Mud, mud glorious mud. If you feel the need to wade and wallow in gloopy, sticky, slippery mud, Finemere Wood is the place to be. There has been so much rain over recent months, natural ponds have appeared in dips in the footways and many of the paths through the wood present challenges to even the sure-footed. And yet the volunteers struggle on regardless.

As we wait in anticipation of spring, and its biotic boom, energies are channelled to managing great thickets of blackthorn. Out on the edge of the Finemere meadows, a footpath meanders through an area of relatively new woodland, planted some 20 years ago.

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) grows densely along much of the path, blocking out sunlight, it is becoming dark and gloomy. The trees are slender and very tall, their upper branches twisted and entwined with adjacent plants. There is little growth at the base of the blackthorn.

Amidst this entangled jungle of fiercely thorny vegetation, the woodland workers slip and slosh in mud as they lay a section of Prunus spinosa. Partially cutting through the stem a few inches above the ground, allows the tree to be pushed over on to an ever-growing pile of fallen blackthorn. This is conservation laying, the benefits of which are numerous.

The blackthorn trees are given a new lease of life. From the cut stems, new shoots explode, providing young growth where the rare brown hairstreak butterfly may lay its eggs. The trees will continue to flower, and produce sloes, despite their horizontal stance, feeding many a wild thing.

The interwoven pile of Prunus spinosa is now a thick, compact hedge where birds will nest and small mammals will live, protected from predators by a thick mesh of thorns. And, the path, no longer shadowed by tall trees, will be bathed in sunlight allowing flowers and grasses to bloom, biodiversity will soar.

Mission accomplished, the volunteers stagger through the mud, limbs aching from wrestling tangled, spiky branches. Dishevelled, damp and grimy, they look a sorry state. But still they smile and laugh and I don’t doubt they will be back for more of the same in a couple of weeks.

More than 1,700 volunteers help us towards our vision of more nature everywhere, on our nature reserves, at our visitor and education centres, in our offices and more.

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