Horses help with wood's conservation

1:40pm Monday 26th November 2007

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Traditional methods are being used by Britain's leading woodland conservation charity to help restore part of the Chiltern Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Woodland Trust are to use horses to help clear parts of Penn Wood, near Penn Street, in a bid to improve the amount of sunlight getting through to the forest floor.

Parts of the wood had previously been re-planted with conifer trees, which has blocked out sunlight and threatened the survival of wildlife on the floor of the 400-acre forest.

Now the horses are being used in the logging program as it will help minimise the impact to the ground and protect trees from damage that vehicles might ordinarily cause.

Loren Eldred, Penn Wood Woodland Officer, said: "Horses have a very low impact compared to traditional mechanised methods of logging.

"Penn Wood also has valuable archaeological remains and we need to protect those, not to mention minimising damage to the wood floor we are encouraging to flourish."

The Woodland Trust are able to carry out this work thanks to a £19,510 grant from the Veolia Environmental Trust, who specialise in community and environmental projects.