Holmsley Bog

Where ever you look evidence of the success of the stream restoration program is clear to see. I regularly comment on how the slower transit of water through the Forests' waterways is changing the nature of its' streams and their environs; it's also invigorated their watersheds too, where the Forests' bogs and mires are looking healthy. Which is a good thing.  These are rare environments. The Forests' shallow valley wetlands represent 80% of those in Lowland England.

Avon Water

 

Avon Water used to be a straightened drain until restored to it's previous course in the mid twenty teens. Now nearly a decade on the stream corridor is well on the way to returning to bog woodland, impassable without wellies through the wetter seasons and little better during the rest of the year; all signs of it's Victorian past have been erased, including the navigable path. It's weird, the forest streams played a major part in our children's childhood, we've got hundreds of photos and video clips along with countless memories of days spent on their banks; though through the restoration process many of those much loved spots we frequented now exist only in memory and media.

Avon Water

You'd never imagine that as recently as 2017 Avon Water was a broad straightened deep cut stream; now it's definitely one of the forest's stream restoration projects that has most quickly born results; today Avon Water is completely unrecognisable from the stream and landscape it was. A part of me embraces the change, positive as it is, although another part of me laments the loss of a loved stream side walk; nowadays at this time of year even defining where the stream flows is problematic, and even in the drier season the re-establishing carr/bog woodland environment remains soft and wet underfoot; though today with some judicious hops, skips and jumps, some nimble footwork across lain branches and sticks, and a bit of occasional clambering, a sort of stream side walk route was negotiable. Although 'walking' didn't really describe our outing this morning; still, nice out mind.

Creepy bog woodland

When winter's set in proper, Camel Green literally sinks into it, becoming as creepy a fairytale woodland as you could imagine. Once flooded it takes months for the waters to disappear. In the meantime unless you're wellied you'd best choose your route well or at least be prepared to double back because of unpredictable depth waters or fallen decaying debris or a combination there of. Or of course, you can accept getting wet. I think rendering in black and white only adds to the sense of creepy.

The woods get wetter.

With each subsequent visit to Brinken the woods get wetter. Beyond restoring more valuable natural bog woodland, one of the benefits of restoring the forest's streams and drains to their natural states, has been that the transit of water through the forest is greatly slowed, meaning more water remaining in the landscape, stopping flooding down stream. From now until well into spring the Warwickslade/Brinken area will remain mostly underwater, all that'll change will be the depth.  It's an area where the walking never gets boring.

Warwickslade Cutting

Glorious walking today.

Avon Water

Avon Water between old Holmsley station and Wooten Bridge is one of the forest's more recent stream restoration projects. I was struck today how successful the project has been, and how quickly the stream and it's environs are being transformed. Done in two sections over a few years, the woodland is hardly recognizable, and all traces of the straight forest drain have been erased. If you ever saw the forest's streams before they were restored to their meandering pre-Victorian courses, you'd remember how sterile many of them were. Straightened to drain the forest more effectively, and regularly cleared, it was difficult, no, more impossible for any plants to secure a foothold, bare gravel beds and barren banks were the order of the day. How fantastic to see it now. The scars of earthmoving machines are healing rapidly, the thinned canopy allows more light through, greening the land below, aquatic plants have established communities in the meanders and wetland plants thrive along the shallow banks. Avon Water's a really interesting stream as it represents a fluid border between two very different groups environments; the drier mixed blocks of woodland with their frequent grassy clearings, and wetter areas of carr woodland, sphagnum bog and phragmites reed beds. They've done a fantastic job on these sections, the transformation to date is remarkable, and the transformation will only deepen as more plant, insect and animal communities become established in this more harmonious and inviting environment.

The New Forest

When people think of the New Forest I'm sure it's of expansive woodlands, of which there are some 230 sq mi of broadleaved woodlands and enclosed mixed plantation, although there are also 59 sq mi of open grassland, heathland and wetland. The photo above is representative of much of the forests heathland, a mixture of dry heathland with pockets of wetland heath, wetland and carr woodland filling hollows in the undulating landscape. Many of the wetland heath areas are impassible, especially through the wet seasons, punctuated as they are by wetland proper, you'll often find yourself following the contours of the land, making a 5 minute walk as the crow flies, a 20 walk.  This view is of the lower reaches of Duck Hole and Duck Hole Bog taken from one of the Bronze Age Round Barrows which border Ferny Knap enclosure (one of the smaller enclosures 21 acres, enclosed 1843. Lovely morning.

Rooks Bridge Wood

A few years ago, where Mill Lawn Brook becomes Red Ride Brook, narrows and splits into two channels which encircle Rooks Bridge Wood, brook became choked debris. One channel was completely blocked, that coupled with the general slowing of the stream through restoration, led to the waters backing up to the point where the other channel couldn't cope either and burst its banks. Since then the blocked channel has all but ceased to flow, now the excess waters flood Rooks Bridge Wood, before they find their way back into that blocked channel about 50m past the blockage through dozens of small cascades, and the brook again is on course. Eventually, after a few more years (I don't think it's policy any more for forestry to intervene, after all, this is what the restoration project set out to create, bog woodland environments), a new course through the wood will become properly established and the woodland will be water free again. Until the next time, that is. The forest, as tranquil and timeless as it appears, is a landscape continually changing. Take a good look along the environs of any of the woodland streams, and you'll see myriad previous courses covering hundreds of years. This is the forest living.

Cotton Grass

Cotton Grass (Eriophorum angustifolium) is a common sight in the wetter parts of the forest, whether in vast swathes or smaller patches in isolated hollows, it's a nice plant to see when in flower. Well, that's not necessarily true, it's the pollinated seed heads which are white and fluffy, not the flowers which are quite plain green and brown. Still, it's a lovely plant to see. They're good too, acting as a natural warning. If you understand nature she'll often give clues as to the nature of her terrain and what to expect there...cotton grass means you're likely to get wet if you're not careful. Cheers Mother, I'll choose my path carefully.

