Early this summer a group of us from Shamley Green and Wonersh got together for a ’guided tour’ around Barnett Fields and Gerald Woods.  It was a great opportunity to swap notes and share experiences about volunteering on the Common land (and newly purchased land) in our Parish.  Jon Griffiths and Rob Crossing and the rest of the BFG team kindly spent a few hours showing us all they have achieved already there and also some plans for the future. We ended up in the pub.

 

The work in the woodland is very impressive: they have divided the woods into sections so they can rotate the work and they have opened up glades to allow in more light hoping to improve the biodiversity.  They have used the cut wood to make structures to protect coppiced trees and to mark out paths.  BFG are also experimenting with sheep grazing in the fields, hoping to manage some of the dock brambles and thistles and allow for a more diverse grass and wildflower sward.  They have built a small pond simply as a water source for wildlife (very different and far less complicated than ours) and they have installed bat and bird boxes. They are monitoring the existing wildlife with 65 reptile survey mats and butterfly counts and hope the improvement in habitat will increase the numbers of all species.  Plans to plant 25 fruit trees are now well under way which is very exciting.

 

We hope to show off our toad patrol and new hedges and wildflower planting and our more limited woodland work in due course.  We will start at one pub and finish at the other.  Everyone is welcome to walk around Barnett Fields and the woods at any time, and it is well worth a visit!