It was great to hear Debbie and Katie’s thoughts about how we might best manage the wildlife area. They’ve also given us contact details for colleagues who can help more with specific areas, so we’ll follow those up. But here’s what they recommended:

Wet woodland: The current area of wet woodland is situated well along the northern edge to avoid shading out any new pond with light from the south. The amount of wet woodland needs to be balanced with future volunteer efforts. This is likely to be ad hoc and minimal, so the addition of more woodland trees is not advised. If more were to be added, alder and willow are species that generally thrive in wetter habitats, and do not grow overly large if regularly pollarded and coppiced. The best option is likely to be to limit the number of trees and pull out new willows to create more of a wood pasture/wet meadow. A small number of willows could be regularly pollarded (once a year) as feature trees, with the mainstem kept intact and the branches used for willow weaving or to create habitat piles. The underlying vegetation could be left to grow (and also cut once a year), as the vegetation is likely to be lush and outcompete most new plants put in.

Pond: Dig a hole around 600-800mm deep (or alter the existing hole you have already to this depth) and see if it holds water and at what level through winter and spring next year. If it holds water through to early summer then a natural pond may be the best option. If it doesn’t hold water in the trial pit then use a liner (such as an EPDM liner). You could also try filling the current hole and see how quickly the level drops. When creating the pond, as discussed, it does not need to be deep, for instance a maximum of 600mm. Shallow, scalloped edges encourage wildlife

https://www.froglife.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Just-Add-Water-7th-Edition-compressed.pdf & https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-build-pond

Wet meadow: We discussed the potential to create a wet meadow around the pond. A member of our Dunsmore team who specialises in creating meadows and hedges with communities is happy to come out for an additional site visit.

Orchard: Fruit trees or small shrubs like alder buckthorn or spindle could work well bordering the area to the plots above. Crab apples and pears are good for wildlife as they tend to have a lot of blossom and once grown, provide nesting areas for birds and lots of fruit (after 3-5years). Cherries attract birds and bloom earlier so are good for early pollinators. As the area is quite small, you can get dwarf varieties, but generally any variety can be grafted on to a smaller tree rootstock. Knowing the rootstock of the trees is the best thing you can do as this can determine height and width.
https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/dwarf-fruit-trees-2/
https://www.thompson-morgan.com/how-to-grow-fruit-trees
https://www.heritageappletrees.com/ & https://www.fruitandnutvillage.org.uk/
https://www.theorchardproject.org.uk/