New Woodland Maintenance Guide

If you want to grow strong trees, the first few years are very important. Maintaining the plants during this period will give rise to woodland that requires little or no maintenance efforts. The major purpose of maintaining young woodlands is to protect wildlife from damage, weed control, and replacing losses or damages.

The government and the wider public have focused on the creation of new woodland. There have been announcements from high-profile sources about the need to reduce our carbon footprint and also public campaigns like the Countryfile Plant Britain Initiative. At Lockhart and Garratt, we join hands with the government on this journey.

Weed Control

Newly planted trees compete for nutrients, sunlight, and water. When the ground is weed-free, new plants will grow successfully for some time before weeds grow again. To control the weeds, you can use herbicides as a cost-effective way to manage weed growth. Most woodland maintenance plantation sites use a knapsack sprayer that treats one diameter in a circle around each tree – a method known as spot weeding.

Maintaining Protection

Fences come in handy when protecting woodland plantations from wildlife damage. It’s important to do a thorough inspection of the fencing. If one deer manages to get through, more deer will get into the woodland plantation through the same entrance. The most vulnerable areas are water gates and stretch close to fully grown trees. It’s imperative to do regular checks after bad weather.

Tree shelters like bamboo canes or tubes protect the plants from destructive wildlife. They also create a greenhouse effect that facilitates rapid growth. However, deer or other wildlife can tilt or loosen the shelter or bamboo cane leading to poor stem formation in a tree.

Controlling the Wildlife

Trees can be damaged or killed by browsing hare, rabbits, or deer. Deer can rub their antlers against young trees, damaging and killing them. A forestry agent needs to take a stroll across the woodland plantation to assess such damages and identify their causes.

Among the solutions is repairing damaged fences by wildlife. Make sure the vole guards are not loose and if loose, they should be pushed some centimetres below the ground. In case of bigger damage, it’s important to have a planting contractor to replace them.

In summary, at the end of the growing season, there should be an estimate of the percentage of losses and replaced on the next growing season. This work is usually done by a forestry agent. A perfect case study is the C Gilchrist-Skeffington Wood, Leics (Feb 2003-present). Also, new trees should be planted next to dead ones for more effective woodland maintenance.

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