Erin McDaid of the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust talks of efforts to save Treswell Woods, Retford from Ash Dieback disease

Ancient woodlands are Nottinghamshire’s most diverse habitat, providing a haven for wildlife and places of solace and inspiration for people, writes Erin McDaid of the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

Our remaining ancient woods have been nurtured by people throughout the ages and woodlands have, in turn, helped shape our culture and heritage.

While the area of woodland cover across the country is approximately 13%, ancient woodland covers a paltry 2.5%. Sadly, since the 1930s we've lost half of our ancient woodland and many woods are either neglected or abandoned, resulting in a dramatic decline in their health and value to wildlife.

When we launched an appeal for funds to help care for the woodlands in our care a couple of years ago, some people questioned why we needed money at all – asking why we didn’t just leave the woodlands ‘wild’.

While this has merit, the ancient woodlands’ amazingly biodiverse ecosystem was shaped by active management and now requires intervention to ensure diversity of habitats is maintained or enhanced.

For over 50 years, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has been working to save and restore some of our county’s finest remaining ancient woodlands.

While many people associate the Trust with Attenborough Nature Reserve, the first site we purchased was Treswell Wood near Retford back in 1972.

The wood, documented in the Domesday Book almost 1,000 years ago, was threatened with being overplanted with commercial forestry – a fate that would have destroyed its wildlife interest and wiped away a millennium of history.

The threat prompted Trust members and volunteers to launch an ambitious bid to buy the wood – a somewhat audacious move given that we had neither premises nor staff.

A successful appeal resulted in our charity taking ownership of its first landholding and so began the slow process of restoring the neglected woodland back to its former glory.

Efforts to restore the traditional cycle of ‘coppice’ management, with separate areas of the woodland cut on a cycle to produce a range of materials and habitats received a boost in the 1990s.

A resurgence in traditional skills such as pole lathe turning, besom broom making (think Harry Potter), charcoal making, ‘bodging’ chair legs and spindles and making hazel ‘hurdles’ - once used to keep livestock in place revived interest in the techniques used by woodsmen to generate the different types of timber required to sustain these crafts.

Thus began a symbiotic relationship between the Trust and a group of passionate individuals which would see a number of our sites, including Treswell, restored as productive woodlands.

By replicating the activity of the woodsman, we returned to the very cycle of management that underpinned the amazing diversity of habitat and species that makes ancient woodland so special.

Harvesting timber helps ensure that light reaches the woodland floor, boosting populations of wildflowers such as bluebells and the insects that rely upon them for nectar.

The regrowth of cut hazel promotes ideal nesting opportunities for songbirds and also enabled us to support the reintroduction of the ‘hazel’ dormouse at Treswell and other North Notts woodlands.

Treswell Woods’ restoration should, by now, be being talked about in terms of being a renaissance. However, as one of the county’s finest oak/ash woodlands – the reserve has not escaped the impact of Ash Dieback disease which is now endemic across the UK and threatens to devastate 30% of trees across our landscape.

Whilst ash trees at Treswell Wood are affected by this arboreal epidemic; decades of active management means we have ash at different stages and can happily allow coppiced ash to grow for years without risk of weakened branches posing a danger to visitors.

Given the importance of Ash to Treswell’s ecology, we have also created a special area adjacent to the woodland where we are allowing natural regeneration of self-seeded trees in the hope that one day, ash will emerge with some degree of natural resistance to this blight.

Elsewhere, we are dealing with the reality that all our woodlands are affected by ash dieback. To keep our woodlands open and safe for visitors we have developed a clear plan which involved closing some informal paths to prevent the prospect of having to fell even greater numbers of trees than is necessary to keep people and property safe from the risk of unstable trees.

Efforts to restore the productivity of our woodlands has not only boosted their value to wildlife – they have also stood us in good stead to manage the threats posed by ash dieback.

Income from the sale of standing timber helps offset management costs and some of the craftsmen that helped champion woodland restoration in our county are now experienced woodsmen, whose expertise we can call on to sensitively fell timber affected by the disease.

After five decades of woodland restoration, we are now faced with needing to spend more than ever before to tackle ash dieback, but the skills and experience developed over the past fifty years, plus the backing of our members, volunteers and supporters, leaves us well placed to ensure that the 200 hectares of ancient woodlands in our care continue to support threatened species and provide people with uplifting opportunities to connect with nature.

For further details of how we are tacking Ash Dieback on our reserves visit nottinghamshirewildlife.org/ash-dieback