the river slope was judged as being in the most difficult category. The grant was paid to me, and I paid the contractors. I believe both my advisor and the contractor who handled the clearance are well known to the Commission. To the best of my knowledge there was no qualifying process, indeed, the whole process was more 'hand-off' than that. The FC has its standard cost and grant formulae and leaves it to the beneficiary of the grant to make


the best of it he or she can. They do, of course, survey the wood before and after the process to ensure it is properly done.


Clearing rhodo The clearance is now almost complete. It has already transformed the wood, with 4ha of previously dark and impenetrable scrub now, in part, beautiful open woodland, with a good stock of mature oaks which we hardly knew were there. The steep bank descending to the river is now


clear of evergreen undergrowth, providing a sweeping vista to the river and the hills beyond. The ground flora is already emerging, notably foxgloves, whose seed must have lain dormant in the soil for decades. The purpose of the Woodland Improvement Grant – substantially to improve the quality of the wood – has been handsomely realised. What did it take? First,


excellent encouragement, advice and supervision from our woodland advisor, Allan, who


offers a forestry consultancy service. Sympathetic attention from Mike Pittock and others at the Forestry Commission secured the grant, without which we could not have contemplated the (considerable) task.


Essential to the success was


Ian Hampshire, the capable contractor who immediately understood the objective and brought to it the skilful use of his trusty excavator, diligent and patient personal application and, for the associated manual


00 Smallwoods New Year 2014


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New Year 2014 Smallwoods 00


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