Burnt Wood

Burnt Wood

Owned by the Forestry Commission the reserve at Burnt Wood is a surviving remnant of a previously much larger series of ancient woodlands.

Highlights

• With a good network of paths you can walk between the ancient oak woodland and more recent conifer plantations and see how the two habitats vary

• Not all tree felling is bad for wildlife - the Forestry Commission have a long term plan to harvest the conifers and restore the plantations back to oak woodland.

Small pieces in a bigger puzzle

Burnt Wood is a remnant of a far bigger ancient oak woodland, which once covered much of this part of Staffordshire. The reserve covers four separate woodland blocks within the Burnt Wood complex – the remainder of the site was clear felled and planted with conifers in the 1930's. The Forestry Commission have embarked on a long-term plan to restore these conifer blocks back to broadleaf woodland.

The answer's in the soil

The woods were once coppiced to provide fuel for glass making and you can still see some of the large old oak coppice stools. Given the sandy soils, the ground flora in these areas is dominated by bilberry, heather, bracken, wavy hair grass and an area of common cow wheat. Visitors may notice a more diverse flora in less free-draining areas with species such as hazel, blackthorn, aspen and wild cherry. Plants such as bluebells, wood sorrel, yellow archangel and honeysuckle are widespread in these areas.

A band of underlying clay along the brook provides a distinct contrast of flora with the sandier areas. This can be best viewed on the diverse damp flushes of the butterfly glade and ride where you may find grey willow, alder, alder buckthorn and guelder rose. The ground flora, however, provides the greatest show with colourful plants such as meadowsweet, ragged robin, marsh violet, primrose, betony and common spotted orchid. Dormice were rediscovered in the firning woodlands around the glade 2001. Please take extra care not to disturb any nest boxes.

Beautiful butterflies

The woodland is most famous for its variety of insects - particularly butterflies & moths - with a remarkable list of over 400 recorded species. It's fairly easy to spot butterflies such as orange tip, common blue and speckled wood and, in hot summers, an abundance of painted ladies. Brimstone butterlfies are common on the glade where there is an abundance of their food plant alder buckthorn. More elusive, however, is the beautiful purple hairstreak which spends most of its life in the canopy of mature oak trees. More skill is required to identify the large variety of moths, but they do have wonderful names such as the golden rod brindle, bilberry pug and the beautiful snout.

Watch where you're treading!

This is also one of the best places to see reptiles as the woodland is home to grass snake, adder, slow worm and common lizard. The grass snakes can sometimes be seen on the pond at the southern end of the reserve.