Space for Change: Restoring Reynolds and Holcot Woods (Part 5) After years without active management, we are on a journey to restore Reynolds and Holcot Woods. Our 10-year management plan aligns with UK Forestry Standards, Natural England’s and the Woodland Trust’s guidelines, and has received approval from the Forestry Commission. Through our efforts, we aim to enhance the resilience of these woodlands against pests, diseases, and climate change while promoting biodiversity. Follow us on this journey… If you haven’t already, read the first four instalments of the series here: Read part 1 Read part 2 Read part 3 Read part 4 Written by Antonia Illingworth. Posted 12th August 2025 Work in progress Thinning operations at Holcot are well and truly underway. If you’re a regular to these woods, you may have noticed signs popping up, hazard tape, and locked gates. We’re very grateful for your patience whilst we carry out essential work. Our contractor, Mike, has been operating his tree shear and forwarder to fell and extract trees from the woodland. The forwarder is just as impressively massive in real life as it appears in this photograph, and you’ll notice how wide the tyres are; this helps to distribute the weight of the machine, causing less soil compaction. Mike’s been hard at work, and lots of stems have been piled up neatly on the hardstanding area outside the gate. It’s important to keep off these; climbing on them can be very dangerous. Ash dieback has weakened a lot of ash trees at Holcot, so extracting them is a top priority. We’ve started in the compartments just off the main ride. Taking out these ash trees has lots of benefits. As well as letting more light onto the woodland floor, their removal will also make the woodland a much safer place to explore once our operations are complete. While around 75% of the ash is being thinned in this compartment, we’ve selected some healthier looking examples to stay standing. We’re hoping that these, apparently more resilient trees, might be able to offer us some hardier, more disease resistant regeneration. Only time will tell! Letting the light in Light is flooding into the woods now that the canopy has been opened out. You can almost feel the woodland breathing a sigh of relief. Where before, trees were squashed up together like people in a stuffy train carriage, they’ve now got plenty of space to stretch out into the sun. While supporting the healthy growth of trees, the newly available light will also encourage an understory, providing habitat for ground nesting birds, and woodland flowers to support pollinators. Releasing future veterans like this maturing oak tree (photographed) will allow them to develop into their full complex character, with twisting beams and widening canopies - the perfect habitat to support high biodiversity and provide dappled shade. Butterflies and moths! While not without its major disadvantages, hot, dry weather this year has benefited butterflies and other insects, allowing them to thrive in our woodlands. A few weeks ago, Nicola Ceconi (Senior Ranger) and Antonia Illingworth (Trainee Forester), set out to investigate the butterflies and moths enjoying the sunshine at Holcot. Here you can see a Scarlett Tiger moth, very politely revealing its bright scarlet hindwings, and a slightly shier Ringlet butterfly, with characteristic eye spots just showing. We are excited to compare our butterfly data at Holcot before, and after our thinning operations. With less dense shade from a crowded canopy, the refreshed, brighter environment should provide warmth that butterflies love. As well as this, renewed light will encourage a higher diversity of wildflowers and understorey plants, and, as a result, hopefully attract a higher number of more diverse pollinators. Starting small It’s always strange to think that towering trees like the mature oak shown in the previous segment come from something so tiny. It’s one of the things that makes our relationship with woodlands the most interesting: that our lifespans are so different to theirs. Earlier this year, Luke Quenby (Community Forester) and Antonia Illingworth (Trainee Forester) planted these little hornbeams, dotted throughout the compartment leading downhill towards the larger pond. We were happy to discover that the majority of them have got away with a successful start, despite the very hot weather. We’ll plan to do more planting at Holcot, aiming to improve the species diversity and age structure of the woodland, which will help to boost its resilience to disease and climate change. All our operations at Holcot aim to make the woodland more sustainable, so that it can still be there for generations to come. “Deadwood” “Deadwood” is a strange name for something so thriving with life. Fallen and standing deadwood provides excellent biodiversity benefits, and often, as with the tree left standing here, dramatic visual character. On logs like this one, you can observe moss and lichens, holes for beetles to crawl into, and soft, rotting wood: a feast for fungi. The standing dead tree here, with its lightning-like limbs, could act as a perfect roost for bats, and a canteen for insectivorous birds like woodpeckers. As a byproduct of the thinning operations, Mike has also left lots of brash piles in the wood. These, like larger logs, will rot down into the soil eventually, handing the nutrients they hold back into the woodland ecosystem. However, they also have an important role as a habitat feature. Resembling a giant version of “pick-up-sticks”, each pile, a complex, almost impenetrable crisscross of thin branches, provides shelter for woodland creatures, like birds, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians. We’ve got lots of brash piles at Holcot, but if you have your own garden, we recommend not putting all your garden waste in the green bin. Instead, try creating a pile of decaying leaves, brash or logs. It’s a great way to encourage wildlife, and doesn’t require too much space – find a quiet, shady corner, pile up the logs or sticks, and wait to see who visits! Looking ahead Looking into the other compartments at Holcot highlights just how much our interventions are needed. Historically neglected coppice plots are waiting to be taken back into management. In a stark comparison to the airy lightness of the managed plot, notice the barren landscape of the woodland floor trapped under the dense, over-shaded canopy of the overstood coppice pictured here. We also plan to open out further historic rides, and mulch some of the dense bramble cover that’s shown here, which will offer the woodland an opportunity to develop a more balanced, diverse shrub layer. Make sure to join us at the Reynolds & Holcot Woods open day to see what we've been up to with your own eyes. Join us at Reynolds & Holcot Woods open day Join us for a free open day in the ancient woodlands. Enjoy guided walks, see live forestry demos and learn how we’re restoring these woods for wildlife and future generations. Exciting change is happening, and we’re looking forward to continuing to share it with you. Find out more > Manage Cookie Preferences