Bel's Wood

                                                     Spending time at Bel’s Wood with the longer days and increased bird song is a joy. Having postponed the major planting from this year until January 2024 to give another year of bracken management, I have time for other jobs that need doing too. Before the new bracken re-emerges I have focussed on opening space for planting and paths and barbed wire removal. Opening paths and planting areas When the gorse was removed last February one section was missed. My fault - I didn’t recognise the newly exposed land and signed off the work finishing at the wrong gate. I have lost a small area for tree planting so have decided to push back the margin at the one side. I can’t pull it all out by hand but I have managed to lift some old dead trees which face north with few flowers and h...

  Around half a million species are known to live there, which is equal to about 5% of the estimated species on Earth. Considering Costa Rica only makes up 0.03% of the world's landmass, this showcases the remarkable biodiversity of such a small country.  https:// www.kew.org/read-and-watch/costa-rica-biodiversity   Ever since I started this project I have taken inspiration from many tree planting, biodiversity and rewilding schemes. I decided to visit Costa Rica for a holiday recently and to see for myself what a country that has decided to preserve its forests and biodiversity looks like close up. I am still reading about their political regime and how they came to decide to become ‘carbon net negative’ and I am sure there are controversies and debates about the pros and cons of their approach which I am not aware of. I have found many inspiring stories of how individuals, groups and the nation has made changes and I thought I would try and describe some of th...