A cunning plan or two

Julie gazes into the flames as she contemplates alternatives to bonfires...

Remember, remember the 5th of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot;
For there is a reason why gunpowder and treason should ne'er be forgot.

Over 400 years ago, on the night of 5^th November 1605, 36 barrels of gunpowder were discovered behind a pile of firewood in a storeroom beneath the Palace of Westminster in London. The plan was to kill Protestant King James I and his son so that the Catholics could rise up and England would be Catholic again. Guy Fawkes was the unfortunate soldier who got caught and so, traditionally, an effigy of him is burnt on a fire (although he was actually hung, drawn and quartered).

Bonfire night is now more commonly celebrated with an organised event that has a huge fire and lots of the most amazing fireworks, from gunpowder as it happens. As a child we always had a smaller bonfire in a scrubby bit of wasteland at the end of our road; all the neighbours together burning bits of failed DIY projects! We had a collective set of fireworks that were once stored in an old pram - it only took one spark and we had the most amazing but short-lived firework display (there as no health and safety thoughts in those days)!

small fire in an earth pit by Matthew Roberts — Fire by Matthew Roberts

There is something very primeval about camp fires, whether you love them or are scared of them they have a deep seated effect on us. Humans discovered how to make their own fire sometime during the palaeolithic era and we haven’t looked back since. I see fire as a useful and productive entity - for keeping warm, cooking food, telling stories around or just sitting and watching the flames, it can provide a peaceful mindfulness session.

On the Trust's nature reserves during coppicing season (the practice of cutting down the stems of a tree to the base every few years, allowing new shoots to grow and providing a crop of wood) there is often a huge amount of leftover branches, known as brash. Sometimes these are piled up as habitats for wildlife, sometimes they are used to close off routes to particularly sensitive areas of a reserve where wildlife needs a bit more protection. But then sometimes they are burnt, not an easy decision to make on a number of fronts for a conservation charity. To try and reduce the amount of brash that is burnt at Monkwood we have come up with a cunning plan. Well, to be honest, it isn’t really a cunning plan but an age old tradition - make things with the lovely long straight hazel poles that are produced each year. So, some of the hazel is going to be made into hurdles to protect the soon-to-be-planted orchard trees. These hurdles are made by weaving small hazel around larger upright hazel poles thus creating a fence panel, a beautiful product from an amazing tree.

If you search for hazel in our wildlife a-z webpages you'll find the following...

Hazel is a small, shrubby tree that can be found in a variety of habitats, such as woodlands, gardens and grasslands. It is famous for its long, yellow, male catkins (known as 'lamb's-tails') that appear in spring, and its green, ripening to brown, fruits (familiar to us as 'hazelnuts') that appear in late summer. These nuts are a favourite food of grey squirrels, dormice and wood mice, and some small mammals will cache their finds, storing them in burrows or old birds' nests.

Smiling woman standing by a hurdle in a woodland by Peter Wood, Greenwood Days — Julie Grainger and hurdle by Peter Wood, Greenwood Days

We are very lucky to be working with Wildgoose Rural Training who are currently coppicing some areas of Monkwood and collecting the hazel to be made into hurdles back on their grounds. Luckily, I've recently been on a hurdle-making training course but I can’t wait to work alongside the staff and students to learn more about how to make these ancient products. Evidence of them being laid down by Neolithic ancestors as trackways just shows how valuable hazel has always been. We have engaged a hurdle maker to teach us a simple and effective way of achieving this.

We're not satisfied with one cunning plan! Our second cunning plan is to use some of the thicker straight poles to take to nearby schools for their pupils to use for den making in their outdoor areas. We don’t allow building of dens on our nature reserves as we are very careful to avoid trampling of woodland wildflowers, but helping children to build dens in their own spaces has lots of benefits. Who doesn’t love making a den? It gives a wonderful feeling of achievement and ownership and safety. In fact, if you put fires and dens together you have created a fantastic play space for children to learn about our outdoor areas. Add in storytelling and there are so many neural connections being made that we could start a child development PhD. I think most adults would be happy sat around a fire listening to stories, drinking a warm brew and checking the firewood is dry in our shelter…or is that just me?!

So I hope you had an enjoyable and safe bonfire night and next time you see a squirrel burying a hazel nut, think about what you could do with the branches of a hazel tree if it should grow.