A lot of the ash trees in the Centenary Wood have self-seeded. Soome of the “seedlings” are twelve or more feet high! Instead of trying to get rid of the extra trees, we’ve coppiced them, cutting them off four inches or so above the ground. That way they will shoot again from the bottom and provide an understory of growth, while reducing the competition for the larger trees.

Malcolm hard at work with a bowsaw

Dave using his croppers

We stacked the cut wood in large piles, to act as habitat and gradually rot down. This was the way people used to gather firewood from common land – coppicing is a renewable resource, “cut and come again”.

Meanwhile Tim, Mary and Val were hard at work litter-picking.

A choice of activities… Join us for a SPRING CLEAN (no, we haven’t got any skunks – not that we know of, anyway) – meet 10 am at the Shire Way gate.

The more energetic amongst us will also be COPPICING self-seeded ash in the Centenary Wood.

Ring Paul on 01454 315851 or 07771 562505 if you would like any more details.

The cut wood has now all been chipped or stacked somewhere where it will provide habitat for various creatures.

I wondered how many years’ growth had been cut back, so I counted the rings on the largest cut bough – I made it about 15 years growth, though of course most of what was cut was a lot younger than this.

There are lots of “arisings” laying around at the moment (“arisings” is the tree management jargon for the bits that are cut off)

The ground is too wet at the moment to get the chipper around without damaging the grass and leaving deep track marks.

Sorry, but the offcuts will be dealt with as soon as possible.

The Centenary Wood, on the edge of the Top Meadow, was planted in 1995, so that’s 12 years. It didn’t have the benefit of being former allotments. Even so, many of the trees are 15 or 20 feet high.

Photo: the Centenary Wood (lighter colours) with the main woodland behind.

We started off by putting in 60 marginal plants in the top pond. A sight for sore eyes – Malcolm and myself in waders sloshing around in the water, with me towing a floating box behind me with plants in. Everyone else was planting along the bank – 60 plants in all – and digging a channel to divert the incoming water under the little bridge and stop it flooding the path – it’s rather a morass up there.

Then we turned our attention to tree planting at the picnic area. We planted 60 trees and hedging plants. We put in mainly hawthorn to fill the gaps in the hedge, then we put trees in the long grass, including hazel, dogwood, spindle, crab apple, holly, field maple and wayfaring tree. They’re fairly small at the moment, but they will grow into substantial trees.

A big thank you to everyone who came along on the work morning! Our next one will be on Sunday March 11, meeting at 10.00 am at the Shire Way gate, when we shall be doing a spring clean and clearing some bramble. Please come along and join us!

The next Wapley work morning will be on Sunday 14 January, from 10.00 am until 1.00 pm.

We will be planting in the top pond, and putting some more trees in the picnic site.

Please come and help – meet us at the Shire Way entrance.

Ring Paul on 01454 315851 if you would like more details.

November and December are strange months. We see the last of the berries – for example rowan (mountain ash), but otherwise the colours are muted.

Look at fallen wood, however, and you find some very strangely shaped bracket fungi. Some are shaped like ears:

and others look like some kind of frilly jellyfish.

When we regrettably have to cut trees down we always try to leave the logs as a habitat for wildlife, both fungi and insects.

Have you seen the improvements to the paths in the Western Wood? If you walk the area regularly you will remember that the surfaces on the steepest parts were washed away by heavy rain.

We’ve improved the drainage, put in some shallow steps to break the flow of the water, and changed the camber of the path so that water flows towards the ditch. The work has been financed by a Landfill Tax grant from the South Gloucestershire Environmental Body.