This month brought days of contrasts in the weather - ear-cutting north-east winds, comparatively balmy periods, sleet and snow, and of course our green team were caught out with a wellyful of wet as well. We have been cutting out the saplings in our large plantation, and as before we have found squirrel trouble. But this time the winds in this corner of the wood are more blustery, and the dead tops of the birches have been snapped off. We know , unfortunately, that the saplings have to come down eventually, yet we wonder if the squirrels will now turn their attention to the more important trees. We´ll see.

And here I repeat myself. Most of our winter work is to remove the worst of the birch and willow saplings which are over-topping a ten-year plantation of oak, cherry, hornbeam and mountain ash, or rowan. Birch is a pioneer tree which is able to advance into new territory, and dies out in the fullness of time after more sturdier trees have been established. The forester has to consider the latter because these are the most valuable timber.

Birch and willow are useful as "nurse" crops which encourage the slower-growing trees to compete for height. All the plantation trees are hard woods for use as timber in the fullness of the time because Sussex Wildlife Trust manages Selwyn's Wood for forestry as well as wildlife through a variety of habitats - as you know.

Behind our work is the question of the seasons. At the time of writing the winter is still with us, whereas this time last year we were about to leave the centre of the wood to the birds and the small furry creatures. So we have always to keep a careful eye on the small stirrings of Spring to make sure that the wildlife is not disturbed - in about three weeks, perhaps.

A friend of mine has lent me a book about birds in a Sussex garden. It is by Stan Bayliss Smith who lived for ten years in our wood and was my predecessor after it was bequeathed to the Trust in 1969. He later lived in Downsview, Heathfield. A head teacher and naturalist of no mean repute, he was also an expert photographer and a lecturer.

At the end of his book, he says "Let that great visionary poet of the 19th Century, William Blake, who spent his last few years in a Sussex village, have the final word: