Wotton's Newest Wood - Full Moon Wood

There is an old proverb that goes ‘The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago.  The next best time is today’.

So it was that five years ago in 2020 a group of enthusiasts in Wotton thought ‘Lets plant a wood ….. this winter!’

 The project was the brainchild of a small sub group of the newly established Wotton Area CAN. This group had mapped Wotton looking for potential areas for tree planting and identified the small area of council land below the allotments which had previously been used for pony grazing but was no longer in regular management.

A plan was drawn up, the Council was consulted, the trees were ordered (community trees from the Woodland Trust) and before we knew it we had 25 volunteers out planting the 400 trees. Once the trees were planted it was named Full Moon Wood as a reminder of the pub that used to stand on the corner of the road.

The original plan was for the wood to be ‘zoned’ with an area of larger trees (where they wouldn’t obstruct views), a border of smaller shrubs and trees and a woodland harvest area of fruiting trees.

It has been fascinating to see how these areas have developed over the last five years and whilst the plan still stands certain trees have taken off at a huge rate such as the willows and rowans and others have been slower to get their feet down and their crowns up such as oaks. Unfortunately the wild harvest area has been completely taken over by blackthorn but that has its own value.   Not all the trees have survived and that is fine ….. an important part of a woodland is the open space as this is particularly valuable for wildlife because it tends to be warm and sunny.  We have planted up some gaps; which has been made easier by the tree nursery on the allotments where we grow on trees and shrubs that have been grown from seed or donated by members of the public.

The wood is intentionally having very low intervention maintenance - the grass is left to grow long and some brambles are allowed to mingle with the shrubs. Wildlife thrives best where it is undisturbed!  We certainly know there are plenty of slow worms around the site as we find them lurking on the tree nursery, basking in the sunshine.  But there is a need to do occasionally clearing and cutting (there is a path round the edge that is kept reasonably short) so we are always looking for more volunteers to help with the few jobs that there are.

The wood is open to all, the footpath round the edge takes about 10 minutes to walk, if you take your time, and dogs are welcome (with all the usual provisos) so please do seek out this wonderful oasis of calm and green and enjoy it as it develops over the next five, ten, fifty years. What3words location: ///polar.deduced.placed.

If you would like to get involved in looking after the wood please get in touch with wottoncan@gmail.com.    It's really not a huge commitment, we have couple of sessions in autumn and a couple more in the spring.  We are also always looking for contributions to the tree nursery so perhaps have a go at growing some seed this autumn or pass on any saplings that spring up in your garden!

Bel Whitwam

Wotton Climate and Nature Network