"Get into woodlands", said the Duke. If only he cared about the kingfisher.

June 2020. Tall broadleaf trees can be seen near the middle in the cross-section above, farmed conifers are on each side. The wildlife in Cornwall is sustained by broadleaf but it's much easier for a logging contractor to cut all of the trees, so the broadleaf gets no protection. A stream runs right-to-left in the middle of the foreground and it was previously lined with alder and sycamore trees. A kingfisher could explore but it won't now because it doesn't fly in open areas where there are no broadleaf branches for it to perch on. (See more at bit.ly/aqatree and the latest at bit.ly/DuchUn)

  Birds forage in broadleaf trees to get caterpillars for their nestlings which need protein to grow, e.g. video, bit.ly/SEpe. It's said that birds and insects are down in number to a worrying extent in the UK (e.g. Guardian.) Woodlands have been a last refuge for many species but even the Prince who says, "protect and restore Nature" converts old woods ever thoroughly into spruce monoculture. 

May 2023. Bluebells are still there under those tall broadleaf

  What's next? Two photos (right and below) from June 2020 show two rows of logging debris that were left by a contractor in 2019. The third pic shows how debris was then used by Duchy operatives to cover a new track which they cut through the remarkable bluebell slope under the tall broadleaf on the far side. This was in a part of Perdredda Wood known as Landvale Wood (see bit.ly/gratna.)

                                                               See more at the bottom of this page

October 2022:

  Until recently, there was good tree cover next to the track which runs through the property known as 'Underways' (map is at bit.ly/gratna.) The track leads to the other properties which together constitute 'Perdredda Wood'. A wide strip of 'wet woodland' (see TWT) stood next to it, bordered on the west side by the stream which flows north and leaves the Wood through a tunnel next to the gate. The trees and plants in that 'carr' habitat were suddenly removed wholesale after a Duchy notice appeared on the gate in October 2022. The notice said that there was to be, "thinning of trees alongside tracks" to "allow more sunlight and wind in to help dry tracks more quickly and keep them in better condition". See more about this at bit.ly/DuchUn.

  The stone wall next to the Wood's gate had a screen of trees growing close to its inner face, most of which were Ash. The screen gave pleasant shade to the small parking area outside, well appreciated during the heat-wave of 2022. All but two of the mature trees (one of which is an Ash) were also removed after the Duchy's notice appeared.

  Where the track arrives at a disused quarry about 290 metres from the gate, an old hawthorn had grown tall and was surrounded by other broadleaf (including one Ash tree.) Being a slow-growing hardwood, the hawthorn might have germinated at the time that spruce trees were first introduced to the wood, seventy years ago at least. Spruce grow fast and it seems they forced the hawthorn to compete for light by growing almost straight upward. 

Brimstone butterfly on hawthorn blossom (courtesy of J. Cushing)

  You'd find robins courting at the hawthorn at the end of winter. The thorns on its branches would have given protection from predatory birds: video. (You'll never see a buzzard or a goshawk land on a hawthorn's spikey branches.) 

The contractor's operatives of 2019 had worked around the tall tree when they levelled the quarry floor to make a parking area for machinery, but the Duchy's men show no care for such indigenous trees. The Wood's other mature hawthorn near the gate was also cut after the notice appeared on the gate (bit.ly/DuchUn.) Old hawthorn are mostly restricted to roadsides these days but, even there, the Duchy cuts them down: bit.ly/kilhaw.

  Some of the pictures below are click-able for a closer look.

Below: The stump of the tall hawthorn on 30/10/2022.

Left and Right: Just one Ash and one Alder remain against the wall next to the gate. There was a solid screen of broadleaf before.

Above right: The hawthorn on 13/07/2019, to the right of the
digger. The quarry floor was being levelled but that tree was left intact.

03/08/2019

Pryor and Rickett had not harmed the hawthorn in 2019 but the Duchy's own men cut it in October 2022.

Progeny of the robins in a smaller broadleaf 

next to the tall hawthorn on 31/7/2016.

INTRODUCTION

   The former Duke of Cornwall spoke of his concern for the environment and his 'green efforts' to make things better. However, when he said, "Get into Woodlands", he meant that woods were a good source of income.

It might be 80 years since alien conifers were planted in Perdredda Wood and now the loggers are busy. Since 2019, they have been taking the spruce crop but also the diverse broadleaf that had remained in some sections, particularly along the streams and on the Wood's perimeter.

The Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia) appears in 2.8 acres under power

lines where nectar is available in July in big beds of brambles: bit.ly/wildunder.

  Perhaps the wildest-feeling woodland in Cornwall, Perdredda was looked after by Port Elliot Estate until 2019. Conifers had been planted a long time ago but indigenous broadleaf still supported many species of animals. There's been more than one species of large predatory bird (one cannot be named because of its vulnerability to persecutors) and several sedentary woodland birds such as jays, woodpeckers and dunnocks.

The goshawks nest in Douglas Fir but most of the birds require the broadleaf trees and do not visit conifers for food or nesting, e.g. a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers in 2020 and 2021 used a solitary dead broadleaf for nesting, not the many spruce nearby which harbour none of the insects that they collected for their chicks: video.

