Volunteers have continued to meet on Saturday mornings to carry out much needed work at Jenna Morra Wood. The programme of rhododendron ponticum eradication has now been completed and this has made it easier to identify oak trees which are being held back by competition with other shorter lived but faster growing species. These can be removed over time to allow the oak to develop their true potential, being magnificent trees that can keep growing for centuries rather than being choked by too much competition for light in their earlier stages of life. It should be possible to plant some alternative native shrub layer species to fill the place of the rhododendrons, such as holly and hazel, once the soil has had a chance to recover from the toxic effect of the rhododendrons. Some smaller trees, which have been overhanging or were too close to the path, particularly ones which were dead or dying, have been cut back. Over the past few weeks, volunteers have been thinning out snowdrops from a site near the village and transplanting them in the wood. Look out next January for clumps of the beautiful harbingers of spring along the path at either end of the wood. The plan is to continue transplanting snowdrops a bit more every year, gradually introducing them further along the path into the centre of the wood.
