Nine activities with key questions to take learning further and trigger

debate on wider conservation issues

A useful and practical resource for practitioners leading

woodland activities in Wales

Unlock the

Woodlandkeys

outdoors with

Woodland keys contents

Key 1 - Lines on the landscape

Take poetic inspiration from your natural surroundings

Key 2 - Folk tales: just a thing of the past? Stories of angels, elves and druids

Key 3 - Signs of succession Go on a journey from bare rock to lush woodland

Key 4 - Light = life Discover how healthy your woodland is

Key 5 - A strange relationship A game to explore the complexities of the life of a lichen

Key 6 - The shapes of nature Take a close look at some of the woodland’s quirkiest inhabitants

Key 7 - Quick air quality check Use lichens as indicators of air pollution

Key 8 - Natural navigation Investigate whether plants can lead you through the landscape

Key 9 - Woodlands and water management Is there a role for woodlands in the fight against flooding?

Wales’ Atlantic woodlands, such as those along the western coast and a short way inland like the Meirionnydd Oakwoods, provide favourable growing conditions for plants such as lichens, mosses and ferns.

This damp environment has just the right levels of light, moisture, warmth, and age of trees, to enable a huge variety of species to thrive. These woodlands, sometimes described as Celtic Rainforest, are very sensitive to the impact of pollution and changes in how they are managed.

Key ideasThis pack is designed for use by practitioners leading woodland activities. Each activity starts with a key idea, the exploration of which will increase people’s knowledge of the woodland habitat and encourage investigation. The accompanying key questions are discussion points to help you take the learning further and trigger debate on wider conservation issues, culture and social responsibility. This joined-up thinking is encouraged by Wales’ Well-Being of Future Generations Act.

The Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) ActThis Act aims to create a sustainable, secure future for Wales by placing a duty on public bodies (including Welsh Ministers) to put long-term social, economic, cultural and environmental well-being at the forefront of their thinking. Although only public bodies are bound by the Act, it challenges all of us to think more about the long-term, recognise that prevention is better than cure, collaborate more, work better with people and communities and take a more joined-up approach.

The Act also sets out seven interdependent Well-Being Goals for a healthier, resilient, prosperous, more equal, and globally-responsible Wales. A healthy and well-understood natural environment has an important part to play in delivering all of these. Find out more by visiting www.gov.Wales

Woodland keys | Introduction

Woodland keysIntroduction

Lichens are a combination of fungi and either algae or cyanobacteria (a special group of bacteria). The algae provides food through a process called photosynthesis (using the energy from sunlight to make glucose from carbon dioxide and water). The fungus provides a protective body, shielding the algae from UV rays from the sun and retaining moisture. The fungi can also unlock minerals from the ground and chemicals from the air for the lichen as a whole to use.

Lichens provide food and homes for a range of invertebrates including snails. They can grow on a variety of surfaces – even old cars and leather!

Mosses are ancient and small plants that do not need thick layers of soil in order to grow. They produce food through photosynthesis (transforming light energy from the sun into carbohydrates) and provide a habitat for tiny invertebrates, most of which are too small to be seen without magnification. Mosses can hold up to 10 times their dry weight in water.

Key facts to help get you startedDetach this card and use it to refer to when learning about lichens and mosses

Woodland keys | Key facts

Common greenshield lichen Flavoparmelia caperata

© Beth Halski/Plantlife

Tree lungwort Lobaria pulmonaria © Ray Woods/Plantlife

Lichen

Lichen

Moss

A moss on a tree stump © Grace Powell

Cypress-leaved plaitmoss Hypnum cupressiforme © Dominic Price/Plantlife

Lob scrob Lobaria scrobiculata © Ray Woods/Plantlife

Moss

Lichen

Lichens and mosses come in a huge range of shapes, colours and sizes

Key idea

Natural landscapes, and the plants and animals within them, have had a significant impact on the development of our culture. Poets have long used the landscape as inspiration for their writing.

Try these activities...

• Read out the lines from these 19th-century poets who took inspiration from the Welsh landscape. What are they saying about nature in each poem? What kind of images are they creating in the mind of the listener? Are they using nature to express a thought or emotion?

