The Folly of Floods, Fogs and Forests!

With a thick fog cloaking the countryside this morning, it seems nature has gone into hiding after the drama of heavy rain caused localised flooding around the College, cutting us off from civilisation (no bad thing!). In fact so much water fed into the Moulton Brook that HE students had to salvage their revetment hurdle made a few weeks ago - it seems the power of water can never be under-estimated!

Luckily the weather held for students yesterday as they headed out to the woods to undertake some practical woodland management activities. To free up the canopy of some venerable oak trees at the site, students halo-thinned around the base and coppiced back some derelict hazel coppice. One of the issues at the site was the complete lack of natural regeneration - all new saplings providing a tasty treat for the free roaming muntjac and roe deer. So alongside protecting coppiced stools with brash, students attempt to thicken up the densities of hazel trees by plashing 3 to 4 year old poles.

Here, poles (A) were bent over and a neat incision of 3" length was cut 1/3 into the underside of the pole (B); this was fastened in a 4" deep trench using a couple of pegs (C) and causes a physiological response in the tree where it will usually send out new roots. This very ancient trick in essence creates a new tree - for nothing.

Let's hope the deer leave it alone for the meantime at least!