Spring, Estonian Fences, Black Poplars, Frog Spawn and Big Beech

‘Estonian’ Fence - a quirky Wilderness Wood invention will keep unwanted interlopers from Frog Pond

Today is the first day of March and since it is a Saturday that means it is Stewardship Saturday at Wilderness Wood. For those of you unacquainted with Stewardship Saturday (or StewSat), it is when a good proportion of our members gather at Wilderness Wood to socialise and carry out a range of tasks on our 62 acre woodland site.

As I listen to the Today programme on the way to the woods I am advised that it is the first day of spring. I’ll take that thanks, especially as today it is the most gloriously sunny day so far this year. The solar panels on my roof must be absolutely humming with delight (19.4 kwh as it turns out).

Come 10am and we have some 20 or so members gathered as the team leaders deliver their sales pitches, offering a range of wondrous activities to be involved in. By the time we finish pitching there must be 30 or more.

I rarely get more than 2 or 3 helpers since conservation work is too physical for many. However, 3 volunteers is fine by me, including young Joan and her dad Jamie who have come all the way from Hackney to participate. Ever-present Mark is here again dressed in his sack cloth and ready to do a further day’s penance for whatever sins he surely must have committed since last month.

I have competition for conservation tasks with relative youngsters Mike and Jake offering hedge laying, complete with chain saws. My group retreat to the quiet of the lower wood where the only sound is from birds welcoming the first day of spring. Before we do so, we pause at Middle Paddock to plant another of our 8 black poplar saplings left over from last week. These were given to us by Kew Gardens from their Sussex location at Wakehurst Place. All of these splendid native hardwoods will hopefully be growing in the damper parts of Wilderness Wood for centuries to come. As one of our rarest native plants (7000 estimated in the whole of the UK) we are hopeful that we can do our bit for biodiversity.

Black poplar saplings thrive in wet woodland like here at Streamside, Wilderness Wood (insert: same tree in 2225)

We stop to plant one other black poplar before arriving at Frog Pond (one of the ponds created 3 years ago) where we are tasked with creating an ‘Estonian Fence’. They are based on a common design found all over the nordic area, but given that name by Dan and Emily when they holidayed in that country and first set eyes on them.

Our version is to knock sweet chestnut poles into the ground at approximately 75cm intervals and then weave longer ‘whippy’ branches between them at an angle of about 30 degrees. By 1pm we have created perhaps 15 metres of fencing intended to exclude dogs and small children from the ponds. Both of these organisms present problems for pond life. Dogs too often bath in the ponds sharing their deadly flea powder chemicals with our amphibians and pond invertebrates. Needless to say most flea powders are as deadly for pond invertebrates as they are to dog parasites (dog lovers please control your dogs near water or avoid using the more deadly flea powders). Children are partial to paddling in the ponds in their wellies. Fine in the flowing waters of the Wilderness Stream but less so in our wildlife ponds where they can destroy delicate freshwater plants.

Lunch interrupts our labours for an hour, after which most of our volunteers disappear (I suspect to sunbathe in their gardens). Not being one for sunbathing I decide to pop down to Streamside and plant the last of our black poplar saplings, add tree guards and check on the frog activity down there.

On the way down I check on Big Beech and add masses of sawdust to the badly eroded soil. The sawdust is a waste product from our timber-building activities and should trap moisture and eventually rot down to provide the water and nutrients needed to save Big Beech from imminent demise.

Saw dust added to logs, branches and other organic materials in an attempt to restore the soil at Big Beech

At Streamside I check the ‘beaver’ pond that has formed behind a leaky dam inserted across the Wilderness Stream several years ago (by humans, not beavers alas - although it has just been announced that beaver releases into the wild are now legal). This pond survives almost throughout the summer and our resident frog population has been as busy procreating here as they have at Frog Pond. It is awash with frog spawn.

The final black poplar is committed to the earth where a spring feeds the stream. This sapling perhaps has the best chance of survival since water is guaranteed here most summers. I add a tree guard recycled from elsewhere in the wood and hope that it is sufficient to keep the deer from sampling the saplings’ tender shoots and bark.

Frog Pond’s frogs and invertebrates, Big Beech’s distressed roots and the black poplar saplings have all had their needs attended to. All that remains is to wait for spring to weave its magic.

David Horne - 1st March 2025 (www.leggingroundbritain.co.uk)