Narrows Wood

 March 2024 News Update Work to Commence on our Woodstore/Shed this month .with the help of my Friend & Fellow Air Gunner Rob.In exchange for his help I have granted him Permition' s for Shooting at our Air Rifle Range & Pest Control at Narrows wood to help Us in controlling Grey Squirrels. No other shooter has Permition on our property to shoot other than ourselves & Rob who is fully insured & has Written legal Permition too do So from Us. If you own the sporting rights at your own wood like we do and you are looking for the Legal Paperwork for setting up Permition at your own woodland & getting your own Shooting Insurance BASC  https://basc.org.uk/  provide Both insurance & legal forms to work with your pest controller/game keepers.  Anyone Trespassing / hunters entering your property carrying a weapon uncovered such as a Shotgun, BB gun or Air Rifle on to your property would be classed as armed trespass, even if the weapon unloaded which is a serious Offe

  After a Second Successful year with the Pied Flycatchers breeding at our small private nature reserve. We hope to increase this Success with the installation of 8 new nest boxes at our site for this years Breeding season. We have also installed 5 Bat boxes at our site this year starting our Bat Conservation project. There are 7 Known bat species in Wales that may possibly use our site as a roost site in the tree canopy. The Brown Long-Eared Bat, Noctule Bat, Lesser Horseshoe Bat, Barbastelle Bat, Soprano Pipistrelle Bat ,Nathusius’ Pipistrelle Bat & Common Pipistrelle Bat. We have I seen Pipistrelle flying in the evenings along the rides of our Wood and have captured a Brown Long Eared Bat on Trail cam on the wing flying past the camera last year. So fingers crossed the newly installed bat boxes will bring Us some success providing roosting spots for the Bats. If there is a local Bat Group in the Powys area that would be willing to help Monitor the bats at our Site Please con

 2023 Autumn Tree Planting Tree Planting Season is here! This October we are Planing to Plant 255 new trees at our Woodland. 180 Trees to improve our Trackside Hedgerows & to replace the Beech trees that failed to grow along our woodland edge. We will be planting 30 blackthorn, 20 dog rose, 30 crab apple, 30 goat willow, 30 rowan & 40 Hawthorn. This will hopefully help improve the biodiversity of our woodland, creating corridors for wildlife between the farmland and the woodland. As well as the new Hedgerow planting we have also planed to install new coppice planting within our woodland giving Us a crop of new Hazel coppice & Sweet Chestnut Coppice. Last year we experimented with the planting of 5 Sweet Chestnut trees and 3 have survived giving Us confidence in expanding our Experimental crop of Sweet Chestnut planting. This year we plan to plant another 15 within our woodland. Sweet Chestnut take a long time before they will produce nuts, around 25 years before they start

Tree Growth Project  The objective of this project is to collect valuable information and data about tree growth.  Tree growth is a key ecological parameter of forests strongly linked to a range of influencing factors.  By examining differences in tree growth between years, (including potential species-specific growth in response to events such as drought or frost),  these measurements can improve our understanding of the response of trees to changes to woodland management and climate change across the country.  The project is being done in partnership with  forestry commission research Dept & Sylva Foundation Lead scientist: Dr Matthew Wilkinson Forest Research Dept Stewardship Scientist John Williams Narrows Wood Owner Data collection via MyForest APP Sylva Foundation Six Oak trees have been fitted around Narrows wood with Special Girth Bands that will measure the growth of our Oak trees as Part of the wider Project By the Forestry Commission around the UK. 2024 February Update!

Narrows Wood July Big Butterfly Count   Each year we Plan to do a Big Butterfly Count at our Small Wood each July. We will pass data collected on to the Butterfly Conservation Group. 21/07/2023 We spotted 4 Species of Butterfly at our Woodland Site, 5 butterflies in our 15 min survey count.  Next year we are hoping to make this an annual Social event with friends & family towards the end of July time. By then the Horseflies should not be a problem as they are active from Early June to July. Then End of July is also a good time to collect the Wild Raspberries at the woods too. July is prime Wild Raspberry Foraging Time! 1 Red Admiral  2 Meadow Brown 1 male & 1 female 2 Large White & 1 Comma

 Bat Roost Project We will be installing 3 Bat Boxes on some of our Sessile Oak trees to provide some additional roosting spots around our Woodland. There are currently many old oak trees around our wood with cracks, holes & crevice's that may provide roost spots for bats. By providing additional man made boxes it is hoped that we can add additional places to the Natural environment for roosting bats. Once we have installed the boxes they will be permanently in stalled and not touched as Bats are legally protected by law. We will be able to monitor our boxes via Non-invasive means by watching with night vision binoculars bats coming in and out of the roost. By using bat detectors & also via Trail cams placed on Opposite trees. All these methods are Non intrusive and valuable way of monitoring bats. Please return for project Updates. 30/06/23 Added 2 extra holes in the bottom board for extra security for fitting to trees.  For more information on Bats visit    https://www.ba