[Alan]

Just to follow on with a question that was posted on the ‘fish threat’ thread:

The Sycamore – Acer pseudoplatanus, was probably first introduced in limited numbers prior to 1500. It is a native of Europe.

It has always been reviled by some because of the limited number of species that it can support, as well as it’s ability go grow and so spread quickly, thus blocking out the chances of more native species to prosper. It has a similar effect as Beech when it occurs in high numbers, in that it lets little light through to the forest floor, and it’s sticky fallen leaves can sometimes make it hard for under story plants to establish themselves, but not always!

In some parts of the country it is routinely removed in favour of more wildlife friendly trees such as Oak, Ash and Hazel.

The trouble is in some parts of the country – particularly around where I live, it makes up a large part of the tree population. So if we removed them to make way for others, there wouldn’t be many trees left!

In one of my local patches the woodland was planted up around 1898. There is in fact cast iron plaques/signs that state this fact. Needless to say a large percentage of this woodland is Sycamore, with Ash and Beech following. About 10 years ago huge areas of this woodland were cleared. It did seem a shame at the time, but it is a working estate so this seemed fair enough to me. The areas were then planted up again, but this time with Oak and similar. The wildlife thrives there now so in the long run this was a good thing.

In recent times the estate has been taken over by someone else, and many alterations have been taking place, most I would say for the good.

I was talking to the new gamekeeper the other week and he informed me that there were also plans to take out more of the Sycamore’s to open up the darker areas of the woodland. Of course the main aim of this is to encourage more biodiversity so the game birds thrive more, but with most schemes like this the wildlife also can benefit.

Does anybody else have similar experiences where the Sycamore is being removed for whatever reason?

Also do you agree with it?