Deri Woods

Centred in the Council-owned Deri Woods just outside the village of Llanfair Caereinion, restoration includes coppicing, removing non-native Western Red Cedar and creating more spaces for open woodland habitat.

Working with members of the local community, as well as local schools, youth and scout groups, the project partners are seeking to create a sustainably managed landscape in which wildlife and people will thrive.

To engage local people with Deri Woods and other wild spaces

To create a management plan for Deri Woods

To establish a sustainable Volunteer Group to carry out woodland management for the site

To carry out various pathworks and significant land management for the site before handing over responsibility to the Volunteer Work Party

Our Deri Woods Project helped Llanfair Caereinon Town Council celebrate its centenary this summer. One hundred years ago, Deri Woods were gifted to the town to celebrate the end of the First World War and has been appreciated and well used ever since. There were allsorts of activities to do and see from horselogging demos to barefoot walking challenges. MWT staff and Deri Woods volunteers provided families the opportunity to have a go at green wood working.

The Deri Woods volunteers have meet on the third Thursday of every month to complete the following tasks: Footpath restoration, step building, drain digging and clearance, hand rail replacement, bridge repairs. They also constructed a substantially built leaky dam. This was made from thinned fir trees placed between growing trees and spanning a feeder stream for the Banwy that flows through a deep scoured channel through the woods. The branches were set at a level to intercept but not hold back the flood water level of the stream. The branches were secured together by long split wooden carved pegs driven through holes bored through them. Further branches were lodged from bank to bank lower down to act as interceptors for woody debris floating down the stream at high flood flow levels.

This is specifically to “Slow the flow” capture woody debris and create turbidity currents to cause the stream to deposit its sediment load. Volunteers also constructed a sturdy peg secured triangle of fir branches to the bank of the stream. The structure is on the bed of the stream spanning a third of the channel. There are gaps in the structure to allow water to pass through it. They are planned to capture sediment moving down the stream and to gradually submerge the logs on a permanent basis. Submerged woody debris in a stream is essential for providing a variety of habitats for fish invertebrates and insects. These structures will help the stream accumulate more bed load which will slow the flow.

Alastair Hotchkiss from Coed Cadw Woodland Trust for Wales visited the woods in September and met representatives of the Llanfair Caereinon Town Council. Alastair, who is the Ancient Woodland Management Advisor for Coed Cadw Woodland Trust, wrote the Deri Woods Ancient Woodland Restoration management plan explained his reasoning for a substantial removal of non native trees which had been under planted in the town’s native ancient woodland. The firs have overtaken the slower growing native trees, some of which are growing through the canopies of the ancient trees. The woodlands many beeches have suppressed the undergrowth on the woodland floor. Alastair marked several trees for removal by contractors and several for removal by hand by the volunteer group. Llanfair Town Council employed local contractors to cut down and extract the unwanted trees.

Llanfair Caereinon Primary School: a meeting with teaching team resulted in a programme of 20 Deri Woods half day visits: which enabled each class in the school to engage in two MWT guided environmental education activities. Activities ranged from Food Chains to Maths is all around us, Tree of life: the classification of plants animals and how they relate to each other through games. The most popular activity was bushcraft: when children were challenged to build a shelter for the entire class, learnt about man’s best friend: fire. They also did some hunter-gathering, namely cucumber harpooning (Salmon hunting)!

There are six interpretive panels to be installed in the woods giving information on the whereabouts of the paths in the woods and connections to the Town, the history of the pump house, leaky dams, why felling young trees is helpful for the other trees in the wood and Deri woods starring role in the Mabinogion.

The Town’s derelict Pump House has now been renovated and minor building works have been carried out so that one half of it is a tool store for the volunteers and the other half is a visitor shelter with benches and picnic tables.

Volunteers who help Llanfair Town Council with the maintenance of Deri Woods are asking local residents to look in their sheds and outbuildings to see if they have any spare hand tools they would like to donate to the group.

Volunteer, Nick Burton, said “we don’t mind how old they are, but donated tools do need to be in decent condition."

“We are looking for spades, mattocks, shovels, rakes, brooms, saws and also a wheelbarrow to put them all in”.

The group does a lot of valuable work repairing the fences, steps and bridges and would also be grateful for donation of pliers, mole grips, crowbars and jemmies, sledge, claw and lump hammers, spanners, and a socket set.

If you have tools to donate or would like to check if the group needs something particular please call Nick on 01938 811809 or drop tools off at our office in Welshpool.

Deri Woods Volunteers dedicated group is always in need more members. Find out more on their webpage: https://deriwoods.btck.co.uk/ and contact them from there or contact Dewi, using the details at the bottom of this page.