Improving habitats

We help improve habitats for biodiversity and community benefit.

We have worked at more than twenty sites over the two years of the project. In some cases the work is for the benefit of local people, as in clearing footpaths, but in others it is clearly for the benefit of biodiversity.

For example, the clearing of vegetation from round young trees helps to stop them getting swamped by thistles and nettles while they are small. Once they get tall enough they will out grow any competing plants.

Clearing footpaths

• Eynsham allotments footpath   
• Wilcote

Clearing quarry faces

Ditchley quarry: working with the Oxfordshire Geology Trust to clear encroaching vegetation off a quarry face to prevent erosion and to enable people to see the rock strata

Maintenance around young trees

At Swinford Lock where different groups within Wychwood v planted 600 trees over the winter of 2008/9 (see tree planting). Several groups have returned to bash the thistles and nettles back and the benefit can be seen as almost all of the trees have survived and are growing well.

At Langlands, Finstock eighty trees were planted by the Wychwood Project with the children of Finstock Primary School in February 2007. Different groups from Wychwood v have helped to clear round the trees and they are growing very nicely into a small mixed native species copse.

Coppicing

Groups from Wychwood v have worked with others from the Cotswolds Voluntary Wardens along the Oxfordshire Way to open the tree canopy to let more light in. This results in an increase in the diversity of wildflowers and ensures a regular supply of hazel stakes and binders for the hedgelaying group. This is very satisfying as you build up a big bundle of stakes and binders that you know are going to be used for another interesting and useful activity in the Project.

Removing non-native species

Some species might look attractive in gardens but they have escaped and are out-competing local plants. Himalayan balsam is a very common example of this in our local area. It has to be pulled before the plants set seed as each plant produces hundreds of seeds which are shot at great distances and readily germinate along the river banks.

• Himalayan balsam from Standlake nature reserve and Woodstock water meadows

Pond clearance

Ponds can get very overgrown and dominated by one or two plant species and will eventually dry up and scrub over if left alone. This is not necessarily a bad thing but if the pond is a local feature and good for wildlife it can be cleared a section at a time to keep areas of open water as well as the areas of vegetation.

• North Leigh Common

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