Ughill Farm – Dead-wood habitat creation (3)

Works to be completed:

– Use monolithing to create stable, long-lasting deadwood habitats by removing main branches while retaining standing trunks.
– Apply veteranisation techniques to selectively damage and attach deadwood to living trees, encouraging gradual decay and habitat formation.
– Redistribute cut branches and limbs to create lying deadwood features in the tree planting and wet-woodland projects.

Overarching aims of the works:

– Extend the decline of mature trees to maximise their ecological value.
– Enhance woodland biodiversity by creating a variety of deadwood habitats.
– Support fungi, beetles, hoverfly larvae, bats, and breeding birds such as redstart and little owl.
– Improve woodland resilience by introducing diverse stages of aging and decay.

Value to the community and/or environment:

– Creates long-term habitats for key woodland species, increasing biodiversity.
– Demonstrates best practice in sustainable woodland management.
– Supports research into deadwood retention as a tool for ecological restoration.
– Reduces risk of sudden tree falls while maintaining valuable habitat features.