WOODLAND CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT WORK - WOODS, LONG MEADOW
On agreement with New Milton Town
Council, some woodland conservation management work will be taking place at the
woods at Long Meadow, which may also be known as Barton Common Woodland,
adjacent to Long Meadow this week. Opportunities for enhancing the
wildlife value of the woods have been discussed and agreed with New Milton Town
Council. Members of the local community have been involved in learning and
inputting into these discussions earlier in the year.
A mornings woodland improvement
work was successfully carried out in February 2013 by a group of local
residents through the support of the Community Wildlife Plans Project, to open
up part of a pond and pathway in the woods to the light which has increased
it’s wildlife value. It is hoped that further volunteer woodland management
tasks can be planned for the future in these woods.
This sort of work has to be
carried out between the months of September and mid-February so as to not
disturb breeding birds or disturb other wildlife. Some of the
opportunities for enhancement of the woods involves the removal of several
small to medium sized trees, mostly sycamore, next to footpaths. This type of
work will allow sunlight to reach the woodland floor. This in turn will allow
woodland plants, butterflies and other insects to flourish. The trees selected
for removal are too large to be cut safely by volunteers, and funding available
through the Community Wildlife Plans project is being used to pay a trained and
qualified contractor to remove these trees.
Another opportunity through
this funding is to address the non-native and invasive variegated yellow
archangel in the woods. This plant can smother native woodland plants and can
be controlled by herbicide spraying. A contractor who is trained and qualified
to do the work will be carrying this work out also. It is likely that this
plant will need follow-up treatment to really get rid of it.
There are other non-native plants
which negatively affect the wildlife value of the woods but it is too late in
the season to address these with herbicide this year. It is likely that these
unwanted plants have arrived in the woodland from garden waste left in the
woods. The contractor will be working in the woods over the next few
weeks, so some parts of the woods may be temporarily inaccessible for safety
reasons.
If you would like any further
information, please contact NMTC, LMCG and/or Angela Peters on 01590 646654 or
07880 197351
