Woodland Heritage acquired its first landholding this spring, an 86-acre site now called James Wood, at Stogumber in Somerset, with the intention of the site becoming a demonstration one for productive woodland management.
The purchase was made possible thanks to the generosity of James Stratton who, shortly before his death in 2019, had chosen Woodland Heritage to receive most of his estate. This gift was made with the intention of the charity creating a living legacy for generations to come to enjoy and to benefit from, both in terms of the woodland that he wished to see created, but also from the timber that could be made into the sort of fine items that he enjoyed owning and seeing.
Although not averse to letting Woodland Heritage include some existing woodland in the eventual site for James Wood, the main ambition for James and his parents, Martin and Suzette, who had become his Executors, was to create a new woodland and ideally of at least fifty acres in size.
For a charity keen to demonstrate ‘uneven aged silviculture’, the site for James Wood provides great potential, combining non-designated, species-poor grassland and former arable open ground, with blocks of established woodland, as well as some twenty-year-old plantations in need of management.
James Stratton’s legacy has enabled Woodland Heritage to not only buy the land at Stogumber, but also to have funds available to undertake much of the planting and other management works on the new and existing woodland for years to come. James Wood will also be helped greatly by securing support under the England Woodland Creation Offer, a grant scheme to which Woodland Heritage is in the process of applying with the support of Pryor & Rickett Silviculture.
Ideas for the planting, which may start as early as winter 2022/23, have developed and are likely to combine a fairly conventional approach, with one that tries to establish what novel species could thrive at the site in Somerset that will be beset with a changing climate, as well as an evolving list of threats from pests and diseases.
Woodland Heritage is indebted to James Stratton for both his vision in wanting to create a new woodland managed for timber, but also to have chosen the charity to carry out his wishes for him.