Snowdrop Walks 2011

This year the snowdrop walks commenced on the weekends of the 5th-6th and 12th-13th in February. On both the weekends the Dingle played host to the main snowdrop walk. With having a hard winter the snowdrops held back on the first weekend from flourishing into full bloom, however on the second weekend the snowdrops had arrived in vast numbers and looking to its best. All the visitors on the first weekend enjoyed what the Dingle had to offer even though the elements were against them, all visitors were given entrance passes to revisit on the second weekend due to this. Recently the Dudmaston team has been planting snowdrops in various places around the Estate to spread the general population into places where they would not usually grow to improve the asthetic value for the coming years. We also dug up and potted snowdrops so that the visitors could add a little of Dudmaston to their own gardens. This proved to be a great hit as over the two weekends the Dudmaston Forestry team gained a valuable sum of money to help the department. Overall the two weekends were a great success and proved to be well worth while and we all hope that with further planting, next year will be even more successful.  

Planting at Dudmaston Estate

At the end of every year at Dudmaston Estate, the planting of new trees begins to hopefully form new areas of woodland. The first thing to do is to establish which site needs to be cleared ready for planting. In Dudmaston's case it was an area of land up on the heath also known as compartment 3. To clear the site we called upon our trustee WNTCV ( Wolverhampton National Trust Conservation Volunteers) to get the job done. Clearing a site involves making enough ground space to be able to dig a small hole into the soil so that you can plant the trees. After the site is cleared the planting can begin. The reason for planting in the first place is to regenerate areas of woodland that have been clear felled because contractors have extracted wood from that compartment. Because Dudmaston operate as an outlet for timber its important that we plant trees to put back in what we've taken out, this is why planting is so important. Also when we plant tree's your eligible for grants that are given out by the Forestry Commission which help support some of the cost of planting and maintaining the new site.

This shows some of the site at the start of planting. As you can see from the picture every line of tree's is set approximately 2.6 metres away from the next. The direction of the line is straight but  horizontal to the road. The reason for slightly offsetting the line is to make it look as natural as possible when the woodland begins to grow. Each Tree has a tree guard to protect from animals such as rabbits which would eat all of the new trees if they were not covered, these guards also act as a wind break and protect the new tree's form the elements.