Justice Lurking Mar 22
RolloTreadway

I went to the woods. I did feel a bit better amongst the trees, but the hike back up to my home has ruined all that and felt horrible (this is why I want to buy a house right beside woods).

I met this sight, which looks terrible. If I didn't know better, I'd assume the woods were being removed for some kind of development.

But I do know better. I know that this is the work of the Woodland Trust, and the wood is being saved, not killed. There are three major projects ongoing: remove the destructive rhododendrons, cut back the invasive conifers, and also unfortunately to remove a stand of diseased trees. In their place, native trees and ground plants will grow. Clearings will be encouraged to develop naturally, all the better for biodiversity.

This will be wonderful. It's a shame that so much destruction is required to get there. But needs must.

Mar 22 at 12:50pmWeb
Show threadlaen🪻Mar 22

@RolloTreadway
i'm very glad the woods helped, but sorry you feel so awful now. can you rest this afternoon?

and goodness yes that does look bad. but good, good very that they're taking action to protect, restore, nurture. hopefully soon, 🌱

take care of you (protect, restore, nurture), and i hope you feel better soon 

Show threadRolloTreadwayMar 22

@moonrabbit Well, since I got home I've started cooking and done some cleaning and showered and done laundry and after lunch I need to plant some seeds and then I can feel upset about how exhausting the weekend has been but after that I can probably rest.

How are you?

And yes, it's difficult to see such destruction but I look forward to how wonderful it will be in time.

Show threadlaen🪻Mar 22

@RolloTreadway
i hope the planting and feeling upset go by quickly and that some gentleness finds you before the end of the day.

and yes, it will be amazing! and even more amazing to watch it grow and change. will you be able to visit it, do you think, once you've moved? i suppose it depends on where you go. and maybe you'll have new woodlands to watch!

Show threadRolloTreadwayMar 22
@moonrabbit Yes, I will certainly move to where there are woods, and it should be easy enough to visit these ones. Wherever I move to, it won't be so far afield, and I will have a car.
Show threadDuckbilled Plattypus.Mar 22

@RolloTreadway Death is a part of the natural cycle. Restorative death is a concept that's an emotional tangle. What's often hidden from us non-scientists (because of my admitted own ignorance) is the death and havoc wreaked up the native ecosystem in a slow, pervasive, and often deceptively beautiful way by invasive plants brought in by humans. We can mourn both, the native ecosystem we destroyed by invasives, and the invasives destroyed to try to correct our hand in the original destruction. We can commit to not doing this again.

I learned some 40 years ago as a Community worker that justice requires loss. Loss of unfair privilege taken from others. (See US slave owners) To restore fairness and equity requires loss. To pretend it does not, to gloss over that loss, is a lie, and furthers understandable anger and fuels resentment. Justice requires courage, patience, persistence, and moral clarity.

Best wishes.

Show threadRolloTreadwayMar 22
@pattykimura Committing to not making the same mistake in future is important. About 140 years ago, part of that wood was in the garden of a big house, and the owners planted the rhododendron in the belief that it would add to the natural beauty. They didn't know what we know now, that it's so toxic to the woodland.
Show threadthe baywindowgirlMar 22
@RolloTreadway You have to take the long view with trees.
Show threadRolloTreadwayMar 22

@thebaywindowgirl Very much so. One of the reasons there are a lot of conifers (although fewer now) is because they were planted on a former colliery site, because they'd grow faster than native trees.

But now that's recognised to have been a bad choice.

Show threadMarMar 22

@RolloTreadway this is so interesting. It does look desolate! I loved reading the back story. Do you know what trees will they plant? (I don't know what's native to your area).

Also, I had no idea that rhododendrons were invasive in the UK. Here in the Pacific Northwest there are native varieties- in fact it's Washington State flower. Our problem is English ivy 😅

Show threadRolloTreadwayMar 22

@marsiposa Yes, over here rhododendrons are not merely invasive but actively harmful. They have a symbiotic relationship with a fungus that does the rhododendron no harm but kills other trees - the fungus thrives in the dark damp conditions beneath the rhododendron, it kills neighbouring plants, the rhododendron has room to spread.

I'm not sure exactly what trees will be growing instead. I know that a nearby patch of ancient woodland has oak, birch, beech, hornbeam, willow, hawthorn, lime. So I presume those? There are also elms in the area, they might put in more of those. I don't really know.

Show threadMarMar 22

@RolloTreadway oh wow I had no idea about the fungus. What a complex problem, and no wonder they have to completely clear out the space.

I love hawthorn! .. And it's also invasive here 😅 (although not as bad as the rhododendron issue you describe).

We have mostly conifer forests, I don't think I've ever been to a deciduous forest with such variety of trees, it must be very pretty.

Show thread@shezza_tMar 22

@RolloTreadway A long time ago, I helped clear invasive rhododendrons as part of work’s community volunteering scheme. The aim was to remove the remains of an old, old ornamental garden and replace it with native woodland.

Until that day spent hacking shrubs away to let the mini digger in to dig up their roots, I had no idea rhododendrons were so destructive to other plants.

So yeah, the clearances are grim to see in the early stages.

Show threadRolloTreadwayMar 22
@shezza_t I did some voluntary work on that too, a couple of years ago, cutting back rhododendron growth so that it would be less work for the professionals (and thus less expense for the Woodland Trust) to fully remove them.
Show thread@shezza_tMar 22

@RolloTreadway Nice.

I had the chance to do a load of charity volunteering through work, and the stuff like that, or sorting out gardens at a special school, were the best.