sound on! this is Cah Wood, an ancient woodland in Co. Derry. the amount of life here is dazzling- underpinned by a natural tree canopy, complex understory and thousands of woodland wildflowers (thread)

unfortunately only a small wedge of natural woodland survives at Cah- most of the ancient woodland has been converted to a commercial conifer plantation. the unnaturally dark canopy removes the complex understory and wildflowers

this site needs to be restored. when you remove the dense shade, native trees can bounce back, along with the understory shrubs and wildflowers. you can see how these ash (light green leaves in the middle) have sprung back to life in a canopy gap

ecologically, restoring sites like Cah is much better than creating new woodland - lots of specialised wildlife survives in the old woodland soils, remnant vegetation and deadwood. species like this weird bird's-nest orchid might not colonise new woodland for centuries (if ever)

old woods also often have their own archaeology: at Cah, the ancient bit is surrounded on 3 sides by wood banks. these are boundary bank and ditch structures that kept livestock out in the past (to protect coppice regrowth from browsing) ~

as if that wasn't enough, they store extra soil carbon: broadleaved trees transfer loads of carbon into the subsoil, which can take 100s of yrs to deplete following conversion to conifer plantation. restoring wdland prevents this key C store from emptying https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.13387

Coillte (Ireland's main forestry body) are consulting on their 5 year. this is a great opportunity to put restoring old woods on the agenda. if based in Ireland, pls consider supporting by downloading https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jptsBsFXGUjanbJf5P6bEVsVxo7aQaNW/view adding name, and emailing to [email protected]