• Tell the group they are going to create their own poem to evoke the atmosphere of the woodlands they are in.

• Show them something you have found in the woods (a stick, stone, seed etc). Pass it round the group and ask them to use all of their senses to come up with words that could describe its smell, what it feels like, what it looks like, how it might taste and its sound.

• Now ask individuals to find an object of interest to them in the woods, or a view they like, and come up with some descriptive words. Get the group into pairs, and ask them to share their descriptive words with each other.

• As a whole group, discuss the kind of things you might write about in a poem based on their observations.

• Ask small groups to write two lines each of a poem (a couplet); or maybe two couplets depending on the group and available time. Lines should be 10 syllables long to give the poem a regular rhythm.

• Sit together in a circle and read out the couplets in turn. One person should either video the result or write it down to share later.

Lines on the landscape | Key 1

Lineslandscape

on the1

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Lichen-laden boughs © Ian Macmillan

Taking inspiration from the Welsh landscape

The Old Oak Tree | W H Davies © W H Davies

I sit beneath your leaves, old oak,You mighty one of all the trees;Within whose hollow trunk a manCould stable his big horse with ease.

I see your knuckles hard and strong,But have no fear they’ll come to blows;Your life is long, and mine is short,But which has known the greater woes?

Thou has not seen starved women here,Or man gone mad because ill-fed –Who stares at stones in city streets,Mistaking them for hunks of bread.

Thou hast not felt the shivering backsOf homeless children lying downAnd sleeping in the cold, night air –Like doors and walls in London town.

Knowing thou hast not known such shame,And only storms have come thy way,Methinks I could in comfort spendMy summer with thee, day by day.

To lie by day in thy green shade,And in thy hollow rest at night;And through the open doorway seeThe stars turn over leaves of light

Lines on the landscape | Key 1

Taking inspiration from the Welsh landscape

Lines on the landscape | Key 1

Hawthorn and blackthorn festooned with moss

and lichen© Barbara Brown

A Trip to the Woods | Elin Gent © Elin Gent

Amongst the wondrous woods I strollUpon a sunlit day,Catkins hang from willows,The bluebells all a-sway.Ash trees bow to welcome guestsWhile holly swings in the breeze,Fragile violets standing proudEncircling budding trees.

My mind revisits earlier scenesOf autumn and winter-tide:Blackberries bursting, bitter-sweet juice,While in cases chestnuts hide;Prickly conkers tumble down,Spongy fungus cushions the earth,And with the abundance of acornsThe oak trees promise new birth.

And I wonder at the cycleOf our woodlands, always there,An eternal destination,A marvel we all share.

Courtesy of Coastlands CP Primary School and The Woodland Trust

naturetouch

CREVICE

TASTECONJURE

smell

feelingthink

WOOD

JOINTS

creep

imagesFRESH

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Lines on the landscape – Key questions

Lines on the landscape | Key 1

Using nature to aid navigation

© Rachel Jones/Plantlife

Picking berries

© Plantlife

Bark rubbing © Simon Hammond

1. Does nature still have a role to play in modern culture (pop music, objects around your home, magazines, books, food you eat, TV programmes)?

2. How is nature represented in the media and who is nature programming content aimed at (for example, cute and fluffy, things going wrong in nature, global warming; aimed at children, adults, middle aged)?

3. How do we as individuals value, utilise or celebrate nature (for example in art, how we spend our leisure time, products like cosmetics)?

4. Have any of the group’s views of nature changed through their experience today?

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Key idea In the past, our close association with the natural world has influenced our way of life, and stories and beliefs have emerged that have shaped our behaviour.

Try this activity...

• There are many folk tales about plants in our woodlands. See if you can find any of these plants and share the stories about them.

Blackberry It was considered to be bad luck to eat or collect

blackberries after 10 October, as on that day Lucifer (the Devil) lost a battle with the Archangel Michael and fell from heaven on to a blackberry bush, where he cursed and spat on it. This rule is still kept to by some pickers as a build-up of tannins in the fruit can make them bitter by autumn; and as the weather gets wetter, fungal spores grow on the fruit too.

