Woodland Conservation Group - Fridays

28th November, 2025

Jack Wood - Wildflower Area (J1A)

Well, those crossed fingers and toes (hoping for good weather for our session) finally worked and Friday’s Woodland Conservation Session took place in mild, bright weather, if a little slippery underfoot following Thursday’s rain. As we had a very 'healthy' team of 16 volunteers, we were not only able to continue our work in the area next to the opening to the lower path from Oxleas Meadow, but we were also able to have teams working on three other activities .

Team one, a large group, continued removing holly.  They also began building a more permanent barrier, using posts made from holly trunks around which they wove long holly binders - a little unusual but we always make the best use of the natural waste and this time we had many long, leggy stems.  We will be back to finish!

Team two, a group of four, began clearing the tarmac pathway on the stretch of the Green Chain Walk that rises to Oxleas Cafe.  This stretch had become so severely narrowed by rampant, thorny brambles that walkers and runners were now eroding the meadow edge.  After a combined 12 hours of work, cutting, shovelling, and digging out roots, the Green Chain Walk sign can now be seen from both directions again!  However, we have only improved a short area so far so, yes, we will return next session and allocate more volunteers to this activity.

Team three, a group of 3, moved around the woodland, removing the fallen leaves from the drains beneath bridges.  The majority of the leaves have now fallen and it is important to remove the leaves before they rot down and block the drains altogether.

Our fourth and final team, just two volunteers, topped up a small dead hedge protecting a triangular area where small numbers of wood anemone, celandine and other more varied woodland vegetation had been spotted last spring.  We have already reduced the number of paths criss-crossing this small area and have noticed them disappearing under new vegetation.  Let’s hope we will be rewarded soon with even more wildflowers.

To sum things up, we had another, sociable and rewarding session, making a difference in the woodlands and will return on the 19th December (weather permitting) to finish our restoration for this year. Then, in 2026, we will move on to give another area some of our care and attention.

Both the path and the restoration area are much lighter now.