Black Poplars at Wilderness Wood - a bundle of frogs too!
A mature Black Poplar - they live for 200 years, but can look as old as a 1,000 year old oak
Today is a red letter day! Correction. Today is a black poplar day.
Thanks to Kate’s efforts we have taken possession of 8 black poplar saplings. Never heard of Black poplar? I'm not surprised since less than 7000 exist in the UK. In fact it is the UK’s rarest native timber tree.
At one time it grew in relative abundance in valley bottoms, river banks, wet woodland and marshland. Much of this habitat has now gone thanks to drainage of areas of wet farmland and the using of it's naturally fertile soil to grow crops instead. However, this thinking has turned out to be short-sighted, with the wet woodland once occupied by black poplar now very much a threatened habitat.
At one time black poplars would have lined the banks of meandering lowland rivers too, but many of these have been straightened in a misguided attempt to reduce flooding. Ironically, removal of wetlands and the straightening of river channels has had quite the opposite effect and now causes extensive flooding.
Black poplar hybridises with other poplar species, further reducing the number of new, genetically true breeding individuals for the future. Thankfully conservation organisations are addressing the problem by offering genetically pure saplings to landowners keen to restore them from the brink of extinction in the UK.
Our new trees are to be planted in a number of damp locations around Wilderness Wood as part of our drive to retain water and develop our wetland habitats. At least one young tree will be put in a position of prominence, whilst the remainder will be located in safer positions, away from the risk afforded by humans and our burgeoning deer population.
Frogs are really enjoying our new ponds at Wilderness Wood. I was delighted when Kate sent me a video shot by Mike of some 30 pairs of our native common frog thrashing around in one particular pond in the lower wood. Frogs attract numerous predators such as herons, grass snakes and otters, whilst their tadpoles fall prey to dragonfly larvae, newts and ducks. So they are something of a keystone species for increasing biodiversity in our 62 acre woodland sanctuary.
Today our conservation volunteers venture forth, despite the threat of heavy rainfall, to plant a number of black poplars in the lower wood, in an area of existing wet woodland. The plan is not only to plant them in suitably wet soil, but to fashion tree guards by putting a ring of poles around each sapling and weaving hazel between them.
Kent and Ben’s homemade tree guards should deter the local deer from eating our young black poplar saplings
Eventually the wet weather and the promise of hot coffee back at the barn all become too much for them and they scuttled back indoors. Nonetheless, we now have 3 black poplar saplings sitting in appropriately wet soil. These should burst into leaf shortly. The remainder will be placed elsewhere in the wood on Saturday, at our members’ work party event - Stewardship Saturday.
Happy to have kicked this particular project off I pop along to see how the frogs are faring in their courtship. No sign of any frogs but lots of evidence of their labours are to be seen floating on the pond’s surface.
So much frog spawn this year that you could practically walk across the surface of the pond and not sink in!
If you should happen to see any frog spawn on your travels please leave it where it is and don't put it in your own pond, anyone elses and certainly not ours. Transferring amphibians and their larvae is a surefire way of spreading disease to otherwise disease-free wetland habitats.
David Horne 26th February 2025