Sodylt Wood - Ellesmere
Long term intentions
The woodland will be managed as high forest, providing continuous cover and developing towards predominantly native oak/ash woodland reflecting national vegetation classification (NVC) community type W10 found in the locality. The main management aim is to maintain the existing level of biodiversity and where possible increase it. This will be achieved with as little intervention as possible, but will include minor works to ensure that biodiversity isn't lost through the period of poorly structured semi-mature woodland resulting from post clearfell re-establishment. This will be carried out primarily through ride side coppicing and the creation of scalloped bays. The soil and moisture regime across the site is variable and has encouraged natural regeneration of a number of different stand types, this process will be allowed to continue in order that natural selection and succession be the key drivers of species distribution across the site. Improved biodiversity will also be achieved through increasing dead wood habitat by the retention of standing and fallen dead wood in the form of moribund and dead trees, ring-barking of mature sycamore and the retention of lop and top arising from felling operations.
The woodland is currently even aged, but the wide range of species planted and naturally regenerating species provides a matrix of stand types with differing growth rates, life spans and resistance to disease and stress that will eventually lead to a varied structure. In the short term an artificial varied structure will be maintained through occasional scallops being cut along the ride sides, and re-coppicing of sycamore stools on a five yearly cycle, this provides a secondary benefit in keeping the sycamore population juvenile and seed free. The mature sycamores will be ring-barked to provide standing deadwood with any shoots and re-growth treated as per the coppice stools. As the woodland develops its own distinct structure the need for intervention to promote an artificial structure will lessen.
A high percentage of the natural regeneration at Sodylt is wych elm. At this time there is little evidence of a re-emergence of Dutch elm disease in the area, a significant factor in resistance at Sodylt is the current high vigour of the young trees. Coppicing the whole population to reduce the risk of re-infection could very well result in the loss of disease resistant trees. Therefore management will allow the population to continue to develop until such a time when disease emergence becomes a serious threat. If wide scale infection occurs then the removal of infected trees and the selective coppicing of some healthy trees will serve to maintain the gene pool on site.
