the best thing about my job working as a conservation officer for Natural
Resources Wales is getting to come to fantastic sites like this in the Wye
Valley and actually getting to actively deliver practical conservation
management on the ground the Wye valley woodland is a special area of
conservation as a European designation and it's a series of about
16 woodlands scattered on the English and Welsh side of the river Wye running
from Chepstow out to Monmouth it covers an area of about 900 hectares
within these woodlands they've been designated for the beech woodland
in them the ash and lime woodland on the slopes on the river's edge and for
the yew woodland as well the woodlands are sectioned all the way up the Wye on
both the English and the Welsh side it's just a fantastic natural resource
that people use you've got the Wye valley walk runs through here you've got the
officia bike paths you get a lot of footfall through this area and the rest
of the Wye valley area of outstanding natural beauty the AONB covers 128
square miles from Herefordsire in the north or just southeast of Hereford in
Herefordshire down to Chepstow in the the south nationally designated
protected landscape and I managed the small team and there's five of us that
coordinate a lot of the conservation tourism recreational management
typically you've got two kinds of woodland you got conifer woodland and
broadleaf woodland conifer woodland consists of evergreen trees so conifers
pines things like that that don't shed their leaves typically and they're often
planted for timber production so if you look at them most will be planted in
rows they'll have a very sort of regimented fashion about them
broadleaf woodlands they naturally occur and those woodlands can look a little
bit more haphazard a bit like you've got here with trees sort of cropping up all
over but as you understand woodland's more you can look at them and you can
actually see historic management within them so this is a really good example of
the new woodland you get in the Wye valley so this really really old twisting
gnarled trees they've got sort of a brownish reddish tinge to the bark it's
an evergreen species so it doesn't lose its leaves the yew trees the leaves
all grow on a single plane going from side to side the other way you can
tell you trees well they're male and female but the female plants produces
lovely red berries which are kind of sticky we squeeze them birds like to eat
it's an incredibly long-lived species so it'll be longer live than any of the
other trees you get in these woodlands here we've got a little beach seedling
doesn't look much like a beach it's it's two things as dicotyledons as two leaves
so these these established into large mature beech trees they're big mature
trees that they've got generally relatively upright quite uniform the
main stem is kind of a grey bark and little bit like an elephant's leg so you
know when you've got beech trees in your woodland because if you're looking at
the ground floor level and on the ground floor there'll be a carpet of these of
brownish oranges leaves all over it as well as the nuts that the tree produces
so you get a lot of this in the leaf litter and this is a small lime tree on
the outline that the leaves won't look anything like this there'll be a heart
shape you've got this sort of fissuring in the bath a kind of a grayish stem and
this is an old coppice so this is now three big old stems beeen coppiced a
fair while ago now and that's your lime leaf there it's kind of
heart-shaped you've also got some ash seedlings
coming through as well so you can see the the leaf there of the ash and you
you want to see new regeneration of the canopy tree species so that in times of
in time when the older trees fall over or all go over or they're managed and
take them down there'll be a next generation to come through and reach up
into the canopy and maintain that wooden structure you know an ecologist will
know that you don't ever simply just go for a walk
nobody takes at least twice as long there's just so much to notice and to
look at you know for example I've got here a fallen tree it's gone down the
tree itself is dead and you can see this is quite quite soft very loose you'll
get beetles that bore into that they feed on it have a very long larval stage
because it's very hard to break down and get any useful nutrients from this
decaying heart but you've got all sorts in there you've got small little beetle
holes that I can see in the underside here is some here and some here so those
are probably where small beetles born into this and this has basically gone
through its life process and the murders an adult there's all sorts that goes on
and these dead woods so although it is dead wood it's actually alive and
bustling when you're walking through the woods you might come across a carpet of
what looks like white daisies these are actually an ancient wonder an indicator
species you only really get in semi natural ancient woodlands they don't
colonize new woodlands particularly easily they're actually called wood
anemone and they're from the Buttercup family though they're not yellow they're
actually white flowers they've got six petals they have tissue paper thin the
flowers are very delicate and they'll come into flower around April May time
some of the earliest flowering plants in a woodland and they
had a real nice bit of color to the ground floor in a woodland
here we've got a thick green carpet of wild garlic or Ramsoms
and literally as you step through it and you crush the leaves break the leaves
really gives off a smell of garlic so you know you're in garlic and it's not
in flower yet although this one is just starting to come out
they really delicately look like you're alliums you get at the garden if you're
a gardener and soon enough this will be a profusion of these pom-pom shaped
white flowers it's actually got several flowers to each plant you can see one
two three four so far be more where I came from so when it's fully in flower
other pollinators on there as well it's already getting in there collects
the pollen
okay so here's a common woodland species that most people will know it's the
Bluebell this is our native Bluebell there is however a non-native species of
a Spanish Bluebell the easiest way to tell the native Bluebell from the
Spanish Bluebell is that our native plants the head nods the flowers will
hang one way you've also got narrower leaves on the native Bluebell and there
are more of a purpley color whereas a Spanish Bluebell is actually a slightly
lighter shade of blue it's really good at Sears a nerdy flower species often
find some Queen bumblebees as they've just come out of emergence foraging on
this taking the the pollen from the plant we're so used to rear their first
brood of workers you've got a nice little cluster here of them it's called
muscatel it's a nice little woodland plant another little delicate one you
don't see it everywhere but then it's nice nice to find when you do see it so
it's got like one two three four it's like a square face of flowers and then
one on the top it looks a bit like I think that's why it's called clock tower
or something that looks a bit like Big Ben in the senss it's got the four faces
herb paris that's a beautiful plant so it's it's got four
