Volunteers help put Bear Wood on the map

The Oxford Green Estate team held a successful planting event on Friday 7 November, with around 100 friends and supporters helping lay the foundations for a new area of forest on the margins of Wytham Woods.

The Bear Wood site overlooks the Thames to the west of the Woods, downstream of Eynsham Lock and Swinford Toll Bridge. Volunteers met there and helped get 120 oak saplings into the ground. These came from acorns gathered from some of Oxfordshire’s oldest and most impressive veteran trees, and were sprouted and nurtured at home by volunteers.

Many people were there to plant saplings they had raised themselves, with some noting their position or adding a label to help them find their own trees and follow their progress over the coming years. Some were planting trees in the memory of departed friends and relations; others came simply to enjoy working together for a good cause in the open air as autumn draws to an end.

There was a great atmosphere of community and cooperation on the day, with one participant calling it “a feel-good event in a depressing world”. Another wrote to thank the team afterwards, having attended to plant a tree in memory of her father-in-law who was passionate about the countryside and spent many years leading children on residential trips to the nearby Hill End centre on walks in the woods. 

While not perfect, conditions were reasonable and the OGE team and assembled volunteers were able to make even better progress than they’d hoped towards creating the core of the new woodland. The team will add more trees of a variety of species over time, as well as establishing paths, maintaining fences to keep deer away from the young trees and carrying out general maintenance.

Huge thanks to everyone who came along, grew an oak sapling, made a donation or helped in any other way. Your efforts are already making a positive change to the area’s landscape that will be visible long after we are all gone, enabling us create more beautiful woodland for future generations to enjoy. 

Of course, this won’t happen overnight. The landscape will take time to develop, as Bear Wood gradually transitions from pasture with trees into a young woodland. You can find out more about how oak trees develop and about their life cycle and role in ecosystems online. This is just one of many projects to increase biodiversity and wildlife habitat on University-owned green spaces under the OGE team’s management; you can consult the OGE web pages to find out more about the sites we care for and what we’re doing there.