Village History & Land News
What’s Happening in Our Woodland?
October 2025
Many of you have been asking about the recent work going on in our beautiful woodland — so here’s an update! 🍃
Our woodland was planted around 20 years ago, and after discussions with the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and Tom Petitt, Conservation Officer at Rushcliffe Borough Council, it became clear that it now needs a little help to thrive. 🌱
This is perfectly normal for man-made, planted woodlands.
Our aim is to make sure the woodland remains a wonderful place for everyone to enjoy 🌼 while supporting a rich and diverse habitat for wildlife that calls it home 🐿️🦋🦉.
🌿 Why the Work Is Needed
Over time, the woodland canopy can become too dense 🌳🌳, blocking sunlight ☀️ from reaching the lower layers of plants. Healthy woodlands have four layers —
🌲 Canopy: tall trees
🌾 Shrub layer: smaller trees & tall shrubs
🌸 Field layer: flowering plants & ferns
🍄 Ground layer: mosses & tiny plants
When the canopy becomes overcrowded, we need to step in to let light reach all these layers.
When a mixed woodland is planted, fast-growing pioneer trees like Silver Birch 🌳 help protect slower-growing trees such as Oak and Beech .
Now, 20 years on, some of these birch trees have done their job and are being carefully removed to allow sunlight to reach others.
Even after felling, they continue to help the ecosystem through dead hedging and log piles — perfect habitats for insects and small animals 🐛🐞🦔.
Sadly, Ash Dieback 🍂 has also affected many of our ash trees, and these have been removed to stop the disease from spreading.
🌳 Encouraging Healthy Growth
You might notice some trees are thin or leaning — that’s because they’re stretching for sunlight 🌤️. By reducing the canopy, we help them grow stronger and straighter.
We’re also coppicing hazel — an ancient technique where hazel is cut back to encourage healthy new shoots and let in more light 🌞.
And to keep the woodland thriving for years to come, we’re planting new trees from the Woodland Trust 🌱 — the next generation ready to take over as older trees age.
💚 Community Effort & Support
All this fantastic work is funded by the Wilder Trent Grant 🦋, awarded to the Parish Council — and made possible by our amazing volunteers 🙌 who’ve already given hundreds of hours to care for our woodland.
We are incredibly grateful for their time, energy, and passion. 💪🌿
If you’d like to volunteer or join a guided woodland walk 🚶♀️🍂 to learn more about what’s happening, we’d love to hear from you!
📩 Get in touch to get involved or find out more about our woodland’s future.
Together, we’re helping our woodland thrive — for people, for wildlife, and for generations to come. 🌳💚🐦
Cllr Kim Kupfer, October 2025
Upper Saxondale Broadleaf Woodland
february 2024
The Woodland Walk was planted by residents around 2005. Now almost 20 years later it is time to do some work to ensure its health and longevity.
The land will shortly be transferred from Upper Saxondale Residents Association Community Interest Company (USRAcic ) to Upper Saxondale Parish Council (USPC) who will aim to keep the woodland maintained for the residents and ensure its future as an amenity. Furthermore, USPC plan to increase the wildlife diversity by increasing the numbers of birds, insects, small mammals, wildflowers, fungi and to introduce native and naturalised trees that are not already there. With climate change already happening the woodland will become a more precious resource. Trees like everything else will fight for resources, such as water, sunlight and nutrients, thus, rather than everything failing to thrive, we need to select the correct trees to maintain.
The main trees that we have are silver birch, oak, beech, ash, hazel, field maple and Guelder rose.
When planting a wood there are always more trees planted than will survive or should survive and therefore management is needed to optimise the trees that are healthy.
USRAcic and the USPC have taken expert advice from Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust (NWLT), Tom Petitt who is Conservation Office at Rushcliffe Borough Council, and four different specialist contractors. NWLT will continue to monitor, guide and advise us
Our plan is:
Where possible to increase the safety for residents using the woodland.
To ensure the woodland’s long term future as a community amenity.
To increase diversity of wildlife.
To leave dead wood on woodland floor an excellent habitat for insects small rodents and mammals and to create wood piles as another habitat.
To leave some dead, but not diseased trees standing as this is also a preferred habitat for some birds.
To introduce new native or naturalised trees to ensure diversity for the benefit of wildlife.
To avoid over tidying the woodland respecting its natural state and purpose.
The work required is as follows:
Coppicing of hazel to promote regeneration through selective cutting.
Removing some silver birch to optimise tree health.
Removing weak trees that threaten oaks and beeches.
Thinning out where required.
Keeping paths clear and safe.
Cutting back brambles encroaching on paths.
Removing plastic guards from established trees.
This work will be done outside bird nesting times and it is envisaged that it will be done in stages the next 18 months or so, creating the opportunity to assess as we proceed.
The first stage of work is planned to be 19th-21st February 2024
Other work that we will consider:
Succession planting, new native and naturalised trees
Planting of woodland bulbs and flowers such as wild garlic, red campion, wood anemone, primroses, foxglove, common sorrel, lungwort, woodruff.
Introducing more bird boxes.
Working with NWLT to assess the woodland floor, field layer, shrub layer, understory and canopy from time to time to ensure the correct balance for a woodland of this nature.
Encouraging residents to engage with the management of our woodland, orchard and other areas of the village.