Dean Green Team

Wildlife Conservation Group in the

Forest of Dean

Gloucestershire

5 April 2016

Hadnock. near the Biblins Bridge

Grid Ref SO537154

We continued where the Forestry Commission had coppiced a fairly large area and we were asked to build deer fencing with all the cut offs. This is to prevent the deer from nibbling the newly growing shoots from the coppiced stumps.

There was a large team but we spread out over the area and have completed about three quarters of the fencing so we will be back there again next week to finish it off and we hope that the weather will be as glorious as it was this week!

Moving the brush cuttings!

This young lady was tasked with finding and identifying the wild flowers within the enclosed copse. She managed to find the leaves of 16 different types of plants and, with the help of the more knowledgeable team members to identify the leaves, created the list to the right - good homework!

Wild Garlic	Leaves in March and flowers in April - June.
Dog's Mercury	Small flowers from February to April.
Bluebells	Bluebells are important early flowers for bees, hoverflies and butterflies which feed on the nectar.
Celandine	It's leaves are high in vitamin C and were used to prevent scurvy.
Wild Gooseberry	Wild Gooseberry grows in the alpine thicket,rocky areas,woodlands and hedgegrows.
Cuckoo Pint	A poisonous plant that's found in hedgegrows and woodland . It grows in deep shade to a height of 50cm.
Wood Anemone	The scent of wood anemones is not as attractive as their appearance - they are also known as 'smell fox' because of the musky aroma of their leaves.
Harts Tongue Leaves	This evergreen plant has long, tongue shaped leaves like a Deer.
Fox Glove	The entire plant is toxic (including the roots, sap, flowers, seeds, and leaves. Although the leaves of the upper stem are particularly potent, with just a nibble being enough to cause death.
Spurge Laurel	Has dark green, shiny, narrow leatherly oval leaves clustered at the top of each stem.
Moschatel	A small pale yellowish-green single compact flowerhead atop each long narrow stalk.
Goose Grass	A small pale yellowish-green single compact flowerhead atop each long narrow stalk.
Wood Spurge	Wood Spurge is, as its name suggests, commonly found in woodlands, particularly damp and coppiced woods.
Violet	Violets are found in moist and slightly shaded conditions such as woodland.
Ivy	Ivy's late flowering season makes it a valuable source of nectar for many insects prior to hibernation, particularly bees and butterflies.
Nettles	Common nettle has green leaves that are deeply serrated on the edges. Leaves are oppositely arranged on the stem.

The River Wye runs just below where the Dean Green Team have been working at Hadnock.