The presence of Betony (Stachys officinalis) at the western and eastern ends of Pedredda suggests an ancient woodland. (Above: on the western boundary, 2020. Below: near the main gate in the north-eastern corner, 2021.  In 2022, many bumblebees were constantly present on a third Betony site during the extremely dry summer: video. It still had a few flowers into November: facbk.

The practice of letting broadleaf communities survive in some acres and along the streams and margins of Perdredda Wood is being forgotten now. All of the streamside Alder and Ash were cut where logging was done in 2019: survivor.

Essential to wildlife, a margin of old broadleaf stands between the conifers and the farmland. Native trees also line a stream (on the left) that runs down to this western end of Perdredda (aerial view.) The banks of streams inside are being stripped naked: aqatree

1888 map and Google map before 2022.

When the Duchy of Cornwall acquired this wood in 2019, they sent a man to see if he could cull some deer: marksman. Loggers began to grade and widen the old forest tracks, removing all the wild plants on them and the soil that sustained them. Before long, it could be seen that simple instructions were being followed: ‘Widen the tracks and clear some big areas. Cut all trees in those areas.’ This practice is known as, ‘clear-cutting’.

There's been no further sighting
of Roe deer since August 2020

2020: The Duchy has three rangers who visit woods in the region. At Perdredda, they arrive late in the day and wait to pick off Roe deer (and any other type) on the cleared sections in the twilight. Each brings a silencer and tripod with his rifle, locking his 4x4 inside the new steel gate. (At least one has a customized reg. number with the letters “ROE“ in it.) Roe deer are a timid, indigenous species and the British Deer Society says that they will flee a wood when logging begins. The number that have been culled bears no scientific relationship with the number that were there initially. (They were not counted before the cull.)

August 2021: No deer (or their spoor or dung) are seen now and neither are the grey squirrels. It's said that a similar eradication has occurred in the Roseland which is a similarly green environment south of Truro.

The grey squirrels were never numerous but their availability would have helped sustain Buzzards and another, red-listed, raptor that nests annually in a high part of the wood. No grey squirrels are seen now and the habitat is far too degraded to support Red Squirrel (as the Duke of Cornwall once suggested might happen if the greys could be eliminated.)

i) Previously, foresters would drive over plant-life on the tracks and

  then it would grow back.

ii) In 2019, tracks were stripped, widened and slate gravel

  was pressed in. 

(The four pics below show stages in the degradation of the track in Underways.)

Above: The Underways track was formerly used by locals for walking their dogs but a steel gate was installed in 2020 and it has been kept locked ever since. By March 2023 (bottom), the wet woodland (TWT) next to the stream on the right, is now entirely gone (see bit.ly/DuchUn for a photo record.)

290 metres south from the gate, the logging tractor of 2019 worked around the Hawthorn tree
 but that's not what the Duchy's own men do and it was cut for no obvious reason in October 2022.
(The new sign on the gate had said that conifers "of poorest form" would be cut and any Ash
which had dieback.) Likewise below, a tree that was not in the way of a new gate put in by
the Duchy in 2018. The stump and offshoots were poisoned: bit.ly/kilhaw.

  On Google Maps (before new images were loaded recently), the Wood looked as it did in 1888. Whitsand Bay is less than two kilometres to the south but elevated land between the sea and the wood reduces the impact of winds. All around is crop fields or pasture but wildlife was surviving in the Wood.

Warm water in the North Atlantic current arrives at Cornwall and
it generates mist under cold atmospheric conditions.

The warm North Atlantic current (an extension of the Gulf Stream) brings humidity to southeast Cornwall and there are good rates of plant growth. However, what remains of original woodland is mostly in places that cannot be developed (e.g. slopes next to rivers and estuaries.)

Species-rich places like Perdredda are hard to find but she’s being logged now as a great northern forest might be, like those in North America and Eurasia.

N.B. Viewed from the outside, the stands of alien conifer appear to be monoculture but there are many broadleaf among them which do not grow vertically at the same speed. In 2022, the conifers have been struck with an ailment and the broadleaf now can be seen more easily (see below-right.) Using Google maps to view from above reveals many broadleaf in every part of Perdredda.

In 2022, the conifers have become diseased and the broadleaf can be seen more easily.

Update for January 2022: Google maps has new images and the cleared areas are visible now. (There is a third area marked 'x', which isn't totally cleared but has no smaller vegetation now. It was entirely a broadleaf area before but now it's covered in rows of spruce saplings.) N.B. In area 1, shoots emerging from the stumps of felled broadleaf are being clipped so that only conifers will occupy the land from now on.

Broadleaf was removed continuously for a year and there was frequent accumulation of log stacks inside the gate. (Many stout oak logs were there in 2022 which were cut along the A374 and A387.) See how big the log stacks became: bit.ly/DuchUn

27/10/2019 Dense forest on this north-western slope was the main haunt of Perdredda's timid Roe deer. Other animals in the Wood have included badgers, bats, tawny owls, buzzards, jays, a Jack Snipe (two sightings), song thrush, several small bird species including long-tailed tits and coal tits, a fox, lizards, amphibians, butterflies and other insects. ~ Honey bees arrive in great number when the brambles are in flower under the power-lines.