Oak tree A typical tree of Atlantic woodlands, the oak is the King of

the Woods and the ash his Queen. Oaks can live for more than 300 years and tower over the majority of other trees. Due to their size, strength and longevity, oak trees were revered by the Druids who used oak groves as places of worship. Their name comes from ‘druir’, the Celtic for oak, which also means door. Oak woodlands were thought to be magical doorways to other worlds.

Folk tales: just a thing of

the past?

Folk tales: just a thing of the past? | Key 2

An ancient oak tree © Paul Rutter/Plantlife

Blackberries © Beth Halski/Plantlife

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HawthornThe hawthorn is steeped in folklore. Places where it grows together with oak and ash were meant to be part of fairy land. The five parts of the leaf were said to make the pentagram or Elven Cross, a magical symbol. Its time of flowering is meant to herald the coming of spring. In pre-Christian celebrations, the hawthorn (also known as the maythorn) was the original maypole, and so has strong associations with fertility and regrowth.

Folk tales: just a thing of the past? | Key 2

Folk tales – Key questions

Hawthorn © Andrew Gagg/Plantlife

The Green Man has been used as a symbol of fertility and regrowth for hundreds of years. Often seen on churches and old buildings, the

face is made from leaves and foliage. Green Man © Katie Cameron/Plantlife

21. Ways of life were very

different at the time that these tales were first told. Why did stories and beliefs like these come about (for example, the need to explain things that we don’t understand, keeping people healthy and safe, methods of controlling or influencing behaviour)?

2. Do these traditional tales and beliefs have any meaning in our modern society? Are they still relevant and do people believe in them?

3. Does the woodland you are in feel magical in any way? Do some places in the woodland feel more magical than others? Can you explain these feelings?

4. We sometimes call modern folklore ‘urban myths’. What examples of modern folklore can people think of? Are any associated with the natural world or do they tend to focus on other topics? Why is this?

Key idea (do not share the key idea until later in the activity)

Succession is the process by which nature transforms bare rock or bare earth into woodland over a long period of time. Lichens do not need soil in order to grow and can live on bare rock. When they die, they produce small quantities of soil which mosses can grow on. As more lichens and mosses grow and die, further soil is produced, allowing small and then larger plants and trees to grow.

Try these activities...

• In groups, find examples of the following six woodland features and mark them with a coat, rucksack etc so they can find them again easily (don’t read the list out in this order):

Signs ofsuccession

Signs of succession | Key 3

R O CK W IT H LIC H ENS

S H R U B S

R O CK W I T H M OSS

T R E ES

B A R E R O C K

GR

ASS AN D F L O W E R IN G PLANTS

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Signs of succession – Key questions

Signs of succession | Key 3

A woodlouse © Mick Talbot, Non Commercial

Share Alike 2.0 Generic

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31. What do humans do that can

affect or disrupt this process of natural succession (for example, cut down trees, grazing, farming, pollution)?

2. What natural occurrences take place that affect succession (for example, deer browsing, storms, floods, fire, diseases such as ash dieback)?

3. What would happen if we stopped managing the landscape around us? Use the landscape you can see as a starting point for this

discussion. What evidence can you see that the land is managed (fences, dry stone walls, pasture, footpaths, coppicing), and how would the land change if this stopped? Would this be a good or bad thing for nature?

4. We all impact upon the people and things around us. How do you impact on your environment and what legacy would you like to leave for the future (for example, have you picked up or dropped any litter? Have you helped someone who was in need)?

Ask groups to make sense of the given features and place them in some kind of order.

Get groups to share their sequences and explain their choices. What is the story here?

Share the concept of natural succession (use A Story of Succession which follows, if it is appropriate for your group).

How exactly do plants become soil? Fungi and small creatures break them down.

Look under a log. Can you find any woodlice? Woodlice and other small invertebrates break down dead plant material.

