Taken by themselves and in small doses they can be useful habitats for various sorts of wildlife. But the quantities in which they grow in a Wealden wood are enough to make you curse. They are weeds to us - the "green" team workers at Selwyn's Wood near Cross-in Hand.

Brambles we heartily dislike when trying to keep the rides and footpaths clear of their habit of filling up every square yard (metre) not occupied by any other large plant and when we have something more pressing to be done. Bracken is useless for virtually nothing, and in fact can have some nasty side effects from working in it. Birches are lovely, graceful trees, but their sheer m.p.h. of growth can ruin more slower-growing trees and shrubs.

We have a small area of heathland in the wood - which is managed by Sussex Wildlife Trust. And if we did not keep all the Bs down in the summer - say for three years - the whole lot would become virtual scrubland. And then what would happen to the lizards, crickets and bees, the smiling heather itself, especially when it flowers in the honeyed air of mauve August beauty.

That is a pleasure which can only be greater to us than to any visitor to our reserve.