Dean Green Team

Wildlife Conservation Group in the

Forest of Dean

Gloucestershire

8 April 2025

Birch Wood

Grid Ref SO 6436 1522

We all gathered at Birch Wood which is near to Steam Mills Lake as we did in 2024. Our tasks were to remove as many tree guards as we could and to take out as many small birch as we could. Luckily, we have been going through sunny, dry weather so the ground was not as wet as last year but we had to be wary of the brambles trying to trip us up!

	Birch Wood is a Forestry nature reserve and Herdwick sheep graze in there during the summer. The trees have now grown to the width limit of their guards.
	We carried all the guards up the steep hill to where the trailer could be loaded and the guards removed. This is only a few of them as we must have removed over 100!
	Time for a rest!