Restoring Safe Access Through an Ancient Woodland Near Bude

Understanding the Woodland First

Before any work started, we carried out a practical woodland management inspection and prepared a proposal for the landowner.

The main priorities were:

• Improve safety along the main paths and family access routes
• Remove or reduce obvious risks from diseased, dead or failing trees
• Restore access through parts of the woodland without over-clearing
• Protect the existing woodland floor, flowers and habitats
• Retain the natural feel of the ancient woodland
• Create more varied habitat through careful coppicing, thinning and deadwood management

This was not a woodland that needed heavy intervention. It needed selective work, done at the right time and in the right places.

 

Woodland Safety and Access Works

The first phase of work focused on making the main routes through the woodland safer.

We removed prominent failing trees close to paths, glades and recreational areas. This included diseased ash, dead and hanging limbs, storm-damaged oak branches, rotten sweet chestnut coppice and other material that was either blocking access or creating avoidable risk.

Some low branches were crown lifted where they were restricting movement, and sections of path were reopened where vegetation and fallen timber had started to close them in.

We used chainsaws, pole saws, brushcutters, chipper, winch, MEWP, ATV, trucks and hand tools depending on the area of the site and the type of work needed. Access was fairly good in places, but because the woodland sat right on the coast and dropped through the valley, we still had to use the ATV and trucks carefully to get tools and equipment down to where they were needed.

The aim was not to make the paths look manicured. It was to make them usable again.

 

Keeping Habitat in the Woodland

A big part of the job was deciding what not to remove.

In a woodland like this, deadwood is not just waste. Standing deadwood, fallen timber, brash piles and decaying coppice all support fungi, invertebrates, birds and small mammals. So where material did not create a safety issue or block access, it was retained where possible.

Some arisings were stacked into habitat piles, and larger pieces of timber were left in suitable areas to break down naturally. This helped keep the woodland feeling natural while still dealing with the parts that genuinely needed attention.

The woodland floor was also important. With bluebells, wood anemones and other native woodland flowers present, we were careful with machinery movements and avoided unnecessary disturbance to the ground layer.

 

Coppicing, Thinning and Light

Where appropriate, we carried out selective coppicing and thinning to improve structure within the woodland.

This included work to sweet chestnut, hazel and mixed coppice where stems had become overstood, tangled or were beginning to fail. Coppicing was used carefully, not as a blanket treatment, but as a way of bringing light back into small areas and encouraging more varied regrowth.

In some areas, light crown lifting and understory thinning helped open up paths and glades without making the woodland feel exposed.

Ancient woodland management is often about balance. Too little management and paths become unsafe, trees fail into access routes, and the woodland becomes harder to enjoy. Too much management and you can lose the quiet, layered character that has taken years to develop.

This project sat right in that middle ground.

 

Working Around the Seasons

The work was planned around the time of year and the sensitivity of the site.

We carried out the main winter and early spring safety works, then paused heavier operations for nesting season. That was the right thing to do. The woodland had plenty of bird activity and strong existing habitat value, so it made no sense to push on with unnecessary disturbance during the breeding season.

That kind of restraint is part of good woodland management. Sometimes the best decision is to stop, let the woodland have the summer, and only carry out the work that is genuinely needed.