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It has become ever harder to walk in these woods for several reasons, and today I found parking my car difficult. We parked some distance down the approach road and followed a signed footpath which took us across the back of a residential property, with prominent dog on the loose signs on the boundary fence. We then walked diagonally across two muddy fields into the woods to join the path I had originally wanted. I noticed lots of particularly large chamomile flowers around the edge and on the footpath across this field which I could not avoid walking on.

When we reached the woods the pathway has been significantly widened, trees cut down and a corridor made, this will be for the new perimeter fencing. I noticed there are several new ponds being dug and this area is one of the lowest points of the wood and stays very wet and partially flooded during the winter. This particular pond looks like it has been made to feature a solitary dead tree on an island in the middle.  The area feels quite landscaped and with the colours turning it’s a nice spot (or will be). This is right on the perimeter of the wood and will be a section housing the new Bison.


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The Wilder Blean Project will introduce large herbivores onto the site which include European Bison as the headline act, along with Long Horn Cattle and  Ponies and Iron Age Pigs. This experiment is happening a mile or two away from where I live in a place I know really well, which is great as I am interested in the whole topic of rewilding or wilding whatever phrase you use. I have read about it and even visited the Knepp Wildland a pioneer rewilding project in West Sussex which has been established for perhaps 15-20 years.

But here’s the thing, me and Fred my Irish Terrier will have to find pastures new to run free off the lead. So, you see it is goodbye to our early morning woodland explorations together in Thornden Woods. This journal will record something of our final walks together during the lead in period to these animals being introduced.


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