The Erica Trust

Updates

The latest information on Erica Trust development is contained in the Wildlife Newsletters as and when it becomes available.

Further Update Autumn 2022

Three of the four tree work sites that we hoped to tackle this season have been done namely

– the clear fell east of the footpath at Hollow Woods to restore heathland. The broadleaved woodland fringe will be encouraged to thicken up.

-the removal of the remaining hemlocks and pollarding of the limes at the bottom of Smokeham Bottom. Very much looking forward to seeing the limes respond to their new environment.

-the removal of Douglas fir alongside the Affpuddle Road. Native broadleaved woodland will be encouraged in its place.

Work on another hazel coup close to the Affpuddle Road will be taking place during this winter. However the proposed thinning of the exotic conifers between Allotments Plantation and Chapel Cottage will be held for another year.

Lesley Haskins.

Update Autumn 2022

It has been wonderfully gratifying to have had so many reports of the wildlife expanding  over or colonising the restored  habitats of our landholding and to hear of those enjoying the recovering landscape. With the major works completed on our main land holding west of The Hollow Road, we are now following up with small scale improvements on some of the more tricky bits and pieces.

Foremost amongst these will be the wet ground at the base of Smokeham Bottom (just up from the entrance to Blackdown House) where we will be taking out the remaining few tall conifers which have proved troublesome. The lovely line of limes planted along the roadside, but grown so leggy because of the conifer shading, will be crown reduced, pollarded or coppiced according to their individual shapes – limes respond well to all these treatments. Oaks planted last winter further up the road have managed to survive this exceptional summer.

There will be some thinning out of the exotic conifers north of Allotments Plantation  ie mostly those which can been seen protruding above the skyline when looking up from the bus shelter.

Right over the in the west, alongside the Affpuddle Road, the discreet enclave of exotic conifers will be removed. All extraction will be either southwards through the site and/ or along the roads to our usual the timber stack area.

Also alongside the Affpuddle Road a second tranch of coppicing will take place and the deer fencing moved from the now well grown first tranch to protect the new tranch.

General ongoing management will include more gorse coppicing along the ‘top road’.

On our land holding east of The Hollow Road (known as Hollow Woods) we have previously thinned out exotic conifers west of the bisecting footpath to encourage mixed woodland. East of the footpath we now intend to take out all the exotic conifers to restore heathland which will connect over the road to that owned and managed by Henry Hogger. The marginal broadleaved woodland will of course be retained and encouraged.  Like our main land, this area also has a Wildfire Mitigation Plan  including the fire retardant broadleaved woodland and access provision.

We hope to start in mid September and as always tolerance of our operations is much appreciated.

Lesley Haskins.

A Long View of Culpepper’s Dish

Not many people can claim to have had such a long term view of  the remarkable landscape between Culpepper’s Dish and Briantspuddle Village than Mrs. Eileen Riglar. In the early 1960s Eileen was a member of a mainly female team employed by Sir Piers Debenham to plant conifers on the undulating plateau behind the Dish (the best known of Dorset’s swallet-holes) and down the slopes towards the village. On the plateau these conifers were planted on what Eilieen recalls as open purple heathland, and on the slopes they were planted under oak and bluebell woodland.

The photograph shows Culpepper’s Dish as it was just after planting took place – in a wide  open landscape with just one majestic oak in its base. (Photograph by Geoffrey Poole 1968).

Thereafter Eileen was then able to view the impact of the conifers on the landscape over the years merely by looking from the back garden of her own home in Briantspuddle – where she has lived for over 60  years. The woodland of course became much darker as the conifers grew through and overtopped the oaks. The heathland on the plateau retreated to isolated pockets and rides.

In the last two years the conifers have fulfilled the purpose for which they were planted, and have been  extensively removed and sent to the timber market. But times have changed with regard to the importance of the original landscape. The huge value to wildlife of the former heathland and old woodland is now widely appreciated. Following purchase of the land by The Erica Trust and the conifer cropping, tree regeneration will be largely discouraged on the newly-released heathland, while native broadleaved trees only will be encouraged in the newly-released old woodland. The heath will not be as starkly open as it was in the 1960s photograph, but open and sunny enough for sand lizards to return – to join the nightjars who have been very quick to take up summer residence. The woodland will again have enough light for the bluebells to flourish. 