How pleasant were Perdredda's tracks in April 2019. After decades 

under a gentle custodian, wild species were adding colour again.

If you paste 50.385349, -4.337496 into Google Maps  and zoom right in, you will see the difference between the star-shaped conifers and the lighter-coloured broadleaf. If you return to the map later you will notice that you have developed a skill for spotting the broadleaf and that there are many throughout the forest. (Unfortunately, the map today shows three naked areas, devoid of all trees.)

May 2017. Broadleaf survived among the sitka spruce in most parts of the Wood.

In March 2020, an Oil beetle was found in the 2.8 acre plot that has no conifers because there are power-lines overhead: bit.ly/oilBe (then another was 600 metres upstream: bit.ly/mOilb.)

This cold-hardy Violet Oil Beetle (Meloe violaceus) was active on 18/03/2020 in the 'butterfly zone'. Power-lines keep the foresters from utilizing that 2.8 acres but they might, at some stage, put one of their wide tracks through it to access the westernmost spruce plantation.

This stump must be old. It was deep in the south-eastern

arm of Perdredda last year. Felling of such large trees

has not occurred in recent decades. There might be no

trees with this girth today.

  Perdredda has riparian habitat because it has natural springs and six or more crystal-clean stony streams that merge into two main branches. (Those two branches merge at 50.387173, -4.334081 and the water continues north for about 300 metres before exiting the wood and crossing under the A374 through a man-made weir.¹)

At one time, all trees in Perdredda were broadleaf, most of which is deciduous (called ‘hardwood’ by loggers.) When Sitka spruce and Douglas Fir were introduced, some acres were left in their natural state. The broadleaf also continued to grow among some of those conifers, often becoming taller than usual in competition for light with them (e.g. the top photo and see aqatree.) A uniquely 'Perdredda' heredity might exist among the original plant-life, e.g. The bluebell gene pool might be ancient.

April 2016

¹(The weir under the A374 prevents sticklebacks from swimming up into the Woods' streams. Beavers, recently released in southern Cornwall, would also not get past it.)

Meadowsweet on a part of the 'Underways' track used to fill the air with a cream-soda fragrance. Its substratum was removed by grading in summer 2019. Different wildflowers liked different places where the tracks get more sunlight than is available under the conifers. Some of the 30 plant species noticed so far might survive for a while on the last lengths of original track on the west side.

12 May 2020. Bluebells are found where the broadleaf still stands. On the right in the photo is a loggers' debris stack where they stopped after cutting into this rare native patch (in 'Landvale', a property at the eastern end of the Wood.) In the foreground is the dead tree that the woodpeckers used twice for nesting since the felling took place. They didn't return in 2022.

Will they erase more of the native stands where the bluebells can survive? (15/06/2020.)

12 May 2020. There are three modest stands of natural broadleaf in Perdredda. This is where the biodiversity is and where woodpeckers get grubs for their nestlings (see video of 5 June. Another nestling from 30 May 2021 is in: vid2.) There was no woodpecker nest in May 2022. 'By coincidence', a new logging track had been carved up through the nearby bluebell slope late in 2021. 

Later in 2022, it became obvious that bramble has quickly encroached on this bluebell zone and some of the tall broadleaf trees fell over in bad weather, (and were then removed.)

12 May 2020. Looking out from the east-side broadleaf area (recently made smaller), there's "more light" now but the future's not bright for the bluebells: They will fail where broadleaf has been cut, and bramble encroaches aggressively.

A summary.
  Between June and October 2019, the Duchy's contractor cut down every tree in three big areas: bit.ly/perocto. It was hoped that a line of broadleaf might be left standing which was along the north-western border at the top of the first slope that was cleared, but most of those broadleaf are gone now and the remainder are 'coppiced' so severely that they are naked stumps: bit.ly/whyo. (They were along 400 metres of the fence running east from the top of Berry Plantation: bit.ly/gratna.)

  By 8 January 2020, large trees in the bog habitat next to the east-west stream have been blown over where they are no longer shielded by adjacent trees. All but one of the water-loving alders along that stream have been cut. (One survives simply because it's on the southern bank which hasn't been worked yet: aqatree.)

  The wild plants on the forest tracks have been erased. (Sunlight reaches the tracks and at least 30 types of flowering plant had colonized them.)

27/10/2019.  This slope had dense forest and Roe deer seemed to prefer it as a refuge. Conifers were here but note that the remaining debris also contains leaves and branches from broadleaf trees. There are thirty or more broadleaf stumps along the fence at the top; see bit.ly/whyo (2021: New shoots emerging from the broadleaf stumps are being cut so that spruce saplings newly planted face no competition for resources.)

March 2020. Most of Perdredda's tracks have

been worked and re-worked so that they will

not have plants on them again.

The same junction in winter 2016, had primroses in summertime.

  December 2019: Conifer saplings are being planted in place of the mixed flora that’s been removed. (Read how the Forestry Commission boss promotes conifer plantation: fcb.) Nothing will restore the communities of small organisms that were on the mature broadleaf: the invertebrates, fungi, epiphytes (mosses, liverworts, and lichens.) Birds and and small mammals needed the broadleaf.

