The first Saturday of April 2026 was also Easter Saturday so we weren’t sure if many volunteers would be able to attend, especially as there was a storm forecast for the afternoon. However, we didn’t need to be concerned as we had 11 volunteers. We were really happy to welcome a new volunteer along.

Area cleared, and small fir tree regeneration now visible. Photo by Siobhan Fraser

About 3 years go we consulted with the community regarding what they wanted in their woodland. Following that we drew up a 10-year management plan for the woodland. All the work that we are undertaking within the woodland complies with this plan. We have a lot of non-native beech regeneration, and to a lesser extent, western hemlock. We have permission under our Tree Preservation Order (TPO) to remove this non-native regeneration to allow the native regeneration to grow and thrive.

A couple of months ago we started clearing the beech regeneration from Compartment 10. This month we returned to the area and tackled a small area of very dense beech regeneration. With 11 volunteers we soon cleared the beech away and were pleased to see some native regeneration, along with some “memory tree” regeneration. There’s at least one Grand Fir.

While we were doing this one of the volunteers armed with picker and black bag started to tackle some of the litter that has been dropped, or blown, into the woodland.

Compartment 11 with the small beech regeneration now removed. Photo by Siobhan Fraser

Compartment 11

Although Compartment 11 has a lot of very large, mature beech trees it didn’t have too much beech regeneration. What there was, was mainly around the edges or in bands across the area. These were tackled and removed.

As we were working we were approached by some local residents. They had been out for a walk and had come across a tree that had come down and was partially blocking Dunglass Road. Several of the volunteers, armed with Caution signs, saws and loppers and personal protective clothing headed down to deal with tree. We were very pleased the residents had mentioned this to us. If you are out in the woodland, and find a tree down or something else that you think we should know about, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Compartment 12

Beech Regeneration removed, now left with native regeneration – photo by Siobhan Fraser

Time was marching on, but that didn’t stop us starting Compartment 12. This will be quite a slow compartment as we are starting to work our way into an area that is predominantly native trees and there’s a lot of natural regeneration in this area. So, we are having to check each tree before we cut it to make sure that it is only the beech regeneration that we are removing.

We will have to continue tackling this area in future sessions.

The Compartment Map