Dead Wood Society

Dead Wood Society aims to restore deadwood habitats across Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. This is part of the broader Severn Treescapes project creating a 60-mile woodland corridor between the Lower Wye and the Wyre, so that wildlife can thrive not only in our nature reserves but on farmland, community green spaces and gardens. 

Dead and decaying wood provides a vital habitat for fungi, invertebrates, birds and small mammals. It includes standing deadwood, fallen branches, logs, dead roots and tree stumps.

Thousands of creatures depend on it for at least part of their lifecycle, including 650 species of beetle. The scientific name for this dependence is ‘saproxylic’. With the loss of deadwood habitats, the eye-catching violet click beetle and the noble chafer have become a rare sight.  

The finch-sized lesser spotted woodpecker has also faced rapid decline. Compared to 130,000 breeding pairs of the great spotted woodpecker, only 1,000 breeding pairs of its smaller, quieter relative remain.  

Dead Wood Society provides training to revitalise orchards, which are key sites for deadwood. As fruit trees age faster, traditional orchards build up a world of dead wood, with all its decaying crevices, slime and rot, more quickly. With the right orchard management, the lesser spotted woodpecker, noble chafer and many other invertebrates and fungi, can stand a chance. 

Support for communities and landowners

Communities, farmers and landowners are vital in helping us to achieve this vision together. If you want to plant more trees on your land or need support looking after your orchard and deadwood habitat, get in touch with us via this form. 

Throughout February and March, we delivered workshops on orchard management where deadwood habitats are vital. We have further workshops on the way, so stay posted with our events page here.

Join our team!

We train interested volunteers to specialise in invertebrates, building a team who can gather evidence on local deadwood habitats. If you have any experience in this area or would like to learn more, please keep an eye on our social media pages or email us: SevernTreescapes@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk 

The content on this webpage, except the images, is available to use through Creative Commons 4.0. The photos have been generously donated to the Trust for us to use to promote our work, they are not available for third party use.

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