  The pleasant meadow with log-pile visible on Google maps at 50.384837, -4.342052 has been made bare. (Its pond which was deep enough to attract breeding amphibians every year was filled straight away.)

May 2020: Small saplings of a few broadleaf species have been planted along the stream in the eastern felled area, but a wood-pecker* or a jay can’t make use of a 9 inch sapling. The kingfisher won't explore that stream now with no sizeable broadleaf to use as cover. (The Roe deer that haven't run from the human activity are being shot. Is this to prevent a few from going to the surrounding croplands in desperation?)

  Perdredda's unusual pollinator habitat should be protected.

  

*Jays, woodpeckers and nuthatches are 'sedentary' birds, meaning that they don't disperse far in life from the place they were raised. The woods in which the birds evolved many millions of years ago never simply disappeared in a matter of weeks, so the birds are adapted to being content within a fixed territory, year after year. 

  There is a dead tree in Perdredda's south-eastern area that one female woodpecker used in May 2020 to raise a brood, and then again May 2021. Most of the land around it has been clear-felled now. Later in 2021, a brand new logging track was made which suggests that the last stand of broadleaf nearby will be cut next: fbk (and last photos below.) It might seem obvious to anyone that clear-felling hurts wildlife but timber companies have skilled writers to describe their enterprise as something that 'improves things generally'. (Are they much better than the tobacco men who swore in court that smoking is harmless?) 

  House Sparrows are also sedentary, "rarely moving more than two kilometres from their birthplace": bbc. Dunnocks too, and there were some in Underways, i.e. the property with the access track into Perdredda, next to which a streamside woodland was stripped in October 2022: bit.ly/DuchUn.

Dunnock in Underways, May 2017

The rest of Perdredda will receive the same treatment in seasons to come. More logging and re-planting will turn it into a plain crop with a barest minimum of wildlife. (Read how the FC boss promotes this process: fcb.)

Above is Perdredda's other female woodpecker. She nests at the western end of the wood, about 3/4 mile from the east-side birds. She has no large dead broadleaf in which to nest so she and her partner make holes in a power-line pole.

Holly and oak were shown no mercy. ~ The central area that's been cleared
had no conifers. Sacks full of conifer saplings were seen nearby in December 2019.
~ bit.ly/holoak

  Clear-felling is practiced across the UK and a quantity of wildlife disappears every time. Owners who suspect that wild species might damage their cash crops will keep quiet as what remains of the biodiversity is removed.

Prince Charles says, “Work with Nature” but his operatives show no compromise with Nature. They filled the only two amphibian breeding ponds straight away in 2019. The top pond was not directly in the way of vehicles. A few years ago in a valley nearby, they cut an important tree for no reason: bit.ly/kilhaw (and now it's happened in Perdredda in 2022: bit.ly/DuchUn and bit.ly/mudnow)

Smoothly eroded rocks suggest that these might be very old streams, but that doesn't stop 

the Duchy from cutting new tracks (and creating huge banks of ploughed mud) just a few 

feet away from them. Aqatree shows severe damage to streamside ground, noticed in 2020.

In the areas now cleared, all of the water-loving Alder trees along the streams are gone. Alders stabilize wet land and enrich habitat, e.g. by shedding leaves which are eaten by aquatic insects.

First photographed in June 2019, along the east-west stream just before the loggers arrived:

1 June 2019. On damp land along the stream, Alders had grown tall
in competition for light with surrounding conifers. All are gone now.

At the base of one of the water-loving alders: broad leaves.

The alders grew right on the stream which runs a lot deeper after rain.
The photo below shows the same place in January 2020.

A surviving Alder has been found in 2020: The east-west stream has just one Alder now, on its south side which hasn't been felled yet: bit.ly/aqatree. (The last three Ash near it were cut when men returned in 2021.)

  On the other side of the nearby village, the same thing has happened to a big part of Polbathic Wood. Tawny owls cannot roost there anymore: bit.ly/polba

10 Nov '19. It's easy to spot the broadleaf among the conifers at this time of the year.

Every summer, buzzards would choose a place to nest away from human

disturbance. In autumn, goshawk fledglings could be heard all day in

trees not far from the main east-west track.

  With biodiversity losing ground everywhere, you might think that the Duchy would leave an indigenous tree standing when it’s not inconvenient to do so, but that's not what happens. Their loggers spare no tree if it's easy to cut and they'll step out of their way to remove some which are not, ordinarily, agro-forestry species: bit.ly/kilhaw and, in 2022: bit.ly/DuchUn

Aug 2019. Roe deer are indigenous and are not the animals that we associate

with car crashes. They are territorial and retreat from human activity,

they do not go around in herds damaging young trees. (2020)

  When the Duchy’s contractor replied to written concerns in June 2019, it was only to offer reassurances such as, "...the operations will.. invite regeneration of numerous species as the canopy lets in more light”. Now, no canopy remains where they have worked and their cutting of fence-line broadleaf shows that they are willing to leave no margins. To anyone who’s known the Wood for some time, they deny to-your-face that anything is being lost (e.g. After the Wood's two permanent ponds were filled, one was then said to have never existed: bit.ly/duchypath.)

