Growing Treswell: Restoring Our Ancient Woodlands

This project involves the purchase of an area of land, enclosed on three sides by Treswell Wood SSSI. Treswell Wood is a semi-natural ancient woodland near Retford, owned by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. It is one of the county’s finest woodland sites and was designated as a SSSI in 1972, being described as one of the best examples of an ash/oak/maple wood in the county. Mixed Ash Woodland is a priority in the Local Biodiversity Action Plan.

The nature reserve forms a ‘C’ shape, around an area of land which would have been woodland before it was cleared. The Wildlife Trust have recently secured a unique, time-limited opportunity to purchase this and bring it back into long-term management for wildlife, encouraging the woodland to regenerate naturally into the area over several years. An area of meadow will also be created, as well as two ponds and an area of hedgerow, contributing to LBAP targets for mixed ash woodland, lowland neutral grassland, hedgerow, and eutrophic & mesotrophic standing water.