Can you see any fine white lines in the soil that look like spiders’ webs? These are fungal hyphae (the bit of a fungus below the ground that you can’t usually see). Fungi get energy from breaking down dead plant material. Make sure you place the log carefully back the way it was lying.

Signs of succession | Key 3

A story of succession

Long ago, the world was ruled by the Rock people and there was no one else. In time, tiny living things blew in on the wind and landed like dust on the rocks. Slowly they grew, spreading themselves, flat and grey, across the rocks, whispering all the time “grow, grow”.

Slowly, steadily, the Lichen people grew across the rocky landscape needing only the sun and the rain. When the Lichen people became old, they made a tiny bit of soil which fell into the cracks in the rock which were made by the ice.

Now was the time for more creatures to arrive and these were bigger and faster moving than the Lichen people, and grew across the soil in a slow green wave. These were the Moss people who chanted “grow faster, grow faster” and shaded out the Lichen people, who moved on to rocks in sunnier spots. When the Moss people grew old and died, they became soil. Then the wind brought seeds which landed upon this soil.

The Grass people were the first to arrive chanting “grow fast day and night to reach the light”. They grew tall and shaded out the Moss people who liked the shade but needed some light. When they died, the grasses made more soil which covered the rocks and brought in the trees, small at first but growing larger over time.

These days, people visit the woods and walk and camp under the tall trees. They don’t realise that a very long time ago, there was nothing here but the rocks and that it needed the smallest of living things, the lichens, followed by mosses and grasses, to enable the tall trees to grow. That was all a very long time ago.

(Concept taken from www.naturestory.com/teachingsciencew.html)

Signs of succession | Key 3

A red-tipped Cladonia lichen growing with moss

© Tim Wilkins/Plantlife

Did you know? There are lots of different sorts of Cladonia which have a

wide range of uses, from reindeer fodder through to pharmaceutical products.

Light = life

Light = life | Key 4

Key idea Healthy woodlands contain many more types of plants than just trees and are made up of different plant layers. These layers can tell us whether a woodland is likely to contain a diverse range of plant and animal life.

Try these activities... Invite the group to take a look at the woodland around them.

In addition to the trees, can they identify any other types of plants growing there (for example, shrubs like holly or hawthorn, flowering plants, grasses, moss, fungi, climbers like ivy and clematis)?

Explain that woodlands are made up of different plant layers.

These layers are:

Canopy (tops of tallest, mature trees)

Understorey (shrubs and saplings)

Field layer (ferns, grasses, wild flowers)

Ground layer (mosses, ivy, fungi)

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41. How would you assess the

health of your woodland based on what you have discussed so far? - All layers are present: woodland

supports a wide range of plant and animal life = healthy woodland.

- Canopy layer only: woodland supports only a few animals = unhealthy woodland.

2. What impact do you think the types of trees that make up the canopy layer will have on the plants that grow beneath the canopy? (Do all trees let the same amount of light to the ground? Some trees are evergreen or have

very dense, long-lasting foliage, so what impact will this have?)

3. If a couple of trees in your woodland fell down due to age/wind, what impact would this have on the other plants growing in the woods? (Increase in light at ground level leading to growth at ground, field and shrub layers.)

4. If you are in deciduous woodland, are there times of the year that you are more likely to see lots of plants at the field layer? When would this be? (Spring, before leaves come out on the trees.)

Light = life - Key questions

Now ask the group if they can easily identify each of the layers in the woodland you are in. It might not be possible to see all of the layers. For example, there may only be a few shrubs or no plants at field layer.

NB: if you are in a conifer plantation or a predominantly beech woodland, you will most likely only be able to find a canopy layer or canopy and sparse ground layer due to low light levels. A dense canopy with little light reaching the forest floor will severely inhibit the growth of smaller plants of the understorey, field and ground layers.

Animals use woodlands as places to shelter from predators, rear young and find food. What animal life do they associate with each of the woodland layers? For example, birds might nest in the canopy or shrub layer and feed at the ground layer (invertebrates) and shrub layer (berries). What animals can the group think of that are associated with each of the woodland layers?

Light = life | Key 4

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A strangerelationship

A strange relationship | Key 5

Key idea Lichens are complex and sensitive organisms that need specific environmental conditions to reproduce and survive.