  The Prince of Wales promotes the eradication of Grey Squirrels by contraception and he once posed with a fluffy Red Squirrel toy. Does this really mean that he plans to reintroduce the Red Squirrel in Cornwall (which might be a logical explanation for the shooting of Perdredda's Greys?)

A Grey squirrel outside the main gate some years ago, but most were usually skittish. (By August 2021, their small Perdredda population has vanished.) There was ample timber for the Duchy to take away in 2019 in spite of the squirrels' nibbling. Haulage companies collected the big conifer logs for four months and smaller scale removal of broad-leaf continued: bit.ly/aqatree

  In a recent episode of BBC Countryfile, it was said that most infant Red squirrels die during the felling of trees because they are still in the dreys when the trees hit the ground. (Some loggers have been known to leave a tree standing when it has a drey in it, although living in an isolated tree is also precarious for the squirrels.)
The logging in Perdredda has made the place much less suitable for any type of squirrel. The interest in Grey squirrel control seems more to do with extracting a maximum yield than with bringing back the Red Squirrel. Prince Charles' displays of interest in squirrel control but he never mentions the plight of so many forest species facing Britain’s huge demand for wood.

  The Countryfile guest said that our conservation laws have no effect where logging operations are taking place (i.e. in most of the privately owned woods in Britain) and that forestry legislation is outdated. It's 800 years since any real progress has been made in favour of appreciating natural woodland: ox/woodland. Nobody tags along to see what loggers are actually doing. Shouldn't there be a law that protects all woodland sites from being 100% utilised for timber?

Above: A few years ago, about 1.5 miles west of Perdredda in the Seaton River valley, it might be argued that the tree wasn't officially even on Duchy land. They didn't deny that they cut it but suggested that "luckily, it hasn't been poisoned". That wasn't true and the string of smaller hawthorns connected with it underground was also poisoned. bit.ly/kilhaw

Large frogs were seen in the east-side pond on 17 February 2019. The first thing the new foresters did was fill both of the Wood's ponds. The best one was in the middle of the track shown above which the loggers re-opened and connected with a brand-new shortcut. - The second photo shows the track on 25/12/2019. (The Wood's other pond was in a meadow on higher ground and not directly in the way of the vehicles. It was filled immediately and the contractor later said that it never existed.) more pics

03/02/2019. Looking east to Dartmoor, the bare broadleaf trees, bottom/right have all been cut. (This shows just the western half of them. The fence turns right/south in the middle of the image and then left/east again.)

27/10/2019 Looking east across the first area cleared, this was half of the widest stand of trees in Perdredda, which made the Wood seem big and resourceful. The Roe deer liked it here and no people ever seemed to explore it even though it had a high track running through. A fair amount of mature broad-leaf was mixed with the conifers and there was the line of broadleaf at the top, next to the fence. The trees on the right/south will obviously be cut at a later date. Some have since fallen over because they are rooted in bog next to the stream and are no longer shielded by any adjacent trees (see newer images below.) The taller of the trees on the far left side of the slope are also gone now: Some small ones remain which are outside the boundary fence. bit.ly/whyo

A dismissive attitude toward wildlife only encourages harmful activity in the surrounding countryside: bit.ly/setfer

28/09/2019. The trees lying on the ground against the western slope are broadleaf, not conifers. Their foliage is visible in the next photo.

28/09/2019. The foliage of those felled broadleaf is visible, lying against the cleared slope.

In July 2017, Silver-washed Fritillaries were numerous under the power-lines. They were attracted to the abundant bramble blossom and particularly to a solitary Buddleia. (There was no other buddleia for miles around and even Hummingbird Hawk Moths were visiting.) These striking butterflies were a new find in 2017, i.e. I'd seen none between 2005 and 2017. Adults emerge in July and only a handful live into early August. They are attracted to big beds of brambles that provide nectar from June onward. When the Duchy decides to log the plantation to the west of this site, they will put their version of a 'track' straight through it. bit.ly/wildunder

10/11/2019. The remains of deciduous trees on the fence-line at the top of the western slope. There is a line of about thirty such stumps (or tight groups of smaller stumps) that measure at least 15 inches in diameter, along 400 metres of fence.

27/10/2019 Part of the second cleared area. This is higher ground between the eastern

and western arms of the Wood. No conifers were growing here.

27/10/2019 A third area felled in the south-eastern arm (in Landevale Wood.) Broad-leaf trees were growing here too. - See some tall ones now exposed on the far side, left of centre.

Notice the broad-leaf debris at bottom-left.

Feb 2020. The original gate is now half a gate and the Wood stands open to the main road. It's not really "stewardship", is it?

In April 2020, the gate was replaced with a steel one. The public was locked out and still is today, 2024. See below: The Head Forester at the Duchy said on TV that walking in woods is good for mental health, but here his men have kept people out of since 2019.

So what about the kingfisher?

