This content requires Adobe Flash Player version
or later.
Either you do not have Adobe Flash Player installed,
or your version is too old,
or there is a problem with your Flash installation and we were unable to detect it.
Porter’s Wood is situated to the south-west of Woodbridge town centre and is owned by the Woodland Trust.
The woodland is underlain by sand and gravels and Red Crag over impermeable London Clay and exhibits the classic seepage zones and peat accumulations associated with this geology and typical of many river valleys in the Suffolk Sandlings.
Broadly speaking the woodland can be divided almost in two: the south-western half is free-draining and slopes steeply down to the spring line, where the ground becomes waterlogged and has allowed peat accumulation. The latter has given rise to characteristic vegetation of wet alder carr woodland with a ground flora dominated by ransoms and marsh marigold with opposite-leaved golden saxifrage in the seepage zones.
On the drier ground the ground flora is characterised by species such as native bluebell, red campion, three-nerved sandwort, creeping soft grass and, at the very top of the slope, bracken. The tree layer includes native species typical of free-draining soils such as oak and holly, but its true character is somewhat obscured by tree planting.
This area of the woodland also shows evidence of disturbance with pits and hollows and it is possible it has been used for sand and gravel extraction in the past. In some areas sycamore is the dominant trees species having self sown, possibly after a period of disturbance.
There are important areas of standing and fallen dead wood and Porter’s Wood falls within the area of Suffolk where stag beetles are found.
Preliminary Environmental Information May 2014
East Anglia THREE Offshore Windfarm Appendix 23.1 Biological Records Check