Oakley Wood

Consultation on the future of Oakley Wood

Results

The consultation on the future of Oakley Wood has now closed and a report outlining the results can be downloaded from the link below. There was broad public support for the Council's vision for the future of Oakley Wood and our proposals for management. The Council's Executive Committee will now consider how to take forward the management of the woodland in a meeting to be held on 11 November. You can view the Executive papers online.

View the consultation report (248kb, PDF)

The consultation on Oakley Wood has now closed. The consultation text below is left for context.

Introduction

Warwick District Council are seeking views on the future management of Oakley Wood, near Bishops Tachbrook. This is a brief outline of the proposals along with the questions we would like to hear your views on. For more details of proposed management and other background there are links to a number of background documents at the foot of this page.

Background

Warwick District Council purchased Oakley Wood in 2008 and has recently commissioned forestry consultants Lockhart Garratt to assess the woodland and make management proposals.

Lockhart Garratt undertook a Phase I habitat survey and have produced a draft management plan. The management plan is not the final management plan for woods, but a working document which WDC are using as the basis of a consultation on the future management of Oakley Wood. Both the habitat survey and draft management plan are available from the foot of this page.

Oakley Wood is a plantation on ancient woodland site. It consists principally of conifer plantation and presently has a low to intermediate ecological value. However, because it is an ancient woodland site it has the potential to have a high ecological value if managed appropriately.

Vision and objectives

Our draft vision for the management of Oakley Wood is:

“Oakley Wood is to be perpetuated for future generations as a prominent and attractive woodland feature within the local landscape, whilst over time becoming increasingly naturalistic in its composition and structure and thereby heightening its biodiversity value. The woodland is to be made available as a local resource for informal low impact recreational and educational use and management is to recognise and reflect the woodland as a renewable natural resource”

Question 1: Do you agree with our vision for the future of Oakley Wood?

In order to achieve this vision, four objectives have been identified as follows:

To maintain and enhance the visual amenity of the woodland as a feature within the local landscape
To safeguard and enhance the biodiversity value of the woodland and associated habitats
To provide facilities for informal public access and environmental education and work with local interest groups
To maintain the woodland as a renewable natural resource to be sustainably harvested in support of social and economic activities, maximising the economic value of the wood in so far as this does not conflict with other objectives

Question 2: Do you agree with our management objectives for Oakley Wood?

Long term strategy

The long term strategy for the wood aims to restructure the woodland over a period of around 50 years. The aim is to return the woodland to native species and to introduce diversity in both the species mix and the structure of the woodland. That is, it should contain several species of native trees and shrubs, there should be both a high canopy, a well developed shrubby understorey and good ground flora. Trees and shrubs should be of many different ages.

To achieve this we propose to use ‘Continuous Cover’ techniques. This involves felling small clearings at regular intervals to create the space for native trees to grow, either planted or through natural regeneration. Continuous cover avoids large scale felling, often called clear felling, and maintains the landscape value of a woodland uninterrupted. There is further information on continuous cover forestry in the background papers at the foot of this page.

Question 3: Do you think the long term outline strategy is the right one for Oakley Wood?

Initial thinning

There has been very little management of Oakley Wood for some time, and as a result the wood is overcrowded. This is impeding the healthy development of existing trees and casting dense shade, suppressing the shrub and ground layer.

In order to bring the wood back into good management it needs to be thinned by the removal of about 30% by volume of the current timber. This work is needed as a matter of some urgency.

Whilst it was initially thought that this could be phased over three operations spanning five years, it is now clear that it is impractical to do other than in a single operation. This is because the cost of transporting the necessary machinery makes it uneconomic for a contractor to undertake the work unless a substantial volume of timber is involved.
The proposals would involve the removal of around 2,500m³ of timber over about 4-5 weeks. Public access to the woods would be maintained throughout the period, although clearly there would need to be restrictions on where the public could go in order to ensure their safety. In order to facilitate moving the timber off site it will be necessary to construct a length of forest road of around 75m to allow safe lorry access.

We propose to undertake this thinning between August and October 2010. The reasons for picking this time of year are:

It is outside of bird nesting season and so limits the potential disturbance to birds
Ground conditions are generally drier which will minimise the amount of ground damage caused by machinery
Spring flora, in particular bluebells, are dormant so damage to them is minimised
The Crematorium conducts fewer services during the summer, making it easier to arrange work in a way that will not disturb those attending services there

Question 4: Is August – October the most appropriate time to carry out a major harvesting operation in Oakley Wood

Ride management

Rides, or paths, are an important element of woodlands. As well as providing access for visitors and for management operations, they have considerable value to wildlife and provide important structural diversity.

