Keeping out browsing animals and letting weeds grow are among the measures that will make woodland more ecologically valuable
A question I get asked regularly is, ‘how do I make a forest more ecologically valuable?’. Increasing the biodiversity value of a forest may sound a daunting task but it is not.
There are a couple of simple things you can do that will make a world of difference.
Keep Browsing Animals Out
The first job to do is to put a sturdy fence around the forest to keep out animals. The likes of deer, cattle, sheep, horses, goats, pigs and rabbits will cause a lot of damage to trees.
They will strip the bark off the tree, rendering the timber commercially worthless while giving pests and diseases a helping hand to infect the tree.
A healthy, well-structured forest should consist of grandparent trees, parents, teenage children and baby trees.
Animals will happily graze the baby trees (ie, the natural regeneration), destroying the forest’s next generation.
Too many animals will compact the soil, leading to reduced biological activity, porosity and permeability of the soil.
Especially in Ireland, soil compaction can be a serious issue because of our damp climate. This tends to lead to increased surface run-off, flooding, erosion and nutrient loss as well as poor root development.
Animals can also cause drainage issues by damaging and collapsing mound drains.
Restricting access will quickly turn your forest into a rich woodland.
Create / Leave Deadwood
Trees not only provide many functions when alive, they continue to do so when dead.
Many fungi, bacteria, lichens, mosses, insects such as beetles and birds (eg owls) depend on dead trees as a source of food, shelter or as nesting sites.
These fungi and bacteria fulfil an extremely important role in every woodland by recycling nutrients and enriching soils.
Both standing and lying dead trees are essential links in any healthy woodland ecosystem cycle.
If little dead wood is present, consider cutting down a few mature trees to create lying deadwood.
Don’t cut down top-quality trees; choose poorly formed trees. The wood can then be stacked to create a ‘bug hotel’.
The ecological importance of standing deadwood is often overlooked. If no appropriate standing dead trees are around, you can mimic this by ring-barking a poorly formed or undesirable tree.
Encourage Weeds
An ecologically rich woodland is a haven for wildlife where ‘weeds’ are welcomed and needed — these contribute greatly to a woodland’s biodiversity.
For example, nettles support 15 moth species and provide food for butterflies. Briars offer food to 40 species of butterfly and moth. They are valuable groundcover and food to many birds.
Elder comes into leaf early in spring, providing early cover for birds. Its berries are an important food source for birds in late summer.
Ivy is loved and hated in equal measure. However, it does play an important role in wooded ecosystems and should be retained as a valuable food source.
It flowers very late in the season, providing one of the very few food sources for bees. Its berries ripen after Christmas, offering a critically important food source for birds in late winter when little else is available.
Removal of ivy should only be considered for safety reasons where it is free-flowering in roadside tree crowns — this leads to top-heavy trees, making them more likely to blow down in a storm.
A handy rule of thumb for dealing with ivy on roadside trees is that it should be removed when reaching the lower branches of the crown.
Steven Meyen is a Teagasc forestry advisor based in Ballybofey; steven.meyen@teagasc.ie
€2,000 up for grabs in forestry award
Are you a working farmer with forestry? Are you integrating the forest within the farm and seeing economic, environmental and practical benefits?
If you are, consider entering the RDS Teagasc Farm Forestry Award.
To be eligible, you need to be actively farming, and your farm forest must be at least four hectares and between five and 15 years of age.
The winner will receive €2,000 and the runner-up €1,000.
In recent years the award has showcased farmer foresters across a range of enterprises and backgrounds .
Ross Buchanan is the most recent winner, having created a diverse and productive forest which he is integrating into his family sheep farm in Inishowen, Co Donegal.
Careful forest design together with an innovative approach, is helping to diversify income streams.
This in turn is opening up new opportunities for farm diversification.
Ross’s story shows how forests can be a valuable resource on the farm — now and for future generations.
The award is part of the RDS Forest and Woodland Awards, which reward woodland owners who are employing the principles of Climate-Smart Agriculture, including sound commercial management, environmental protection, and encouragement of biodiversity.
There are also categories for Production Forestry and Community Woodlands.
See www.rds.ie/agriculture/forestry
The closing date for applications is Tuesday, August 10.
(Source – Irish Independent – Indo Farming – Steven Meyen – 09/08/2021)