Charing Alderbed












14th December

Originally I planned to go back to Hothfields Heathlands near Ashford to retread my steps to see what else has developed but my parents needed my car for something else and had no time to come with me. So instead I've gone to the Charing Playing Fields as there is a nature reserve called the Charing Alderbed, a boggy area that gets its name from the number of Alder trees that grow there. In Springtime an abundance of wild garlic grows and it is beautiful.


For several months the Alderbed was closed off as an outbreak of Ash dieback made the trees unsafe and 50 Ash trees were cut down. It was reopened 10 days ago and I just found out. So I went inside on my own.



The first thing I noticed was that there were logs tied together with metal string and this was to give beetles a home.


As I walked around the Alderbed I noticed a lot of stumps and logs around, some of which were hollowed out completely. This was because the trees rotted from the inside, was this a result of the Ash tree dieback?


There were also a number of ash piles indicating that a lot of burning of wood, probably from the dead trees which was done before the nature reserve was reopened.


I could hear the tweets of birds but I couldn't see them clearly. I noticed just one birdhouse in the wetlands. Maybe there are more and I haven't seen them.


Last but not least I saw a number of trees that look very young and I believe that these were to replace the ones that died out. The Woodland Trust were consulted and their advice is to plant two younger trees for everyone that was felled. Why plant that many which could overcrowd the area? I don't know. Either way, these trees will take years before they grow to the much larger trees I remember.


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