This is one of Perdredda's stoney streams that are fed by natural springs within or near the Wood. This stream runs across the cleared area in the first photo at the top of the page (in the plot called Landvale Wood.) It helps if there are alders and other trees along the streams when the waters rise and run fast. Similar trees were cut along the other main stream too: bit.ly/aqatree

The dogs' daily walks have been curtailed mostly since July 2019. The large puddle was worked on but it persisted and then it was announced in the Oct 2022 sign that trees would be removed, "to help dry tracks more quickly and keep them in better condition". Sadly, the Duchy meant that all of the natural woodland to the west of the track (rhs) was about to be removed, all the way to the main wood (about 270 meters.)

27/10/2019 Black puddles on the tracks and the smell of oil spoils the forest air.

09/2017.  The 'upper clearing' where the second amphibian breeding pond was, 
on the right beyond the logs (compare with below, from the other direction.)

Above: It didn't look much in winter but the place would be good bird habitat in summer and sometimes full of froglets. The contractor's PR man said to my face that the permanent pond never existed. (The logs can no longer be seen on Google maps at 50.384816, -4.342173.)

Jan 2020. The pond was filled immediately last June. It was on the right, not in the direct path of the loggers. Much vegetation is gone, including lots of broad-leaf saplings. Bio-austerity is the hallmark of Duchy presence and is very evident in the Seaton River valley where the undergrowth gets cleared out.

  Now is a time of ‘woodland propaganda’. There is a new article in which the Forestry Commission suggests that loggers have brought woodlands back to an ancient quantity but they don’t mention that, in sharp contrast, medieval woods were full of biodiversity. Men are employed who copy-and-paste pleasing phrases about their logging, knowing that very few will walk in and see for themselves.

On 25/12/19, white bags full of baby conifer trees were in a couple of places near the middle and south-eastern cleared areas.

By 08/01/2020, large trees in moss bog habitat by the stream have fallen over where they are no longer shielded by adjacent trees.

Not far from the fallen conifers, this broadleaf has also been destabilized by the logging, has fallen across the fence onto the farm next door.

In winter, it was easier to notice how foresters previously left a margin of broadleaf trees between the alien conifers and the farmer's field. Today, the Duchy doesn't show that concern for Nature and these broadleaf are being thinned out excessively: fencelinetrees.

20.05.2017. Anoplotrupes stercorosus (a type of Dor beetle) are usually seen to be solitary and walking, not flying. Something in soil on the east-west track had drawn many together in this rare sighting. The soil has been scraped off that track now by the contractor.

08.01.2020. Where there was a pleasant meadow full of saplings and a pond that attracted frogs, newts and dragonflies, there's now just a road. Most of the track surface in Perdredda has been widened, scraped and compacted with slate fragments twice now. The quiet habitat will not easily "grow back" as suggested by the contractor's PR man.

Empis pennipes in June 2019, shortly before the Duchy erased its habitat.

We get a sense that woods are the last refuge for many species of insects. Therefore, we live in the hope that private woods are managed with a consideration for wildlife. Empis pennipes fed almost exclusively on the nectar inside the corolla tubes of Herb Robert flowers in Underways Lane, until last summer.

See another insect at Orange Tips

^Above: Before 2019, a pretty path leading up from a flat meadow above the east-west stream which had good bluebell growth some years. The whole meadow and this upward bend is blocked with fallen trees now (left). Across the stream is now a naked slope where dense forest used to be, home to deer and secretive birds, including owls.

<Left: 8 March 2020. The same upward bend as in the photo above. Fallen trees block the stream-side path in many places, having been exposed to wind after the adjacent slope was clear-felled. Click on the image and look for the same large ferns, now destroyed.

Taken in May 2017, the woodland on the flat track, just metres east of photo above, will never be the same (compare with below). The dense wood beyond the stream is now a bare slope.

The contractors came back to clear the trees that fell over. In the right half of the photo you can see the footpath that branches upward. It was such a nice place before.

Above and below: In winter, it's easier to notice how foresters previously left a margin of broadleaf trees between the alien conifers and the farmer's field. Today, the Duchy doesn't show that concern for Nature: fencelinetrees and bit.ly/DuchUn

Below: A section of the northern fence-line broadleaf which was clear-cut:

Roe deer, Goshawks and Buzzards need a distance between themselves and human activity. In Perdredda, both have lost the biggest stands of mixed trees where they had that privacy. The Duchy has three men who patrol woods in Cornwall, each with his own 4x4 and a rifle with silencer and tripod. Visiting Perdredda, they didn't survey the number of deer that still were hiding in the remaining trees (most had run from the logging noise anyway), they just shot them. No grey squirrels are seen now, leaving the two raptor species which much less food for nestlings.

Above: A goshawk had pinned down a crow in the field opposite 'Underways' 

(see bit.ly/gratna.) The crow's companion helped it escape. (July 2017.)

A nice find, this cold-hardy Meloe violaceus deserves conservation:

Some other wildlife seen in 2020 can be viewed here: 2020

The stumps in the foreground are obviously not conifers. Note the zone of broadleaf (due 

north above the stump) next to the conifers that haven't been cut yet. (04/04/2020)

Broadleaf stumps are easy to find on the cleared slope. I regret that 

I didn't explore this area more beforehand.

See the album at: Orange Tips

August 2020: The Roe deer have become extremely skittish and it takes careful stalking and 60x zoom to get any photos now. The Duchy’s three snipers have almost wiped them out by May 2021.