Try this activity... Explain what a lichen is (use the key facts at the beginning of this pack)

Lichen reproduction is complicated and can be:

Asexual/vegetative – they produce a clone of themselves, or release into the atmosphere tiny bundles of algal and fungal cells which have the ability to form new lichen.

Sexual – they release fungal spores into the air, which need to find algal or cyanobacteria spores already existing in the environment in order to form a lichen. There are many hundreds of different fungi that make up lichens and a much smaller number of different algae or cyanobacteria. In order to reproduce, the correct combination of algal, cyanobacteria and fungal spores need to meet up on a surface suitable to grow on, in a suitable environment.

Bory matted lichen Pannaria rubiginosa

© Tracey Lovering/Plantlife

Crottle Parmelia saxatilis

© Tracey Lovering/Plantlife

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The round fruiting bodies or ‘jam tarts’ on these lichens release fungal spores into the air

A strange relationship | Key 5

51. If organisms like lichens are

so sensitive to change around them such as climate change and changes in light levels, how can we use this to our advantage? (for example, scientific research: how could it be carried out and what could it tell us?).

2. Should we bother to conserve species such as lichens? Does it matter if they die out? What impact would it have if there were no more lichens?

Lichens provide food and shelter for other creatures. They can tell us how polluted our air is and can colonise new land, helping other plants to grow there too.

3. As a society, why do we seem to care more about threatened mammals such as pandas and dormice than endangered plants such as juniper and some lichens? How can/should we prioritise species to conserve?

A strange relationship – Key questions

Lichen reproduction – a game of chanceRound 1: A quarter of the group are ‘trees’ and should arrange themselves to make a woodland.The remaining three-quarters of the group should become algal or fungal spores at a ratio of three fungi to every alga (or thereabouts). Allocate fungus or alga in secret so that only the individuals know what they are. The spores must blow around on the wind and at a given command must pair up (one alga and one fungus) and find a tree to grow on. Spare spores that couldn’t make a pair will drop to the ground and die.With so many spores dying before meeting partners, how do lichens ensure their survival? They produce many thousands of spores.

Round 2: Rearrange the woodland so that some of the trees are growing very closely together and other trees have more space around them. Use the dead spores from the previous round as extra trees. Reallocate the remaining spores (again in secret and at a ratio of two fungi to every alga), which must blow around on the wind.At the command, the spores must find a suitable partner, and find a tree to grow on. This time, those that land on the trees in the dense woodland, as well as those who did not find a partner, will die. Those that land on the trees with more space around them will survive. Ask the group why this has happened this time. How have the conditions in the woodland changed and what impact has this had on the lichens? The dense woodland has become very dark and lichens need good levels of sunlight in order to survive.

The shapes of

natureKey idea Living things in nature come in varying forms. Lichens come in a host of shapes, sizes and colours. If we can determine the shape of the lichen, we can begin to identify it.

Try these activities... Explain what a lichen is (use the key facts at the beginning of this pack)

In some Atlantic woodlands in the South West, over 300 species of lichen have been recorded. This is too many for most people to learn, but we can start to identify lichens by their shape.

Can you find any of these three lichen shapes growing in the woods?

- Crustose lichens grow along the bark and are attached so closely that you could not separate them from the tree without removing the bark. Often they look like crusty patches on the trunks of trees, but on closer examination they are things of beauty. They can form intricate mosaics of squiggles, dots and ‘jam tarts’ (round fruiting bodies). A white patch might be a script lichen (right), so called because its fruiting bodies look like squiggly writing.

- Foliose lichens, as the name suggests, are leafy in shape. They grow fairly close to the bark and are often one colour on the top surface and a different colour underneath. This large, often dinner plate-sized, lichen (right) is called Flavoparmelia caperata. It’s a distinctive apple-green colour and can be spotted growing on tree trunks from some distance.

