Skylark Trail temporary closures

What’s happening here?

Our forestry contractors are onsite to carry out work to improve our woodlands, including working on areas of former pine plantations. Pine plantations are planted at high density and volume with the sole purpose of producing large volumes of timber for future harvesting. This is why when you look at our woodlands which consist of areas of former plantations they contain a dense number of pines. When you look closely, you also begin to notice that a lot of the pines are very skinny and only have a very small canopy with many actually starting to die, due to the lack of light and space. It tends to only be those on the edge of the woodland which tend to be bigger and contain a large, health canopy, as they have more space to grow in and exposure to light. In a lot of these areas it is also apparent that there is no understorey and very few new tree shoots coming through, due to the combination of a lack of light and deer grazing. Having a woodland that consists of trees of all the same species and age is not very healthy and restricts the biodiversity of the habitat.

Our contractors will be thinning the woodland, to allow light to penetrate the high canopy and reach the ground. This should help create the conditions to encourage new growth for the next generation of trees. We will also be creating several glades within the woodland. These are open spaces, which will be managed to improve the diversity of ground flora (which is currently dominated by dense bracken), which in turn should attract an array of invertebrates e.g. bumblebees, butterflies and dragonflies. We will still be retaining a healthy number of pines as well as a lot of the standing dead pines. Both standing and lying dead wood is an essential habitat for birds, bats, invertebrates, fungi and lichen, so a lot of the felled brash will also be left. This may look messy, but it will provide the perfect home for thousands of insects and mammals. To accompany the natural regeneration of the trees, we will also be planting a variety of native woodland species, which have been grown here in Bedfordshire including blackthorn, hawthorn, oak, hazel, aspen, hornbeam and dog rose. These will be planted with tree guards to help protect from the grazing. Overall this work should help establish a healthy, diverse and structured woodland, consisting of a variety of species to form a ground, shrub and canopy layer to benefit the biodiversity of the site.

See the map for the parts of the Skylark Trail that will be temporarily closed from 4 January while this work is carried out.