August 2020: The Roe deer were hiding at the extreme ends of the wood.

Let's keep the colour in the Wood. 30.05.2020 (see bit.ly/SEpe)

11/05/2020 The woodpeckers' dead tree stands apart from what's left of the broadleaf in Landevale Wood but they did manage to rear young in it: bit.ly/SEpe. On the right,

the loggers' debris stacks cover land that did have bluebells last year.

They've cut into the best section of broadleaf in Perdredda (in the section known as Landevale Wood), but do seem to have shown it some mercy. Walk 40 metres through those trees and you come to a farming-only landscape. 50.382873, -4.332165

May 2021: A new crude track has been cut through the bluebells in this last section of Landvale broadleaf: images

In an email from the contractor in July 2019: 

   "It is always gratifying to know that local people are enjoying the woodland and all that it has to offer; woodlands are almost unique in providing such a range of benefits from a single resource, including social, environmental and economic services."      ~ but that locked gate has caused the regular dog-walkers to go away and stay away, and there's still no sign that it's a temporary obstacle, come 2024.

August 2020: "We hide now at the ends of the woods. The snipers

 never count us before they shoot." (These deer are gone now.)

The 2020 generation. See www.bit.ly/SEpe for more.

                         "Please notice us and then defend us."

June 1, 2021.  The slope in the easternmost corner officially known as 'Landevale Wood' was richly covered in bluebells last May and it seemed that these few acres might be left in peace. However, a brand new track has since been made, suggesting that this refuge for woodpeckers, a fox (and two small Roe deer yesterday) will be cut next. (The broadleaf are the tall ones seen in the first photo at the top of this blog. 50.383131, -4.332240. Also see photos added to bit.ly/aqatree) This bluebell slope was smooth and unbroken by man but now has deep ruts cut into it.

The photo above shows a track made from timber debris in the cleared zone. It leads to the track now cut under the remaining trees, through the bluebells.

June 2021. This water trap near the main gate has been created by the logging activities. Nobody walks through it as it's more than a foot deep. Some of the dog-walkers still came to walk but seem now to have given up with this massive puddle blocking their way. "It is always gratifying to know that local people are enjoying the woodland"? See how it looks now at bit.ly/DuchUn and in the next image. (N.B. All the wet woodland along the stream (r.h.s. in this image) was removed late in 2022, to give the track "more sunshine and wind" but the puddle's still there in spite of unseasonal low rainfall that's a caused hosepipe ban.) 

Below, 2021: Animals leaving the forest were turning up dead outside the gate this year: The stoat on 23 April had no visible fatal injury. The deer seemed to have been hit by a vehicle and I moved it closer to the gate on 5 June. This hasn't been the picture in the previous 14 years. The biological demise typifies the Duchy's recent working of lands.

The Duchy replaces wooden gates with their steel ones, the place loses charm and soon you see fly-tipping: this dead deer was covered by a pile of glass fragments a few weeks later.

The boss of the Forestry Commission recently suggested we embrace an increase in conifer plantation as a means to ending climate change: fcb. It's small wonder the Duchy is showing little regard for broadleaf habitat. 

It's since been published that soil under plantations releases enormous amounts of carbon when all the trees are cleared. It's decades before new trees planted are big enough to fix carbon at a rate that brings the balance back in our favour, climatically speaking.

14/08/2021. It was noticed that broadleaf shoots emerging from the stumps on the north-western slope are being sawn off in favour of giving new conifer saplings the advantage.

09/10/2021. Walking through the western plantation today and in the 'pylon zone' (bit.ly/wildunder), no sign of deer was there to be seen. 

Until this year, there was always Roe deer dung somewhere (smaller than fallow deer and broken up into balls, almost like rabbit dung, see bit.ly/perocto) Oddly, no other mammal sign was there either: badger and fox scats had appeared in recent years. It's the same throughout the Wood now, no spoor or faeces of any kind of mammal (except sometimes of one dog which is still walked by a local resident.)

15/12/2021. More fence-line broadleaf cut as the fencing is replaced unnecessarily: fbookpage

Scrapbook

14/08/2021. Shoots emerging from the stumps of broadleaf on the slopes are being sawn off to make way for the conifer saplings that have been planted. (Stumps not poisoned but see bit.ly/kilhaw).

From a high point, I watched a solitary buzzard making its way slowly over the top of the forest, seeming to work hard because there was no breeze or thermal to help it. Then, somebody fired a gun where it had disappeared from view. It's a wildlife free-for-all or perhaps just somebody doing target practice? Either way, it spoiled the quiet moment at the end of the day and, no doubt, terrified the tired buzzard. It was ten minutes or more before another gunshot was heard and then another, muffled one, perhaps a misfire.

15/08/2021.Talking reintroduction of species, Sir Harry Studholme was consulted on BBC Countryfile today. Images of 'squirrel damage' were shown and he said, "we believe" that encouragement of the pine marten is good because it kills Grey squirrels. The images didn't really show what such damage looks like and no concrete facts and figures were offered.

