The Demon In The Woods 🧛🌳
Rhiannon Hoy, a Woodland Trust Outreach Officer, does ancient woodland restoration across the South of England. Here is what she has to say about invasive species removal methods:
"5 years ago this ancient woodland was just a dense series of caves made by rhododendron 🌺. Three eradication methods were trialled across the site:
✅ Mulching the stumps to just below the soil surface. This has worked really well and only new seedlings required pulling out by hand on follow-up visits.
✅ Cutting and controlled spraying with herbicide also worked well. Stumps require annual treatment for the following few years, but they have been controlled.
❎ Electrocution⚡️ … very fun, very dramatic, but the woody stems and root structures of the rhododendron are untouched. This method is used for plants like Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed, so it was an interesting experiment, but an unsuccessful one. This section of the wood is full of resprouting stumps and is not where we wanted it to be 5 years later!
Although it’s not our usual task, the team and I offered the landowner a helping hand and spent the day ripping up new seedlings 👩🏼🌾🌱.
This woodland is being restored, but all you have to do is look over the fence to the neighbouring wood, which hasn’t been involved in the project, and you’re faced with the reality that this is going to be a never ending battle until people are on board with invasive species removal at a landscape scale 🪓👫."
To see more of Rhiannon's posts, follow her on LinkedIn:
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