Brede High Woods Bulletin - September '09

Welcome to the third Brede High Woods Bulletin. A lot has happened at Brede over the past six months and I hope you’ll enjoy reading about it.

There have been many visitors in the wood this summer. Thanks to everyone who attended our May Bank Holiday barbecue, run in conjunction with the Butterfly Conservation Trust. It was a big success with over 130 people coming along to enjoy the day. There was a hog roast and guided walks, plus a folk group singing and a willow weaver - all of which added to the entertainment. We’ve got even more fantastic events lined up for the autumn.

The bluebells (and other flowers) also looked really good this spring, particularly where we have done some ride-widening and mowing and, prompted by an unexpected article in the Daily Mail, even more visitors than usual came along to see the wonderful floral displays. Brede is a big place but luckily no one got lost as the more regular visitors helped to direct people to the right place and the best areas to see them.

We’ve recently produced a document to help new visitors access the site and this, together with a whole host of other useful and interesting stuff on Brede, has now been placed on the website.

Two weeks of school visits led by Janet Watt were also successfully held. The most popular activity seemed to be building birds nests – one handed! Recent family events and guided walks, led by Sallyanne Hall, went well and we’re now working on a plan to get even more people into the wood.

David Bonsall, Woodland Officer
Email: davidbonsall@woodlandtrust.org.uk

Young people demonstrating their willow weaving at the barbecue event in May. WTPL © James Luxton

Bringing people and Brede together

We have now appointed a consultant, Vicky Lawrence, to write a plan about how to bring even more people and Brede together over the next three years. Called the ‘People Engagement Plan’ it will cover things like educational activities and access and we’ll be consulting with local people and other user groups soon. If you’d like to join in the discussions please join us on Wednesday 16th September at 7.30pm in Brede Village Hall or on Wednesday 30th September at 7.30pm in Sedlescombe Hall. For more information please contact Vicky on telephone no. 07905 127373 or email bredehigh@gmail.com

As part of our scheme to improve access we also recently completed the final part of our access audit consultation. This took the form of several guided walks with parents, children and staff from the Rother Children’s Centre and the Rother Families Group, led by consultant Vicky Lawrence. They all
seemed to enjoy the walks and it gave them the opportunity to comment on our plans. The main issue for new visitors (and even some of the more regular ones) is finding their way around this large and complex site. So, we discussed ways to improve this, including improved way-marking, maps and
leaflets. Two possible way-marked routes have been identified in the shape of a figure of eight – so visitors could do either one or both loops - and we’re currently working on a new walk leaflet which will show the proposed route.

Vicky also organised a day in the wood for members of the East Sussex Disability Association. They undertook three different walks and we handed out a simple questionnaire afterwards over a picnic lunch. As well as being an enjoyable day in the woods, this was a very useful exercise in terms of
learning what we could do to make the site more accessible. During the day two partially sighted people walked in the wood and told us some really simple stuff we could do to improve access for them. We discovered that just making really small changes, such as enabling two people to walk side
by side along the paths and removing any obvious hazards, would make a big difference.

Rother Families Group at Brede WTPL © Vicky Lawrence

Butterflies, buzzards and boars at Brede

Humans haven’t been the only visitors to Brede this summer. This year the site had the earliest sighting of a silver-washed fritillary in Sussex. It occurred on June 10th and since then many have been seen flitting across the site, enjoying the sunny rides and glades. In fact, butterflies in general seem to
be plentiful this summer, with white admirals and newly emerged painted ladies all being seen in abundance. Other wildlife spotted or heard recently include birds such as nightingales, cuckoos, turtle doves and displaying buzzards. There have been two reports of red kites and some adders have been spotted regularly. Although the latter are slightly less welcome to some, they are protected by law, so it is good to know that Brede is providing them with a home.

There have also been signs of wild boar and, over the next year or so, the Food and Environment Research Agency will be monitoring their impact on the ground flora and fauna of Brede and other woods in the area. In addition, as part of another survey, a volunteer is monitoring for presence of
dormice in Greenden Wood – an area of ancient semi-natural woodland at the western edge of Brede. So far, there have been no sightings of these adorable creatures within the dormouse boxes (although some are happily being used by birds and the odd hornet) but we’re hopeful they’ll be some
in residence soon.

Grants granted!

We are pleased to say that we have been successful in our application to the Forestry Commission’s England Woodland Grant Scheme. This will bring in over £40,000 over the next five years, as well as granting us the all important felling licences so we could begin our heathland and woodland restoration works. In August, we hosted a day for staff from
other organisations (such as the Sussex Wildlife Trust,
Butterfly Conservation, RSPB, Forestry Commission,
Natural England and the High Weald AONB Unit) to see the heathland work in progress.

Indeed, by the time you read this, the major heathland clearance works should be almost complete and we will have felled and chipped about 10 hectares (25 acres) of conifers using specialised machinery. By chipping whole trees we avoid the need to burn ‘lop and top’, leaving a clear site that will hopefully colonise with species such as heather, dwarf gorse, broom and rarities like dodder and broomrape. The final part of the operation is to grind out the stumps which will allow us to maintain the areas by mowing if necessary. The disturbance to the soil caused by the stump removal should
also encourage regeneration of the heather. Another bonus of this work is the re-discovery of views from within the woods that haven’t been seen for decades. We hope that the works weren’t too disruptive to your regular walks and that you’ll enjoy watching these areas develop into wildlife-rich habitats over the next few years.

The delayed ride-widening contract, part-funded by a Woodland Improvement Grant from the Forestry Commission, was also finished in March. The work was done using Woodwise Forestry’s new tractor-based harvester, which is designed to tackle early thinnings/premature clear-fells and
coppicing that are unsuitable for larger harvesters. In spite of still learning how to operate the harvesting head, the operator managed to fell about three times what a chainsaw operator would do in a day. We now hope that the harvester will prove useful for other restoration and heathland work.

Chipper in action during heathland work WTPL © Dave Bonsall

Archaeology update

Dr Nicola Banister, our archeaologist, has completed her indepth review of the wood’s history by researching both historical documents and completing on site investigations. This has taken over a year to complete with 340 features being recorded and a wealth of archive material being analysed.

How to get there

We’ve recently produced a new leaflet about accessing Brede High Woods. It tells you how to get there by car and public transport and your access options when you arrive. A copy will be sent out to everyone who registers an interest in attending the above events but you can get hold of additional
copies by visiting the Brede High Woods website.

For queries and comments on this bulletin please email: brede@woodlandtrust.org.uk

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