Friends of Big Wood Nature Reserve
Newsletter - January - 2026
Glorious Big Wood
We wish you all a happy new year, and trust that Big Wood, our very special local ancient woodland, continues to be a source of joy and comfort to all who spend time in it.
What Your Support is Achieving in Big Wood
The generous support of all our Friends of Big Wood, the hands-on effort of our practical conservation volunteers and FoBW committee members are continuing to achieve good things in Big Wood and also Little Wood.
We have been able to follow up Barnet's Baseline Habitat Survey with a major Habitat and Botany Survey by Salix ecological consultants, who also did a comparable survey for our sister ancient woodland remnant Queens Wood. We will aim to coordinate with Queens Wood and organise follow-up surveys with our volunteers.
We are getting Prof. Jeff Duckett’s Bryophyte Survey ready for publication and have commissioned Edward Milner to create an update of his 2015 Spider Survey in both Big Wood and Little Wood.
We finally received the report of the DNA analysis of our ‘crab’ or ‘wilding’ apples, which in the manner of exacting science was not as conclusive as we had hoped. Crab apples are an Ancient Woodland Indicator and there are a good number of such trees in Big Wood. The fact that our apple samples could not be related to known cultivars seems like a promising indicator of their ancient origin. More analysis is in progress.
In the summer, Friends of Big Wood volunteers kindly helped to update oursurvey of ecologically important standing dead trees, as well as an updated survey of oak tree canopy health.
We are very grateful to the wonderful ecologists who have enlightened and entertained us on guided woodland walks, covering subjects such as Spring Wildflowers, The World of Spiders, Dawn Chorus and Bird Walk, the Moth Breakfast, as well as the curiously fascinating world of Invertebrates and Plant 'Parasites' hiding in plain sight.
The Big Wood KIDS nature learning workshop series run by Caroline Chan (Mini Beats) and Sophie Cooke (YAS, Young Artists Society) proved to be very popular with children and their families.
Upcoming Practical Conservation Activity Mornings
A special thanks to our wonderful practical conservation volunteers, who are indispensable to our work of looking after Big Wood. At the most recent activity morning in December, we had a very special coppicing and hurdle making workshop with Robert Thomas of the City of London, and he has agreed to join us on further activity mornings to help us manage and protect the glades, nature recovery areas and delicate veteran trees in the wood .
Big Wood Volunteers, please join us on Saturday 10th January, 10am. As usual, there are no special skills required, just a willingness to muck in and enjoy the company of like-minded people making a real impact. We meet at the Big Wood Temple Fortune Hill entrance in time for a 10am start. Work takes place over a couple of hours with a tea break. Please bring gardening gloves and cutting tools if you have them. Supervised children are welcome!
For further specific updates on volunteer events, feel free to
join Friends of Big Wood Volunteers WhatsApp group,
or contact 07712 704 164,
Please also take note of the volunteer handbook, link below.
Friends of Big Wood Membership Renewals
Our heartfelt thanks to all of you who have already renewed your 2026 membership, including your kind donations, and are supporting our joint work and lovely community. If you haven't had a chance to renew yet, please do so now.
You can renew easily by following this link, or the one in your Membermojo reminder email.
Any questions, contact friendsofbigwood1@gmail.com
Thank you! We wouldn't be able to look after Big Wood without the support of our Friends!
Volunteer Handbook
The Barnet Greenspaces Volunteering Handbook includes straightforward health and safety guidance to ensure that all volunteers remain safe while working in the borough's green spaces. If you take part in the activity mornings, please click on this Volunteer Handbook link and take note of the guidelines. Get in touch if you have any questions.
LITTER IN THE WOOD
Litter remains a problem and some of us regularly pick up litter as we go round the wood. If any one else wants to help and would like a litter picker, please contact us. We have a number of Friends who are regularly are picking up litter but please can all the Friends help to keep the wood clear of litter.
MORE ABOUT DEAD WOOD
We reported on the importance of dead wood. The official UK standard for healthy woodland habitat requires 20m3 of deadwood per hectare and most woodlands in the UK, including Big Wood, is below this level. It is important therefore that all dead trunks and fallen branches are left where they fall or are left standing.
A reminder that ageing trees and dead wood are vital for a healthy woodland habitat. A huge swathe of the woodland ecosystem relies on tree wear and tear- hollows, dead branches and fallen trees.
TREES INFO
There is a marvellous short clip about the management of oak trees and the importance of not compacting the roots in Kew Gardens following the great storm of 1987. Anyone who is interested click on the following:-
WEB SITE
Remember that all details are here on our web site so do signpost your local friends and neighbours to visit the site and encourage them join the Association and to be Friends Of Big Wood.
DATA PROTECTION
The Friends of Big Wood Organisation is aware of the new General Data Protection Legislation. Organisations such as ours, which keep a register of names purely for recreational reasons, are exempt from the new regulations. We would advise you all that the data stored is purely to enable us to provide information about Big Wood and no information will be passed to any third party. If, nevertheless, you would like your details deleted from the list, please email us
