A dead tree had fallen across the footpath taking with it a hazel coppice "stool". Then, for good measure, a second dead tree fell over the rest! Now, dead trees are always left alone on a nature reserve because they are a good source of food for a multitude of insects, not to mention hole-nesting birds (especially our green woodpeckers) and bats. And while these two dead trees were about 12 inches (300 cm.) in diameter, their trunks had rotted away to the size of my wrist. No wonder they fell. In view of the weight of snow we had experienced, just a little breeze must have tipped them over the edge.

The clearing-up was no problem - just time-consuming. But we really must check our dead trees more frequently. Probably more of them should be cut down. One of my textbooks suggests pollarding (cut off the top) so that a trunk is retained both for the birds and clear of a footpath. Which is probably the best plan.

Later, we went on to widen our main ride to allow the lower-growing plants more opportunity for butterflies to rest upon them in the sunshine. So because most of our rides are bordered by trees, two of us got to work to remove a hornbeam and a holly. The former was more misshapen than is usual, while the holly was much too close to a shapely oak.

Hornbeams used to be called "the engineers tree" many years ago in that it was used before iron was invented for items like pulleys, cogs and wooden screws. It was so hard. Later it was made use of for fuel and charcoal.

Finally, it was a pleasure to hear at Christmas that my thoughts in the last issue of "Heathfield First" about volunteering by young people did not fall on deaf ears. A young man who, it was suggested, came along to the reserve to take a part of his Duke of Edinburgh Award. This week he was working along with the best of us. Super!

John Hall © 2010