Warwickslade Cutting

Not a cutting any more. Warwickslade Cutting, once a straight, deep cut, forest drain, now meanders gracefully between the open stands of Warwick Slade, a beautiful and vibrant stream.  You'd not know, the transformation still amazes me every time I walk here. Already the Slade is becoming boggy, and care is needed when walking the course of the stream, or before you know it, you'll be shin deep with wet feet. I got wet feet. There's no doubt the forest is much wetter, and for much longer, than it was 20 years ago. The affects of bog woodland restoration have been pronounced in this part of the forest particularly. During the wettest periods the open areas, and woodland, are underwater for days or even weeks at a time, and areas of that standing water will endure until late spring. Calm walking today, lovely, the air was clean too.

Hanging around

One of the first stretches of forest drain to be restored to it's earlier course, maybe 25 years ago, Blackensford Brook now runs through a diverse corridor of bog woodland flora, tufted grasses mingle between trunk and shrub. The restoration plan is working, the brook now drains the surrounding land more slowly and over the intervening years there's no doubt that the woodland along the environs of the brook are becoming wetter. Trying to walk along the bank of the brook today was like walking through Mirkwood, with every conceivable opportunity to string a web taken, every bramble, bough, tuft, tussock and fern were joined by a filigree of gossamer. A spider waited in the center of each these bejewelled traps.

Avon Water

The restoration of Avon Water marches on. The pre-Victorian water course has been re-cut (though not yet joined back into the flow) and the soil removed and piled ready to infill the straight drain when the time comes. The work's probably over for this year, the wet season is upon us. This will be an interesting restoration, the environs of Avon Water have always been on the wetter side anyway, when the remodelling is complete the slowed transit of water will only exacerbate that. Making this a real bog woodland, and impossible to traverse for a good part of the year.

Drain

I've posted about the bog woodland restoration program and the returning of the forests streams to their pre-Victorian meandering courses. I usually post an image of the restored meanders resplendent in diversity, now here's an example of what many of them looked like before. As you can see, a far more sterile environment. Notice the steep cut banks on which for the most part little is growing and where stuff is growing there's limited diversity. Notice the bare gravels, dry and lifeless in the summer season, where as the flow in restored streams may decline, on the whole they continue to flow and sustain plant communities. These drains may well have been functional and served their purpose, though as you can see didn't make too good an environment of diversity. Nor are they aesthetically pleasing as the gentle meandering stream. 

Avon Water restoration

They're doing more river restoration on Avon Water. Avon Water was another one of the forests really straight 'drains'. When the kids were young we used to don old cloths and wade up its length, ducking and climbing a variety of fallen or half sunken trees and branches, like a wet obstacle course.  They've already restored a lengthy section of the stream between the A35 at Holmesley Tea Rooms and the path which runs under the second old railway bridge, and it's looking all the better for it. All the works to date have been done very sympathetically, naturalizing quickly and encouraging an explosion in diversity. Its restoration to it's old course is also more aesthetically pleasing too, meandering where it should; luckily the pre-straightening and cutting course of the stream was still defined through the adjoining woodland.  If it's the same crew and the current works are carried out to the same standard (as it looks like) give it 5 years and you'll never know the stream ever flowed elsewhere.

Warwickslade restoration

Back to Warwickslade Cutting (as was) today, after yesterdays downpour the stream overflowed it's margins to flood large areas of it's surrounding woodland. I walk the forest often and over the years have seen this area change through the restoration process, though it's changed so much that at times it can be difficult to orientate myself.  It struck me, that if you'd not walked here for 10 years (or so), even if before you knew the area well, you'd probably be at a loss to orientate yourself. The woodland wet with standing water (some deep), a stream runs through, though where exactly you can always be sure, the woodland environ is lush and green, and the everything's alive; it really wasn't like that before. As the old meandering watercourses are restored and the woodland returns to its wetter 'bog woodland' nature, you get a hint of how wild and inhospitable an environment it must have been in ages past when the weather was against you. Today though, it was just stunning.

Down, but not out.

I mentioned a short while back that there had been some land management work along Red Rise Brook.  Towards Markway Bridge a fair sized bank side Oak has been cut down and I couldn't see why, it's not out of context or anything. So I was pleased to see that although it had been cut down, it wasn't yet ready to bow out, and only a couple of weeks after felling the stump was bristling with eager shoots.

Changes

A few years back they remodelled a stretch of Highland water from Camel Green to Queen Bower, the main stream now flows some way from it's former course, which is now mainly filled all but a little brooklet. You'd never imagine this small shallow slow flowing  brook was formally a 3 metre wide near straight deep drain. As I've mentioned before, when they undertake these 'restoration' exercises the immediate impression is one of destruction and disorder, though only a handful of years the casual walker, not familiar with the area, wouldn't know it had ever been different. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not going soft on conservation, conservation's bollocks, but reinstating streams to their less formal more natural pre Victorian courses that's more re-wilding, that's cool.

Signs of a Heron

I've mentioned recently the misinformation around the forests bog woodland restoration project, the higher stewardship project partly funded by the EU, and how far from being destructive it is in fact encouraging diversity and has seen previously rarely seen forest visitors becoming more frequent. I mentioned commonly seeing Egrets along restored forest streams, which I don't remember seeing in the past and more, larger fish. Today I saw more evidence of the growing fecundity of the restored forests streams and the re-wilding of their environs...Heron (Ardea cinerea) footprints in the stream side mud.  A sure sign that the forests streams are well stocked and have developing fish populations. Long may it continue.

Mill lawn Brook

Mill Lawn Brook.