Friends of Northaw Great Wood

Storm Doris brought down several large trees across the main trails, which kept us busy for a few sessions.

A large hornbeam down on the very muddy Blue Trail.

This bench survived a direct hit!

While we were without our chainsaw operator, we were pleased to have the support of the Sharrards park team in felling hornbeams on the Blue Trail near Rowbourne Brook.

Down comes a hornbeam..

Over 3 sessions, a lot of trees were removed opening up this dark and muddy section to more sunlight.

The wood can look very special in mid-winter.

For many years the ‘concrete path’ has become overgrown and this was cleared. On the actual access path by the gate, the ground was cleared for the first time in many years.

Any storm is likely to cause a few birch to fall and ones across the paths are early targets for clearance.

Phil deliberately fells a birch so as to get ‘hung-up’ on another tree. This was so we could test the winch was working OK after its repair.

While working in the main car park area this morning, we were lucky to see a Purple Emperor coming down to the ground. Apologies for the low quality photograph, but at that moment, I only had a simple mobile phone to hand!