If you have visited the woodlands of Cirencester Park recently, you would be forgiven for thinking that Halloween has come early! Areas of the Park’s woodland floor are covered in great swathes of white netting that look like spiders’ webs. Rather than a Halloween grotto, this is in fact the collection of Beech tree seed (or ‘mast’) from this registered stand.
Beech seed is generally collected during ‘good’ mast years, which can occur every 5–10 years. The collection can be affected by many things, including climatic conditions and the presence of rodents. It is also thought that the abundant seeding years can naturally affect populations of animals which feed on the seed, such as squirrels and mice. In the good mast years, the trees produce much more seed than can be eaten by them, to ensure that each can naturally regenerate its eventual successors in the area around it.
The Beech trees found in Cirencester Park represent some of the finest species in the country, if not the world! The seed, once collected, is used by forest nurseries all over the UK to grow ‘Bathurst Beech’ trees for our future forests.
Please be mindful of nets laid across the roads and tracks beneath the selected seed trees and adhere to all ‘no entry’ signs. Seed collection is expected to be completed by the end of October.
Thank you for your understanding.
