Rain followed by snow after Christmas was not the best of weather for working in the open air. So the green team didn't get much work done before the festivities, and afterwards we had to stir out of our armchairs to face the east wind and frosts - the best antidote to lethargy I know!

Now that we have had some frosts we can hold our heads up high again instead of slipping and toiling through the mud in the interminable mist and rain. So we have been removing the worst of the birch and willow saplings which were overtopping a 10-year-old plantation of oak, cherry, hornbeam and mountain ash, or rowan. Birch and willow can be useful as "nurse" crops for more slow-growing trees in that they encourage them to compete for height. But enough can be enough, and the saplings had to be thinned drastically.

All the plantation trees are hard woods planted for use as timber in the fullness of time because Sussex Wildlife Trust manages Selwyn's Wood for forestry as well as wildlife. Some may think that this is a contradiction of aims. But it works I can assure you, because there is a variety of habitats within the wood which includes streams, a tiny marsh, coppice wood and a couple-or- three acres (1 hectare) of heathland as well as two plantations and high forest.

After planning to work the plantation again the following week, we chickened out and sought the shelter in a coppice from the searing east wind. There we returned to last winter's work of rooting out some horrifically big rhododendrons.

So we were happy to burn them and enjoy our coffee break around the fire...

WOODLAND THOUGHT: Rowan trees used to be planted close to houses in Scotland as a protection against witchcraft...

John Hall © 2001