I would like to reply to the unfavourable comments about woodland work at Teddy Heights (Letters, February 25, 'Buzz blights our county'), on behalf of the Arnside/Silverdale AONB Landscape Trust, which owns and manages this site.

A mature wood has a wide range of habitats, tree species and tree ages with high biodiversity, which meant a very productive ecosystem, capturing carbon, controlling rainfall events, providing clean air. Teddy Heights is not like this.

Up until the 1950s it was pasture land. As farm economics changed, grazing ceased so first scrub and then woodland came in. This happened over a fairly short time some 40 years ago, resulting in a rather undiverse woodland. The trees are very close together - all of similar age, very tall and spindly.

The Trust is attempting to restore the woodland diversity. This means we have to thin the trees quite drastically.

Some areas are fenced in the short-term to stop deer browsing and allow quicker regrowth; some left for the deer to slow down that process.

The resources of the Trust are such that we have only recently been able to progress this ideal by taking the opportunity given by the Forestry Commission England Woodland Grant Scheme with work over five years, peaking in years 3 and 4.

We are just finishing year 3. Eventually we will move to a much longer cycle - coppiced areas recut probably every eight to ten years and phased in to give a range of tree ages and species with a varying density of tree cover to allow different habitats to develop.

Our volunteer work parties are only Thursday mornings but we have also a local contractor this year to help us through the peak work. We aim to clear all the cut material from the bulk of the woodland floor as the felling progresses.

Much of the brash is made into habitat piles or dead-hedges to provide small mammal shelter and bird nesting sites and the rest burnt. We should be rewarded fairly quickly by a good showing of woodland glade plants like violets and primroses and in the longer term by an increase in birds and butterflies.

Usable timber is being piled so, once the ground is dry, we can take it off-site. Some is taken by our volunteers after they've finished their work but most is being donated. Not all just goes for burning - pea sticks, bean poles, seats in the woods, pieces for school trim trails......

Our work is open for all to see. There is a public footpath through the site and numerous other tracks through the woods which we only close when we are working nearby (and work is just about to finish as the bird-nesting season is upon us).

Colin Peacock

Chairman, Chairman, Arnside/Silverdale AONB Landscape Trust