Our woodlands are no happy accident, but the result of thousands of years of management by humans, writes WENDY NECAR, of the Royal Forestry Society

Autumn is a time of crowning glory for woodlands across Oxfordshire. Leaves change their colours from fresh greens to bright yellows, glowing oranges and rich reds. Crab apples, elderberries, conkers, nuts and pine cones all ripen, providing bountiful harvests for the wildlife that depends on them.

Yet such flourishing woodlands are not a natural phenomenon. Humankind has been managing woodlands for thousands of years. We have relied on our woods for fuel and shelter, for raw materials for tools, and for food.

Many of these early uses have been superseded but the need for sustainable woodland management is crucial for the health of our environment.

The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust and the Royal Forestry Society have joined forces to demonstrate how they work hard to protect and manage our woodlands to benefit people and wildlife.

According to the Forestry Commission National Inventory for Trees, the amount of woodland in Oxfordshire increased between 1980 and 1997, with coverage rising from around six per cent to seven per cent of the county.

Oak with a coppice understorey has always been the predominant species in the heavy clay soils of the lower regions of Oxfordshire, while the chalk and limestone of the Chilterns give rise to highly alkaline soils where beech is now the predominant species but the species is expected to be seriously affected by climate change.

Flourishing woodlands, of course, have a part to play in climate change. Growing trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in branches, trunks and leaves. Mature trees act as a carbon sink, storing it for many years until they die and decay. Products we make from wood, such as furniture, will continue to store carbon for many years.

Sustainable management means taking an approach lasting many generations since many trees, such as oaks, do not mature for a hundred years or so.

RFS education officer Debbie Cotton said: “Autumn is a fantastic season in the woodlands. It is an ideal time to come and explore how much woods have to give us all, to see how well-managed woods can help to fight climate change, and provide food and shelter for insects, mammals, birds and plant life.” Up until well into the last century, coppicing trees — cutting them down to small stumps to encourage new growth — not only provided the raw materials for fencing and hurdles, but also opened up areas where plants could thrive, encouraging butterflies, flora, particularly fritillaries, and birds which would not be seen under more dense canopies.

As ‘coupes’, or sections of woodland, are coppiced on successive years, there are always areas within a wood which are rich in wildlife. Even deadwood can provide homes and BBOWT leaves standing trees and fallen logs on its reserves for beetles, bats and amphibians to shelter in, and fungi to grow on, recycling the decomposing matter.

Christopher Williams, head of people and wildlife at BBOWT, said: “Much of our native wildlife now depends upon woods being carefully managed using techniques such as coppicing and selectively felling trees. This lets the light in to encourage new growth, mimicking the crashing power of long extinct beasts such as wild cattle and bears, which once lived here.”

Woodlands also enable us to preserve knowledge and craftsmanship that might otherwise die out — the ability to make charcoal, whittle pencils and whistles, carve walking sticks, make paper, hurdles and windbreaks, wooden boats and canoes.

Government-backed incentives look to increase woodland in management in the UK. While the prices of gas and oil have soared, wood has remained more constant. All types of wood can be transformed into fuel in the form of pellets or chips.

Finally, of course, our woodlands provide enormous pleasure for many. Well managed woodlands with paths and rides are open to the public, to exercise and to see local wildlife.

BBOWT has many great woodlands for visitors, from the majestic beeches at Warburg Nature Reserve, where weird fungi grow among the leaf litter, to the ash coppice of Foxholes Nature Reserve.

Find out about places to visit close to you by visiting www.bbowt.org.uk and clicking on Reserves.

Wild about Wood BBOWT and RFS are running a series of Wild about Wood family events this month.

Each day is filled with guided tree walks, storytelling, paper-making and craft demonstrations. There will also be a chance to make charcoal pencils, badges and masks and even win a tree.

The events will be at held at BBOWT sites from 10am to 3pm and are free to everyone (no dogs please: Sunday: Warburg Nature Reserve, near Henley, (follow signs to Open Day car park).

October 19: Sutton Courtenay Environmental Education Centre, near Didcot.

To find out more about these events or woodland management go to BBOWT’s website www.bbowt.org.uk or the RFS website www.rfs.org.uk