Want to walk and talk?

Author - Paul Thomas - Facebook

​You are invited for a SHORT WALK and TALK in Finings Wood on the 28th September at 5.30pm. We shall meet outside the Lane End Surgery at 5.30pm. Sunset is at 6.45pm and we will be finished and out of the woods by then.

Nick Marriner from the Chiltern Conservation Board will be with us.

We shall walk to an area of 3-4 acres of overgrown, conifer plantation on both sides of the concrete track up to the water tower in Finings Wood. Here we can talk and ask Nick his advice on the proposal to make Finings a community Woodland.

If Lane End owned the woods, we could apply for a PAWS grant to return it to Ancient woodland and use this particular area as an accessible asset that could be used in more creative ways, leaving the rest of the 60 acres of Finings to be managed carefully and restored back into Ancient Woodland over the next 10-20 years.

In forestry PAWS means `planted ancient woodland sites` and refers to the planting of conifers during the 1950`s and 60`s within the existing forest as the photo shows, a good idea at the time when timber was in short supply after the war, but we are seeing things differently now.

In England, Ancient Woodland is very rare so allowing hardwood trees like Beech, Oak, Cherry, Sweet Chestnut and Rowan to grow instead of rows of conifer will help the flowers and insects return to that area.

This would be a small but very significant contribution that Lane End could make to support the environmental and climate change debates.  

Hope to see as many as possible. Bring questions and ideas please. Outdoor gear and boots, expect some rough ground.