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The last two
winters have been busy times at Charing Beech Hangers, a SSSI
woodland between Charing and Westwell in Kent.
Clarity have
been working with the landowners and the Kentish Stour Countryside
Partnership to deliver works in accordance with a managment
plan we produced. Clarity co-ordinated grant applications
to the Forestry Commission's English Woodlands Scheme and to the
Rail Link Countryside Initiative to fund the work.
In the early
part of 2009 a Charing-based contractor was used to coppice an
area of about 1/3 ha. Woodcock have since been seen in the coupe,
which is encouraging as this was a species we wanted to manage
for, although dormice are the key species that will benefit from
this work. Ride and glade work followed, to benefit adders and
other reptiles, butterflies and woodland plants. These elements
of the project are part of an ongoing Woodland Improvement Grant
Scheme.
Last winter,
contractors braved the harsh conditions to fell an avenue of more
than 150 multi-stemmed sycamore along the North Downs Way. Clarity
organised this substantial task, and co-ordinated the temporary
closure of this section of the national trail. Now the sycamore
is gone, we can coppice adjacent hazel woodland next winter with
a much reduced risk of sycamore invasion.
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