The photographs show Eileen Riglar in front of the wood where she planted conifers during her early years in Briantspuddle, and in her garden with some of the locally grown oak saplings to be planted in the gaps in the woodland now that many of those conifers have been removed.

Notes.

The Erica Trust is a small conservation charity  formed in 2010 to undertake proactive wildlife projects in east Dorset.  The charity currently owns approx 600 acres  spread between Verwood, Ferndown, Wimborne and Briantspuddle. The managing Trustee is Dr. Lesley Haskins.

Swallet holes, or dolines, are circular depressions formed when the underlying chalk is dissolved by the overlying acid sands and gravels which eventually collapse to form an inverted cone.

Lesley Haskins November 2020

June 2020

Lesley Haskins writes: When we started our heathland and woodland restoration project at Briantspuddle we got off to a flying start. Indeed much of the heathland restoration was achieved in just January and February 2019 before stopping for the bird nesting season.

It was very frustrating then that no sooner had we started operations again in September to progress the woodland restoration  than  it started to rain – and basically never stopped. Whilst some reduction of the alien conifers was achieved, by Christmas it was quite evident that the ground conditions were just too bad to continue and so we reluctantly shut up shop, leaving the job very obviously unfinished. The slope above The Hollow  has understandably raised a few eyebrows!

 The contractors will get back to the task in the later summer, sorting the effects  of  the several back to back storms, extracting timber perforce left on the ground,  and then continuing the remaining reduction of the standing exotic conifers. And of course dealing with the old and new brash – not by any further burning as we had to do on the heath, but by placement  along  the contour lines to provide  habitat for wildlife with also  open ground for tree seedlings to establish.

But even at this unfinished stage of project, the rewards are  becoming evident. Right on cue, nightjars and woodlark have already come to breed on the newly restored   heathland. More essential light already shines down the  slopes through the  woods to the old oaks,  hazels  and bluebells below – where dormouse has been recorded waiting to benefit from the coppicing cycle which has just been restarted after many years absence.

And  in the autumn of 2021, with the main changes  surely achieved, we can really look forward to more heathland plants and animals moving in, and to positively nurturing  the remaining and new native trees which will  return  the old broadleaved woodland to its former natural glory. 

Background

The Erica Trust is a small charity started in 2010 to complement work done by the other voluntary wildlife groups in south-east Dorset. The Trust already owns 400 acres, mostly heathland and grassland, around Verwood, Ferndown, and Merley, and it was thrilled to be able to secure the 100 or so acres which formed Lot 3 in the sale of the Neill’s estate coloured in on the map below.

As its founder and one of three trustees, I can be found most weekends at Little Thatch on the Briantspuddle cross-roads. The charity’s plan is to restore and enhance the amenity and wildlife interest of the land, putting it back to the form in which some of our long standing residents can still remember it – a combination of old broad leaved woodland along the lower ground leading up to sunny heathland above.

To achieve this the northern third of the site will have the majority of the tall ‘alien’ conifers taken out, so the old oak and the beech woodland through which the public footpath runs, can be seen again in its full glory. The hazel understorey will be encouraged by coppicing, and holly controlled. With the shading conifers reduced and light getting through, the broadleaves should start to regenerate themselves again and the bluebells, primroses, wood anemomes and wood sorrel that we all enjoy so much will thrive.

The southern two thirds of the site will have the majority of the Scots pines taken off, so that the former heathland will come again into its own. Any characterful pines, birches and hollies will be left to break up the landscape. Culpeppers Dish will be come obvious again. Work will not start until 2019, and trees will be mostly, if not entirely, taken out southwards over temporary brash based tracks. The plan is also to provide better access by permissive paths linking the existing footpaths and bridleways so we can properly enjoy seeing our local and heathland wildlife flourish.

The ‘allotments plantation’ and surrounds remain in private ownership, however our different but complementary management programmes will ensure maximum variety of habitats and landscape types. If you have any information to pass on or comments you would like to make do please contact Lesley on email lesleyhaskins@hotmail.co.uk or call in at Little Thatch at Briantspuddle Crossroads at weekends.