Sir Studholme didn't mention that it would be nice to hear of Red Squirrels making a come-back, even if they do nibble at some species of tree.. (What's definitely done damage is his campaign to popularize the planting of conifers as a means to 'fix the climate' - Foresters clear more mixed woodland to do this and topsoil releases enormous amounts of carbon when any forest is clear-felled: guardian .)

In recent years, you could usually see indigenous Roe deer at Perdredda Wood in Cornwall if you tried hard enough. They are timid and you'd need to walk quietly as there was plenty of woodland for them to disappear into. An affluent organization got ownership of the Wood a couple of years ago and, after it cleared big areas in a thorough and indiscriminate way, it added the place to the list of properties visited by a team of Duchy marksmen who specialize in culling deer. (They drive fancy 4x4's with "ROE" included in their customized registration numbers.) The timid deer had run from the logging anyway, but those still hiding very nervously at the ends of the property were soon picked off. No squirrel is seen or heard there this summer either.

24/10/2021 after 'The Mating Game' part 3.

Sir David showed lots of frogs in a pond this week and the scientist marvelled at how they appear from nowhere, mate like mad, and then quickly return to the surrounding canopy where they can't be seen or heard. On a smaller scale but just as fascinating, English frogs used to arrive as early as February in two ponds in a mixed plantation/woodland in SE Cornwall. Recently, the Port Elliot Estate was cash-strapped and the land went to the Duchy. The first thing it did was fill the two ponds.

31/10/21 in response to a Facebook comment, pasted underneath:

  Roe deer are indigenous and you won't find them in the suburbs. They don't form herds or quickly build up in number. They are timid and territorial. There's not one left now in that forest which is the biggest piece of low-disturbance land in SE Cornwall. You are dreaming up an answer: The meat is removed from the place, obviously for the venison pot. There's no smell of a corpse anywhere there. The buzzards are also disappearing. When the first Duchy marksman arrived there in camouflage, he asked me where the paths were. He knew nothing about the place and had no technique for assessing numbers of animals. There's no management, just three men in vehicles with "ROE" in the reg. numbers. Obviously, those men need to prove their worth by bringing back dead deer....  

The comment: "Deer need to be kept at a sustainable level. With out top predators this falls to us. Over population causes disease and starvation in all species. The meat goes into the food chain so is not wasted. The animals die in a set season, usually with a single shot to the heart. No traveling to the other side of the country in a scary truck, standing around in the stench of death and suffering as they do in slaughter houses. When you see a nice healthy deer walking around this in no accident. It's called management.

 

 

 

If you have no roe then I would suggest that it in not the Dutchy or FC taking them all but poachers, as has happened here. They take EVERY deer, in or out of season with no thought to any young that may be left to starve. TheDutchy and FC should have a management plan for the deer. You could contact the local branch and check to see their policy. A letter to HRH might also be in order. Your reply to me is as though I am a city idiot. I am born and bred country and don't need to be educated about where deer live. That usually comes from someone who is out and out uneducated themselves and tries to look the part."

 

[Reply: You gave a generalized answer which is very typical of the people who refuse to believe what's happened at this particular place and are in favour of just about anything that any forestry business does. All of the deer have been eradicated at Perdredda - some ran away from the noise of the logging machinery. Some hid in the remaining broadleaf stands at the edges - those are the deer that the three Duchy marksmen shot. The men still visit occasionally - you'll see fresh tracks of their 4x4's. I don't believe they realize what their impact has been. They are paid to do the job and that's it to them. You cannot blame this one on poaching and you will not find that Duchy personnel are willing to consider their actions as detrimental in any way. They are not patient people and they simply fob you off with fabrications that suit the moment - outright lies if necessary. p.s. Yes, I have spoken on four occasions with Duchy staff and I can show you the contractor's emails with all the scientific-sounding lies in them. I have seen how stressed and panicky the Roe deer became. If you walked across a felled area, they would bark at you from the trees remaining at the edge and run flat out, trying to find thicker tree cover to hide in. I came across one in a field next to the wood, resting in tall grass at the edge. When it saw me it ran out onto the open field, away from the wood at top speed. It just kept going in the wrong direction. Previously, it would have just ducked into the trees next to the nearby stream but this time it was extremely nervous.]

 

December 2022:

It was interesting on BBC Breakfast yesterday (02/05/2023) when Ray Mears said that Britain's first trees were wind pollinated and he mentioned willow and birch. By coincidence, I had just read an article on harvest mice in Cornwall which mentioned habitat known as, "willow carr". Googling that led to a good page by the Wildlife Trusts: www.wildlifetrusts.org/habitats/woodland/wet-woodland

Ray's new information made me realize that a wood in southeast Cornwall has quite a few examples of original 'carr' in it. There are wet areas with Grey willows, birch and alder trees (also wind-pollinated.) Two other plants mentioned on the Trust's 'Wet woodland' page: nettle and Great Willowherb, were until just recently growing well on the stream near the front gate. Some of the low land between the hills is so wet that it supports mossy bog. Sadly, the new owner has no interest in Britain's early plant-life and will merrily destroy ancient carr remnants just to make logging slightly easier: bit.ly/intoper

Nettle and Great Willowherb grew well on the stream below the wet woodland that was there.