Woodland trust woodland management

[SoldierPalmer]

I wouldn’t touch the ash saplings. I don’t know how bad chalara is in your area but it will hit you. The ash will thin it’s self out eventually. It doesn’t look like the beech is dominating the woodland either which is a good thing for ground flora. As I’m not sure of what you want from the land yet it looks alright to me without any intervention.

Some times management by neglect is the best way. Just keep managing the path ways.

 

[Laurentius]

Maybe not bought it ? Is it council owned and you have offered to look after it ? Quite a lot of that near me. Great idea IMO.

Yes that is what I have done with a small parcel of somewhat inaccessible land. I confess to starting a pinetum which will be spectacular when I am gone. Mostly though experimenting with what will grow on land that alternates between being very wet and very dry. Biggest success is with willows, you just cut whips from them and stick them in the ground, in a few months they are a couple of metres tall. Rowan, Beech, Birch and White Poplar also seem to like the ground there. It is very marginal land that used to be a sewage works.