leaves and a summer bulbs flower in the center of it you get patches of that
you'll just spot patches of it from time to time as you wander through woods and
some of got loads some you just get small patches of it all right so this is
a toothwort it's a parasitic plant which is why it's white it doesn't have
any chlorophyll it gets his energy from tapping into the root systems of Hazel's
other plants comes out early in the year it's got this these these flowers that
are sought thought to look like teeth hence the name toothwort the latin name
for this party means secret and that's because for most of the year you
wouldn't know this there it's only at this time of years with springtime and
April May time when it starts to come out the another one just here that's
coming through yes you realized that you've got the plants in the woods you
know I've seen the active conservation and enhancement of the the landscape and
features in it and you know communities coming together through things like the
Wye valley River festival that we ran last year there's a lot going on
meanwhile the trees are growing gently the you know the river flows by most
people think you know the place hasn't changed at all but it's all kind of
subtle evolution a landscape like this has you know these woodlands have
probably been managed for dunno five to eight thousand years if you were here
maybe two three hundred years ago four hundred years ago this was largely an
industrial landscape you know these these woodlands were coppiced on an
industrial scale there was huge amounts of river commerce trade up and down the
barges the boats taking produce up and down the valley so it would have the
valley would have looked completely different a couple hundred years ago to
how it does now you know and and this high high forest and canopy that we have
in the Wye valley woodlands now probably these woods haven't looked like this for
yeah for about eight thousand years if we want to get the value out of the
woodlands it's got to be managed and these are awkward woods to manage
because of the the steep topography you know the river needs to be managed
carefully it's a very natural river although there are Weir's and things
along it there is a right of navigation because of that historical transport and
commerce on the Wye it's also very popular for fishing but still also very
popular for canoeing so all of that needs careful management to avoid conflicts
hi I'm Phil Mundell one of the walk leaders in this area I'm interested
in history and I'm particularly interested in this area because it's rich
history you know we're standing in front of Giants cave and Giants cave is a you
know going back to what 1751 to - 1760 hole you know knocked through in order
to extend the walk from the house out the way back to just
above Chepstow just above the castle the alcove a beautiful walk created purely
for this for pleasure for the picturesque so that you come around
the corner and suddenly you're faced with a view like this as you walk
through this bit through the cave do you emerge the other side another view
another different scene as you as you come through and this is what it is all
of us and I I just find this area fascinating it's just a fact
III think the thing with with walking like this is that it did it affects all
the senses so you know you walk through the woods today for example you can hear
the birds in the trees you can see the views out here you can smell the
vegetation you know it's just fresh air if you walk if you're walking with a
group if there's another level as well because what you've got now is a social
side to it so if you watch a group walking walking through as we were on
Monday everybody's chatting in his little
groups and the groups are changing and it's a social a social event if you're
running on a treadmill in a gym like there's nothing more soul-destroying
watching a television watching something you don't actually want to watch I know
this is this is the life of me this is the way you keep it free
it's remarkable actually how walking can can make such a difference to health
Helen and I would walk with a group called walking for health on a Monday and we've
over three years we've watched how people have improved in fitness you know
week on week you watch we've steadily steadily improve until you know it makes
a huge difference to health.
I'm Helen and I've lived in the area and have done for over 20 odd years I'm
Secretary of "Chepstow walkers are welcome" I used to help here and still
do organize the Monmouthshire Walking Festival to bring people into the area
and to show them what we have here although the Wye Valley has always been a
center of tourism that was way back in the 17th century it's it's just lovely
to bring people here and to help the businesses flourish as well and I
worked in the police force for 35 years and didn't really have time to
walk that properly but it is a way of just leaving everything behind and you
can look at a view or listen to a bird or whatever and and you can forget all
your you know things that are going on really about you I've got a couple of
holiday lets and I've certainly seen an increase over the last five years with
the coverage that we've had with the press television even to escape to the
country where people come and buy houses in the area I mean obviously we've got
Chepstow castle as the oldest stone castle in Wales and Tintern they come to
walk they come to cycle they come to canoe the river there's just a massive
but everyone that does come says there is so much to do and they often return I
think I heard a quote once it's like a good recipe you want to share it with
everybody else and that's exactly what how I feel about Monmouthshire and the Wye valley
Walking a big part of of tourism here I mean we reckon we get about 2
million I think 2.2 million visitor days in the
Wye valley per annum it's about it's about 1.4 million visitors to the to the AONB
and most of those are just here because all the countryside the landscape the
opportunities for quiet recreation the Wye valley area of outstanding natural beauty
has a lot of tourism as a result of the beautiful settings the history of this
area the important wildlife that you get in
here you get a lot of people come through and and tourism is worth an
awful lot of money to the Welsh economy so I like to think I do my little bit by
keeping these woodlands nice making people want to come and see them and
witness the fantastic wildlife you've got here so when you're next out with
your friends your family your children in the natural environment so take the
time to enjoy the senses the smells the sights you can hear and explore it
understand that it's there's so much to learn about the natural environment
you'll never know it all but you know this if there's things that you don't
know is it's good to be inquisitive and want to learn more so you know there's
there's ways you can find stuff at you take a picture with your phone you can
check it online and back at home on the internet you can you can tweet us you
can tweet you know your local record center you can send the photos into your
museum whoever it may be but I think it's important that people should should
care about the natural environment and want to learn about it want to
understand it and and value it as much as they possibly can.
Trees Woods Forests