Wilder Lives Officer Becky recently visited Bramhall to meet Val, Joan, and Norm from the Friends of Carr Wood volunteer group. Once strangers, this group of locals are now dedicated to looking after their local woodland.

As you enter the woodland, you'll be struck by the towering height of the trees, which create a vast canopy above. A valley lies at the heart of the wood, with a stream meandering through it. You immediately sense that this place is special, and it becomes clear why locals are so passionate about preserving it.

What inspired you to establish this group?

Joan: I suppose it was my long history with the woods. I would come here when I was a little girl, as a brownie, and I can remember playing in the stream. I remember how clean the water was back then and how the banks weren’t eroded. I began taking out invasive species like the Himalayan balsam by myself. But it just kept spreading, and I soon realised I was going to need more people.

Norm: As soon as Joan started the group, I thought brilliant - finally!

Val: We were all very concerned about the declining state of the wood, especially the absence of bluebells. Getting involved felt like a way of doing something good to help sustain it. We now have a task day once a month to help maintain and manage the wood. There’s usually eight or nine of us who join in.

‘Through being a member of the group I have met a lot of lovely people - a real bonus!’ 

_Joan

What qualifies as an ancient woodland?

Val: It’s an ancient woodland because it’s had continuous tree cover for over 400 years.

Norm: This is what remains of the Carr Woodland that once covered this entire village until they started building houses here in the 1930s. This is the largest area of ancient woodland in all of lowland Stockport.

What tasks do your volunteers help with?

Val: One of our jobs is to keep the foot path in good condition to stop people wandering off to the sides and trampling on the vegetation along the edges. To address this, we construct something we call ‘Fedges’, which is a cross between a hedge and a fence. We bend and weave living plants together in late summer to create a barrier that encourages people to stay on the path. Hazel works well as good barriers. It’s important that the paths remain accessible for the public to enjoy, but we also need to protect some areas for plants and wildlife to thrive. For example, the council provided us with bluebells, but there was just too much trampling for them to survive.

How do you manage the wood?

Val: Interfering and not interfering is a very difficult balance. To maintain a thriving woodland, some management is necessary for the health of other plants. We reduce the sycamore saplings because they can dominate and aren’t as wildlife friendly as oak trees for example. We also control invasive species like Himalayan balsam—a task we've focused on heavily in recent years with great success!

Norm: I now normally spend more time looking for Himalayan Balsam than actually removing it. But even when you think it’s all gone, I still find another 2 or 3 plants down by the stream. One year’s seed is 6 years weed - they don’t all germinate at once.

Val: It's also important to have areas in the woods where sunlight can reach the forest floor. Fortunately, when trees fall naturally, they often create openings in the canopy, allowing different types of plants to grow along the woodland floor. This gives rise to a variety of new habitats.

We also conduct BioBlitz surveys with the help of Mersey River Trust and other local experts. Several of our group members are trained as River Guardians and conduct monthly water testing of the stream. These tests use fly larvae to assess the quality of the water. In other words, the presence and types of fly larvae can indicate the quality of the water, as certain larvae are more sensitive to pollution than others.  

Have you faced any issues?

Val: We’ve got a huge problem with sewage overflow into the stream.

Norm: Running parallel to the wood is one of the main sewers in Bramhall and it’s got 3 overflows into our little stream. These are old sewers that aren’t coping and as a result, sewage is entering this river far more than it should be.  It’s meant to be an emergency procedure when it rains heavily but it doesn’t work like that at all.

Val: A number of years ago, when we realised this was going on we met with United Utilities. This was before it became a hot topic. Since then, they’ve agreed to explore the potential of adding another tank up stream to stop this happening. I think because we were so persistent, we’ve become a priority area. Our determination has started to pay off!

What wildlife have you seen here over the years?

We found evidence of over 30 species of birds with the help of the Merlin ID sound app. We occasionally get king fisher’s and little egrets. The stream has the eight indicator species in it, but not in great quantities. They’re hanging on for dear life. One or two of them are ones that thrive in pollution …so that doesn’t bode well. We also get mining bees nesting in areas of bare earth along the path which is really nice to see.

A dog walker passing by: Our house backs onto the wood and every evening we see the owls flying overhead.

Joan: Yes the wood is always full of sound and life.

What are your long-term goals?

Val: Cleaning up the river is the top priority. Joan is liaising with United Utilities to try and get some sort of local campaign up and running, that educates people about what they shouldn’t be putting down the loo. Dog and cat flea treatment is highly toxic to all invertebrate life – especially fly larvae. It rubs off on our clothes so a lot of these toxic chemicals enter our water ways through the washing machine. I think people would be more interested in their local river if they knew how these sewage outflows and water pollutants were affecting the wildlife here.

Joan: We just want people to enjoy, and appreciate the nature which is right on our doorstep.

How do you feel in nature?

Joan: Well, it gives me peace, and energy, and I feel like you can forget everything. You have to make sure you do sometimes. Not continue all your thinking while you’re in nature but allow yourself to feel immersed in nature. That’s one of the reasons I started the group was because I wanted to give something back for all nature gives me. It’s something I just love, it’s the atmosphere, it’s the peace, it’s the feeling of benevolence.

How do you feel connected to nature?

Norm: I suppose I’ve always been connected to nature. As a kid I was a scout, we were out in it all the time. I still spend an average of 5 hours a day 6 days a week in nature, if the weather allows. I couldn’t imagine not doing it.