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18 March 2008
Volunteers save trees from strangulation
Southwick Wood gets an early spring clean
Up to 30 volunteers assisted The Wildlife Trust on a practical conservation day at Southwick Wood, near Oundle on Wednesday 5 March.
Volunteers included a team from St Andrews hospital, Wildlife Trust wardens and members of the mid-week team, members of Oundle local group, and Peterborough Conservation Volunteers. They all joined in with the removal of 20 cubic metres of plastic tree guards, which were strangling the young trees as they struggled to grow, filling two skips.
The Wildlife Trust purcharsed Southwick Wood in November 2007. The woodland will be managed as a nature reserve for important ancient woodland flora such as bluebells, wild service trees and birds like the woodcock. The nature reserve is open to the public and has a network of pathways to explore the woodland and discover it’s fantastic wildlife.
In addition to the purchase of Southwick Wood, the Wildlife Trust has also purchased a small area of farmland linking the reserve to the neighbouring Wildlife Trust nature reserve of Short Wood. The plan is to recreate woodland to link the two currently isolated nature reserves in the near future.
The project has been funded by a £181,000 grant awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), with additional support of £24,600, funded by River Nene Regional Park, through it’s GI Environmental Grant Scheme.