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Script lichen Graphis scripta

© Luke Morton/Plantlife

Common greenshield lichen Flavoparmelia caperata

© Beth Halski/Plantlife

The shapes of nature | Key 6

The shapes of nature | Key 6

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1. Why do animals and plants in nature come in such a wide variety of shapes and sizes? For example, why do we have so many different types of bird? (Plants and animals need to adapt to survive changing environmental conditions such as habitat loss. Some of these changes, in behaviour for example, can happen within a generation, whereas others may take many centuries to occur).

2. Often attributed to Charles Darwin are the words: “It is not the strongest of the species, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one most adaptable to change.” How has the group adapted to the environment that they are in now (ie, woodland) when it is so different to their usual habitat? How has their behaviour changed and what have they needed to bring with them to keep them safe and comfortable?

The shapes of nature – Key questions

- Fruticose lichens grow only in the cleanest air. Some of these shrubby lichens are high in vitamin C, but huge quantities would have to be eaten to gain any benefit. However, our bodies aren’t designed to digest lichens, so you would probably end up with a severe stomach ache. Look on the branches of trees for these lichens, which will either stick up in the air like little shrubs or droop like beards. This beard lichen Usnea florida (above right) has the rather unflattering common name, witches’ whiskers. The fruiting bodies also look like little suns, with rays pointing in all directions!

Now look at a twig or tree trunk. How many different lichens can you spot? Can you see each of the three shapes we have looked at?

crustose = crusty foliose = leafy fruticose = shrubby

Witches’ whiskers lichen Usnea florida

© Ray Woods/Plantlife

Quick air quality

check

Quick air quality check | Key 7

Key idea Organisms such as lichens are particularly sensitive and can tell us a lot about the environmental conditions of a place. For example, they can tell us about air quality.

Is the air clean here or is it polluted?

As a general rule, shrubby lichens like this one on the right will only grow where the air quality is very good. They cannot cope with a polluted atmosphere.

Other species, like the yellow lichen below with round fruits and wide lobes, tolerate higher levels of nitrogen in the air and are often described as ‘nitrogen loving’.

Some lichens can tolerate higher levels of sulphur. Many of these species are beginning to decline as sulphur levels in the air are falling. Nitrogen levels, however, are increasing, due to intensive farming and vehicle exhaust fumes, among other pollutants. Where pollution levels are very high, algae can be found growing over lichens which can smother and kill them.

Try these activities... Have a quick look at the branches and trunks of

two trees in the immediate surroundings and note:

- Are there any shrubby lichens growing there?

- Are there any of the yellow lichens?

Come together with your findings and make an assessment of the air quality in this woodland. Can you account for your findings? Why is the air here polluted/clean?

Common orange lichen Xanthoria parietina

© Tab Tannery, Non Commercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Dotted ribbon lichen Ramalina fastigiata

© Jenny Seawright/www.irishlichens.ie and www.dorsetnature.co.uk/Dorset-

lichen.html

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Quick air quality check | Key 7

The presence of shrubby lichens

shows that the air quality is good

© Mary Holland

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1. What will the main sources of air pollution be and can you see any evidence of these sources around you now (for example, use of fertilisers in farming, emissions from cars and factories)?

2. How can the knowledge that lichens are indicators of air pollution help scientists and conservationists? How is it useful? (There have been changes in air quality if clean air lichens suddenly die out.)

3. Where the air is currently very clean, is there anything that we can do to protect those areas to ensure the survival of pollution-sensitive species (for example, prevent new industry in places of clean air)?

4. Which lichen species would the group expect to see where they live and why?

Quick air quality check – Key questions

Naturalnavigation

Natural navigation | Key 8

Key idea Plants like mosses need particular conditions for growth. They can tell us a huge amount of information about where they are growing and even about the wider environment. They might even help us navigate around a landscape.

Try these activities... Send the group into the woods to find mosses

growing at three locations and make observations about what the conditions are like – for example, how warm/cool, how light/dark, how dry/moist it is in the surrounding area. When they are back together, ask the group to describe the conditions that they think mosses need to grow.

Arrange four people into the points of a compass (you can orientate them if you have a compass to hand). Ask the group to describe the conditions that they associate with the north and south compass points.

