Standing Up For Nature!

The view from our office window is beautiful – a mature woodland including corsican pines, birch, oak, holly, bracken, rhododendron, broom, bramble etc. There is a deep and healthy dyke running along the length of it at the far side and open fields are beyond the wood. The wood is not owned by the hospital – I don't know who it belongs to, but the hospital does own approximately a couple of yards into this wood, next to our road that runs around the hospital – this includes the most mature pine trees on the outer edge.

There has always been a good selection of birds here. Resident/regular birds include: treecreepers, nuthatch, siskins, great spotted and green woodpeckers, robins, redpolls, jays, goldcrests, long-tailed tits, coal, great, blue, and even rarer marsh tits, blackbirds, song thrushes, mistle thrushes - the list goes on. Spring migration brings Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers, Blackcaps, Goldcrests and Cuckoos etc. Also tawny owl and protected species: Adders and Grass Snakes hibernate and breed in here. Birds nest in here too, including a Great Spotted Woodpecker in a large dead tree. I watch all of this most days from my car, as do other members of staff in our busy car parking areas.

A short while ago (maybe a couple of weeks) I was very alarmed to see tractors and machinery chopping down trees in the middle and clearing vegetation. Over the next few days they continued to clear more. I had to do something, before the whole lot went! I know the land is privately owned and I'm sure the owner can do exactly as he/she likes and I'm sure there is nothing anyone can do about it, but I wasn't sure of the law, so decided to seek advice to find out what was going on.

I rang the East of England Forestry Commission for advice and I was told that the owner is:

"opening up a glade within the wood, which will be put down to grass, but the rest of the wood will just be thinned. The wood is covered by a Woodland Tree Preservation Order which is put in place by the Planning Dept generally when they think that a wood is of high amenity value, it is basically the best protection that can be afforded to a woodland as any felling work has to be okayed by the local council......"

I emailed back to point out all the wildlife etc that has been lost in this wood etc and that goodness knows how many snakes, hedgehogs etc were killed off as the machines were taking all the tree roots etc out! I listed all the species I have seen in the wood and highlighted the grass snakes and adders which are a protected species. The woodpecker tree had been felled – very sad. The 'glade' is a massive area that they have felled. The wood is not huge - the area felled is probably more than half of the size of the entire wood! It's much more than a 'glade'! Its completely heartbreaking. When the Forestry Commission gentleman I was speaking to told me that the cleared area was going to be grassed, I was completely mystified! Why go to all this bother of stripping out all of this wonderful wood to replace it with green turf? I couldn't see the point? It must have cost a lot of money to get those contractors in and they are still there today – clearing and flattening this massive area of ground.

The Forestry Commission gentleman told me that the Tree Officer at the council was also involved, so I phoned him also and found out more! Apparently there is going to be sheep grazing on the grassed area. This is even more strange. Why would someone clear a wood, to lay grass, to graze sheep yards from the hospital grounds and extremely close to the very fast A149? All sounds rather strange to me! Also, locals walk their dogs through here (most off leads), so I am guessing there is a public right of way through here? If there is, then I don't think sheep and dogs are going to mix do you?!!! It doesn't add up at all.

Yesterday, I sat having my lunch in the car and for the first time in many many years I didn't see a single bird. I always see a minimum of Robin, Great Tit, Blue Tit and Blackbird in here every day in my lunch time. All the cover for the birds has gone, bare, stripped and all for some bloody grass, makes me so angry. My 'patch' has been destroyed!

When I finished work last night I took some pictures and this video (below) of the wood. The video is 8.5 minutes long and its a bit shakey as I walk through – the light was also fading fast. There was far more cleared than I had thought – it saddened me immensely. I will be keeping a close eye over the coming days and weeks! Maybe I have got it all wrong – maybe a wonderful pond will be dug out and improved planting with bird hides, feeders and a nature trail....... dream on Penelope! I will keep you all posted.

The Wood next to the QEH Hospital – 2nd February

UPDATE

I have been given some very very useful information and advice from a very kind blog reader. This information was sent via my blog. When someone comments on my blog, I can choose whether to publish the comment or delete it – I don't have that persons email, so can only continue conversation with them publicly via my blog. I don't want to divulge that persons name, so could not publish it, but I have copied the comment, minus the person's name and also a few words which might give away my blog readers ID:

"...........I bet that what is happening is something like this. Landowner wants to develop the land, possibly in collaboration with the hospital (NHS managers are notoriously ruthless I'm afraid when it comes to converting environmental assetts into healthcare cash) but the TPOs are blocking this. So they concoct a scheme to "improve" the woodland typically through "thinning". The forestry commission and local council will love this as they hate scruffy " wasteland", verges, hedgerows etc and if the plan involves some vague reference to improved amenity value and biodiversity (that'll be the sheep) this will go through the necessary approvals like a shot. They then "improve" ie decimate the wood and in only a few years will be able to quite accurately claim that it has diminished in environmental value to the point where the TPO can be revoked and is of unusable as amenity land because the dogs are terrorising the sheep. QED. The only real hope you have of stopping this (assuming my jaundiced assessment is correct) is local concerted community action, publicity and councillor logging - they do not like being bearded in their own dens or the papers but social media may well be your best bet. Find out who the landowner is and check the planning history to see if this has been submitted for development before and then you have your smoking gun. I hope I'm wrong but frankly the odds are with me.........."

A big thank you to the person who sent the above comment. Now – after reading above, let me surmise........ the hospital is VERY short of car parking spaces and this has been an ongoing problem. I wonder if the land owner will be renting/selling the land to the hospital for car parking further down the line?!!!!! Like I said earlier, sheep and skipping lambs grazing on grass doesn't wash with me – no pennies to be made from that is there?!!!

I have contacted a very important person this evening, who will hopefully be able to help me further – can't say any more than that yet. Will update you when I am able to over the next few days.