We propose to widen the ride network and manage it using a ‘three zone’ system. In this system, the central path is hard surface, or is grass mown annually or perhaps two or three times a year. Either side of this is an area of tall grass mown once every two years. Beyond the tall grass is an area of shrubs, coppiced on a 5 – 8 year cycle. The total distance between canopy trees across the ride could be up to 20m. A diagram can be found in appendix 5 of the management plan, available from the background papers section at the bottom of this page.

As well as providing a rich mosaic of habitats, this opening up of the ride allows rides to dry out more, improving accessibility.

Question 5: Are our proposals for ride management appropriate?

Oakley Wood Camp

Oakley Wood Camp, sometimes known as Oakley Wood Fort, is an enclosure of raised banks within the woodland. The area is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, although there is some dispute about exactly what it is. Whilst some have suggested it is an iron age fort, others believe it consists of remnants of a medieval woodland management system.
In the short term great care will be taken ensure that no further damage is done to the monument. Any forestry operations in this area will be carefully controlled and sensitively managed.

Longer term it is proposed that the area is gradually thinned out and that it is not replanted, nor is natural regeneration allowed to take. This will eventually create an open glade in the area.

Question 6: Do you agree that in the long term the area around the Scheduled Ancient Monument should be converted to a glade?

Question 7: Should we erect an interpretation board near the Scheduled Ancient Monument explaining what it is?

Visitor provision

At present the recreation within the woodland is entirely informal and there is very little provision for visitors. We are seeking your views on whether or not we should provide some more formal, yet still low key provision for visitors

Question 8: Should we provide seats or rest posts within the woodland?

Question 9: Should we consider improving the surfacing of existing paths?

Question 10: Should we consider providing additional car parking for visitors to the woodland?

Question 11: Should we provide interpretation boards?

Multi-use conflicts

When a woodland is managed to meet multiple objectives, inevitably there are conflicts. We are seeking views on how to address two specific issues at present:

Oakley Wood is a popular dog walking area. However, dog walking can have a detrimental impact on wildlife. A recent study found that the number of birds in areas frequented by dog walkers was significantly less than in areas with restricted dog walking. Although dogs rarely succeed in catching birds, it is thought that birds do regard them as a significant predator and are wary of them.

Question 12: Should dog walking in Oakley Wood be

Allowed as long as they are under control
Restricted to dogs on the lead only
Forbidden

Horse riding can also cause significant conflicts with other uses. It can cause the churning up of paths making them inaccessible to walkers and damaging ground flora and can cause conflicts with visitors on foot.

Question 13: Should horse riding be

Allowed throughout the wood
Allowed along the public footpath only
Forbidden

Further information

The online consultation form provides an opportunity for you to make additional comments on the management proposals as well as answering the the specific questions listed here.

To give some context to your response and help us better understand the responses to the consultation you will also be asked to provide some brief information about yourself, such as how far from the wood you live and how often you visit it. You do not have to give you name (although we do ask that organisations responding indicate which organisation they are).

Background documents

These documents provide some further background to the proposals.

Draft management plan

This draft management plan prepared by Lockhart Garratt forms the basis of the consultation and provides much more detail regarding the proposals, including plans. This is a working document and some of the points within it have already been superseded. Where there is a difference between details in the plan and those given here, details on this page take precedence.

Main report
Management plan pt 1 (PDF 270kB)

Appendix 1 (Constraints and opportunities plan), Appendix 2 (Compartment schedule)
Management plan pt 2 (PDF 1.5MB)

Appendix 3 (Compartment map), Appendix 4 (Woodland crop type map)
Management plan pt 3 (PDF 2.4MB)

Appendix 5 (three zone ride management), Appendix 6 (5 year work programme)
Management plan pt 4 (PDF 1.6MB)

Appendix 7 (20 year vision plan), Appendix 8 (Outline 5 year cash flow)
Management plan pt 5 (PDF 1.5MB)

Appendix 9 (Photographic record)
Management plan pt 6 (3.9MB)

Appendix 10 (References)
Management plan pt 7 (PDF 86kB)

Phase I habitat survey

This survey, under taken by Lockhart Garratt, gives further details of the ecological value of the wood. It includes as an appendix an earlier survey of the neighbouring crematorium site undertaken by Middlemarch Environmental.

Main report
Habitat survey pt 1 (PDF 150kB)

Appendix I (Site location plan)
Habitat survey pt 2 (PDF 1MB)

Appendix II (Desk study results - excluding Middlemarch report)
Habitat survey pt 3 (PDF 670kB)

Appendix III (Phase I habitat survey plan), Appendix IV (Site photographs)
Habitat survey pt 4 (PDF 2.7MB)

Middlemarch Environmental report on Crematorium site (PDF 142kB)