Natural England asked us to create ‘storm-like conditions’ whilst working in the River Bovey catchment that transends through Yarner Woods on East Dartmoor. This would improve the flood management and create leaky dams, deflectors and ‘features’ throughout the woodland with the ultimate goal of slowing down and spreading or disperseing the water flow.
Yarner Woods,
East Dartmoor
Client brief
The Habitat Restoration Co. we’re briefed by Natural England to create ‘storm-like conditions’ whilst working in the River Bovey catchment that transends through Yarner Woods on East Dartmoor. Our goal was to fell and winch large, semi-mature trees such as alder & oak that were growing along the river side and in the floodplain, to create leaky dams, deflectors and ‘features’ throughout the woodland with the ultimate goal of slowing down and spreading or disperseing the water flow.
We were also briefed to remove as much holly from the understory growing along the riverside flood plain to increase sunlight to the woodland floor to encourage a wider variety of native flora in an otherwise oak dominant woodland.
Yarner Woods is both an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and SAC (Special Area of Conservation) so strict stipulations were in place against felling trees with rare mosses and lichens, as well as adhering to dormice hibernation mitigation techniques when working in the woodland. It is also accessable to the public, therefore we our operations were required to mitigate for the safety of public & dogs, as well as our staff.
THRC solution
We mobilised a 4 man team lead by our highly skilled and experienced operations manager, who has vast experience in both tree felling and natural flood management. Equipped with our stihl chainsaw fleet and 1.6t Tirfor winch, we set about approaching the project in stages working methodically from the lowest point in the valley to the highest point of the river within the wooded section we were assigned.
All trees considered exempt from felling were marked with spray due to their size, form, potential bat features, age and evidence of hosting rare mosses and lichens, for which Yarner Wood is particularly known for.
We gave our team 15 days across one month to complete the job, with the aim of completing 4-5 dams or ‘features’ per day. We factored in spare time to accommodate for bad weather (which was absolutely necessary at this time of year!) and also due to the remote and rural location of getting to and from site each day.
We set about felling trees at a variety of heights, using the winch to uproot trees, create destructive and chaotic conditions which fulfilled the ‘storm-like’ conditions brief. We understand that habitats and ecosystems thrive when there is variety and difference in the environment, so our team duly went about creating these conditions through felling techniques not encouraged in a domestic environment! Stems were left in situ across the flood plain with some brash being stacked in the river itself to pack out the dam and reduce water flow. Logs were stacked and piled in the watercourse and water was encouraged across the flood plain into the wider cleared areas.
End result
With instant high levels of rainfall through the arrival of Storm Bert in late November 2024, the results have been immediately obvious. Water has been slowed right down throughout the entirety of our section of the woodland, with vast quantities spilling out into the flood plains surrounding creating multiple streams and pools cascading down the woodland. Felled trees across the river have remained in situ and been excellent in naturally reducing the speed of the water.
In the future we expect to see a much wider variety of native flora establishing in the flood plain where thick holly cover has been removed and more sunlight is available to reach the woodland floor. We also expect to see a wider variety of wildlife utilising the semi-aquatic woodland ecosystems created, and hope that Yarner Woods itself will retain and hold much more water than previously and contribute to flood mitigation for the town of Bovey Tracey.