One year on ...

....and still feel myself falling in love with my 8 hectares of South Lakeland.


It is hard to hold the whole year in my head at once. There was the ‘is this really mine?’ phase and just hanging around up there. Then showing people around and trying not to get lost. Naming areas and trees which helped me take ownership. Then putting up my first camera trap and seeing what was happening there when I was and wasn’t there. I have visited 2-3 times a week and find myself able to lose time up there is a way I don't in my other life. Having fires is a treat and watching wildlife, listening to owls, deer and badgers going about their business. Sleeping there is a particular immersive experience where I still feel like a visitor watching the day and night unfold.


I decided to just get to know the land for a year and not set any expectation of doing anything. That all changed when a friendly neighbour, Andy Brown from Sherpherd Aerial https://www.shepherdaerial.com offered to take an aerial photograph of the site for me. 



All of a sudden I could see the whole plot and could see what needed to happen - what I wanted to change and what I wanted to keep. My two dimensional knowledge from exploring the site on foot was placed within a different 2 dimensional frame of looking down at the land from the air. 

These videos gives a good sense of the site and the height difference and are fun!






This triggered my brain to get plotting which resulted in this planting plan being drawn up by Ben from Edwin Thompson.



                                                 


Andy also introduced me to the South Lakes Woodlanders and I found myself speaking to experts and people who were developing their own woods and were a bit further on than me. They have been a real inspiration.



Pear tree with very good deer protection at Mill Fields



                                                                                                            Damson at Mill Field


                Carrifran Wildwood, Moffat, Scotland with clear signs of progress from their rewilding since 2000 - 
previously this land was grazed with no trees.

Hazels planted in 2000


I have loved the change of seasons and the mico-changes that I notice on each visit. How fungus pops up from nowhere. New spraint and footprints appear, the light coming through the trees at different times of day or the beck having frozen overnight.













   






Each time I visit I spot new flowers and buds on trees. Each season, month, week and day is different. Spending time there day and night gives a different feel. I have taken this photo from Cecelia (the sessile oak and grand dame of the site) regularly - here is spring, summer, autumn and winter.











Taking visitor and friends has been a joy. Seeing the through visitors eyes is lovely and being asked questions I can’t answer stops me in my tracks frequently. Also establishing places to have fires, creating a natural woodstore there has helped. Having a parking space on site will be a real help when ‘entertaining’ up there!


















I have blogged about the plan a lot and won’t revisit that. I am trying to learn so many different aspects of woodland management and have accessed some fabulous online resources which I feel I should credit.


https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk


https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk


https://www.cumbriawoodlands.co.uk


https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org


https://www.rspb.org.uk



I have arrived in a good place one year on with next year's plan in place


January 2022 : 

Planning permission for a gate has been awarded and the contract let so access for contractors will be installed in January.


Pheasant shooting ends


The grant application to be considered by the Forestry Commission and a final plan to be drawn up and agreed including a budget over the following months.


February 2022: 

Gorse removal old, dead and dense patches only.


Spring/ Summer 2022 - biodiversity audits to be determined


September 2022: 

End of contract for all shooting

Installation of deer fence


December 2022/ January 2023: Planting begins



The one area I have not moved on is the long term plan for the wood ie after my death.  I haven’t found an organisation that wants it to be donated to them at this stage. Maybe when I have the new planting completed and there is a wider biodiversity emerging, it will be of interest. This is not an urgent problem and I continue to plan for the land to become a public amenity at some point in the future. In the new year I will investigate more options. I realise one barrier to organisations I have offered to donate it to when I am alive (I had aimed to donate it in 21 years when I am 80) is that I can’t commit a financial legacy to look after it at that point. Donating on my death means I can, so that may be the way forward.



I am looking forward to watching the seasons unfold again in 2022. I had hoped that I would achieve a baseline of what grows and lives there. I have lists and records but have not been as systematic as I had planned to be. This is something I need to attend to before major changes take place on site. There - that’s my new year’s resolution sorted!



So here are my anniversary photos from December 2020 and a video from December 2021













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