County Voice

County Voice: May 2022

Jeffrey’s Wood at Pontcysyllte woodland management update

As part of the Our Picturesque Landscape National Lottery Heritage Funded project in the Dee Valley, a programme of woodland management works within the woodlands around the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct has been undertaken over the last winter. This has helped to open up the woodland floor allowing sunlight in, flowers to thrive and the existing trees to grow more healthily. It has also allowed an uneven age structure and wider variety of trees which is good for the overall health of the woodland and biodiversity as well as revealing some of the key views of the aqueduct.

The autumn and winter months, when deciduous trees have lost their leaves and few birds are nesting, is an ideal time to undertake active woodland management work. This often involves traditional techniques such as coppicing and thinning. This involves the removal of poor condition, diseased, or overcrowded trees to make the remaining trees stronger and healthier. Thinning is used to manage neglected woodland where dense shading has reduced the presence of woodland wildflowers.

When a tree is felled we consider the impact upon the woodland and will plant replacement trees where necessary. However, natural regeneration of local tree species is the preferred choice as nature gradually fills the gaps left behind.

The first phase of works started in October with a full week of thinning work by contractors in Jeffrey’s wood between the aqueduct and the Bont bridge.

A second week focused on the old overgrown hedgerow alongside the steps down to the river from the basin and parallel to this on the other side of the aqueduct arches. The hedge had not been managed and had become overgrown. In a few years the coppiced trees will have regrown and can be re-laid as a hedge as it would originally have been when the canal was built. Rangers from the AONB team ran a training session on hedge laying for staff and in total approximately 36 metres of the thinner hedge trees were laid as a hedge alongside the steps. The effect is transformative and shows what the longer term intention of the work is to restore the historic hedge line that was planted over 200 years ago. It has started to reveal the line of the hedge from top to bottom. This a real legacy of this piece of work to not only bring the woodland into a better state for biodiversity but to restore a heritage structure. The gaps in the hedgerow have been planted up with about 375 young hazel, hawthorn and field maple trees so that in 3 to 4 years the new growth can be laid to create hedgerow along the length of the pillars on both sides.

Staff from the AONB, Nature for Health team and Our Picturesque Landscape team ran some volunteer days in November, December and February at Pontcysyllte doing a variety of tasks including coppicing, hedge laying and tree planting as part of the wider woodland management. Volunteers cut back trees and vegetation under the arches but also used ‘tree poppers’ to relocate some of the naturally regenerated trees that were growing in the wrong place and replanting them in the line of the hedgerow. The idea is that they will grow alongside the coppiced stumps and new trees so that the hedgerow is thicker.

A local artist, Emma-Jayne Holmes, came and sketched the volunteers event as it happened creating a picturesque visual record of the activity.

This has been the first phase of ongoing management of the woodland at Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and is a key part of the Our Picturesque Landscape conservation objectives.

Before and after photos

 

 Hedgerow and Improved view from top to bottom

  

Emma-Jayne Holmes wonderful sketches of the volunteer activity.

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