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WILDEN MARSH VOLUNTEERS-WINTER 2014/15 WORK PROGRAMME.ITEM DESCRIPTION OF GENERAL TASKS. TASK DATE

A This winter all tracks leading to new gates to be cleared of logs and obstacles to allow mowing – some chain sawing.

B Clear brambles and scrub from around stock gates. As we go.

C Clear out nest boxes in Middle Wood before next bird nesting season. 25/01/2015

D All open fields: remove fallen trees and any looking like they might fall – chain saw work; remove tree saplings and seedlings; remove small bramble patches.

The item numbers in the right-hand column relate to the numbered locations on the map above.ITEMNO. DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC TASKS TASK

DATE1 Clear brambles from the Lagoon Field access track, from entrance gate to corral gate. 02/11/2014

2 Coppice shrubs but retain some of the young ones. 30/11/2014

3 Continue tree felling and coppicing.

4 Coppice and pollard willows.

5 Coppice and pollard woodland edge.

6 Coppice and pollard woodland edge (by dredged ditch).

7 Coppice willows in the North Pond Chain – when water is low enough.

8 Clear shrub from sewage pipes. 02/11/2014

GLOSSARY

Barking : peeling bark from a tree.

Boy : a device for clamping twigs during the making of faggots.

Billet: a short length of wood from 8” to 36” long.

Butterfly log pile: a stack of crossed logs, usually 5 foot cubed, constructed as an overwintering refuge for butterflies.

Butt: the lowest portion of a trunk.

Brash: small branches and twigs left after dressing out the top and side branches from coppice or standards.

Coppice: trees cut close to ground level every few years to allow multiple stems to grow from the stool.

Coppice with standards: a system of management with scattered single-stemmed trees, such as oak, ash.

Coppice cycle: the number of years between cutting the coppice.

Crown: living branches of a tree above the main stem.

Deadwood: valuable biodiversity resource – can be standing or fallen – habitat for bees, wasps, beetles, grubs and burrowing insects, owls and squirrels.

Faggot: bundle of twigs and small brash tied tightly for use as a firelighter.

Habitat pile: manmade pile of brash and deadwood specifically constructed to enrich biodiversity.

Heartwood: the inner wood of large branches and trunks that no longer carry sap.

Layering: the practice of bending living shoots and pegging them down to establish a new shrub in a gap.

Log pile: a stack of logs, usually in excess of 36” in length, for use as a rotting habitat.

Maiden: a single stemmed tree, never coppiced or pollarded. Any tree not grown from a coppice stump.

Otter Holt: an above or below ground covered space where an otter lives.

Pole: a coppice shoot of more than 2” in diameter.

Pollard: a tree that is cut between 6 – 12ft above ground level to produce a crop of poles and branches.

Scrubbing: is the removal of tree seedling, saplings, brambles, ragwort and Himalayan balsam, and other scrub considered to be invasive.

Short rotation coppice: coppice grown on short rotation of up to 3 years.

Singling: retaining one stem on a coppice stool and allowing it to grow into a standard tree.

Standard: a single stemmed tree, never coppiced or pollarded. Any tree not grown from a coppice stool.

Stool: the base of a coppiced tree from which new shoots emerge.