CASE STUDY - HEATHLAND RESTORATION
UPM Tilhill played a central role in an environmental programme to restore vast tracts of heathland in Bedfordshire and Surrey.
The work was undertaken on behalf of the RSPB and involved clearing conifer plantation from two of the charity’s nature reserves - RSPB headquarters at Sandy, in Bedfordshire and at Farnham Heath, Surrey. The contract involved the clearfelling of over 60 hectares of Corsican pine, Scots pine and Douglas fir; as well as thinning across a further seven hectares. At Sandy, the company was able to utilise its forest brash baler to compress brash into cylindrical bales for use as bio-fuel at UPM’s Shotton paper mill in north Wales.RSPB staff quickly noticed wildlife responding to the work. Heathland birds that had been absent for several years – and in some cases, several decades – started to return to the sites within months. Earlier this spring a nightjar was heard ‘churring’ at the Lodge, ‘churring’ is the grasshopper-like reeling sound made by a nightjar while it is looking for a mate.
It is hoped that other species, such as the nightingale, woodlark, tree pipit and Dartford warbler will also return to the sites, and the RSPB has opened the first of many planned visitor trails through the new heathland so that visitors can enjoy this valuable habitat, which is under pressure elsewhere in the country.
“After just a few months since felling was completed at Sandy, the nature reserve is already beginning to look more natural,” said Peter Bradley, the RSPB’s Site Manager at The Lodge. “It will be some years before true heathland develops, but it is wonderful that the wildlife has already begun to return. What’s even better is that, through opening these footpaths, we can share this wonderful wildlife with local people.”
The landscape at The Lodge was heathland for over 5,000 years, before it was planted with conifers early in the 19th century. Periods of felling may have allowed some heathland to return briefly, the last time being in the mid 1960s. Following this felling programme, the site will remain a mixture of open heathland and native woodland, which the RSPB will manage with the help of its ancient sheep breeds.
The parcel of land at Farnham Heath was originally planted, on behalf of the RSPB, by UPM Tilhill's founder Archie Aitkins in the 1940s.
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