- Which sides of trees would the group expect the mosses to be growing on?

- Send the group to investigate. Did they find that mosses tend to grow on one particular side of trees?

Investigating moss growth on trees

© Rachel Jones/Plantlife

Wood bristle-moss Orthotrichum affine

© Dominic Price/Plantlife

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Natural navigation | Key 8

81. If mosses tend to grow on

the north side of trees where conditions are cooler and damper, could we possibly use this information to guide us if we were lost?

2. Where moss was found growing on sides other than the north, what environmental factors would affect how moist an area was? (For example, water run-off from an overhanging branch, water flowing down a slope, evaporation of water from the ground, deep crevices in bark that retain moisture.)

3. How reliable is natural navigation and what rules could we come up with that could help to minimise error?

4. What other plants might help us to decide on a path to take in the landscape (for example, rushes mean that the ground is very wet, gorse might indicate that the ground is steep)?

Natural navigation – Key questions

Which side of the tree is

moss growing on?

© Beth Halski/Plantlife

Rushes mean wet ground © Andrew Gagg/Plantlife

Woodlands and water

management

Woodlands and water management | Key 9

Key idea Flooding has become a major problem in the UK in recent years, especially in the South West. Housing and businesses have been flooded, as has farmed land, and flooding has damaged infrastructure such as roads and railways. Woodlands have been identified as one potential tool in water management.

Try these activities... This activity is best done in an area where there

is a stream. Send small groups to walk around the woodlands and consider all the places within the woods where water is stored. As a whole group, see how many places you can identify, for example:

- Within the ground (soil).

- In plants and fungi.

- Root systems, leaves, branches and trunks of trees. Per day, an oak tree can take up around 230 litres of water through its roots. On a hot day, 450 litres might be lost through the leaves (transpiration) but on a cold day, almost no water will be lost.

- Moss (mosses can absorb up to 10 times their weight in water, which is like a 64kg (10 stone) person carrying a brown bear).

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An oak tree can take up over 200 litres of water a day

© Juliet Edmunds

Mosses can absorb up to 10 times their weight in water

© Matthew O’Connell

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As well as storing water, trees have other beneficial effects on flood management:

- Interception is where water is held on the leaves of trees, branches, and trunks of trees during and after rainfall. This evaporates directly into the atmosphere without getting to ground level.

- Stabilising the ground with roots so that surface water run-off does not carry sediment and exacerbate flooding.

- Slowing the flow of water in a flood situation where woodlands are planted in the riparian area (wet/dry area where a river meets land). Water is quickly absorbed into the ground in a woodland and is taken slowly through the ground to rivers. Water travelling across the top of the ground (for example, on concrete) moves much more quickly and can overwhelm streams and rivers.

Can the group see any evidence of flooding in the area (flattened vegetation by the stream, muddy areas, tide line of materials washed up by the stream, silt-covered vegetation near to the stream)?

What impact would flooding have in the area you are in at the moment? Think about small floods and larger floods (destruction of vegetation, closing roads and footpaths, loss of habitat for animals).

Woodlands and water management | Key 9

Flooding causes loss of habitat for animals

© Gary Tanner, Non Commercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic

What impact would a flood

have in your area?

© Mark Robinson, Non Commercial Share

Alike 2.0 Generic

Roads and footpaths are closed © Jon Whitton, Non Commercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic

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Ceunant Cynfal, Gwynedd © Colin Cheesman/Plantlife

Woodlands and water management | Key 9

9Woodlands and water management – Key questions

1. If woodland creation could potentially reduce the risk of flooding, why not plant lots of woodlands around rivers and their floodplains? (Conflict with landowners; land might be used for other purposes already, such as housing and farming; cost of planting and managing woods.)

2. What barriers might there be to mass-scale woodland creation? (Financial, political, community opposition.)

3. Who might it impact upon and how? (Residents of an area, farmers, landowners, businesses.)

Plantlife CymruWild flowers, plants and fungi play a fundamental role for wildlife and their colour and character light up our landscapes. But without our help, this priceless natural heritage is in danger of being lost.

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