The Beeches, covering 220 hectares, is primarily noted for its
ancient beech and oak pollards and the range of flora and fauna
associated with old trees and decaying wood. Other notable features
include; wood pasture, valley mire, heathland, beech woodland,
coppice woodland, three ponds, three stream systems, a large open
grassland recreation area and three Scheduled Ancient
Monuments.
What is a Pollard?
A pollard is a tree such as beech oak or hornbeam that has been
cut to head height forcing the tree to send up new multiple shoots.
Pollards are cut at head height so that livestock grazing among the
trees cannot eat the tender new shoots. The ancient pollards at the
Beeches were once cut like this every 10-15 years in order to
produce evenly sized branches mainly used for firewood. The
constant regrowth encouraged by pollarding extends the lives of the
trees so that they live for much longer than standard trees.
Sadly the practice of pollarding died out, but the Burnham Beeches
team is at the forefront of working to re-establish the ancient
techniques and restoring the old lapsed pollards, as well as
finding out new methods to create ‘young pollards’ to help bridge
the gap with the veterans.
To find out more about pollards
Download the Pollard fact sheet
(317kb)
Wood pasture
Much of Burnham Beeches was once wood pasture. This attractive
landscape is very good for wildlife. We have reintroduced grazing
and are managing the trees to restore this important habitat. Wood
pasture contains a mix of young mature trees, often pollards
standing in open grassland or heathland, this type of habitat has
been created by land use going back thousands of years, the
grassland would be grazed and the trees or pollards harvested for
timber.
Heathland
Heathland is an area of vegetation characterised by heathers
occurring on impoverished soils and is the result of thousands of
years of exploitation by humans. Lowland heath is an
internationally rare and unique habitat, and supports a variety of
specialised plants and animals. Burnham Beeches contains an area of
acidic heathland leading into mire and bog. It is dominated by
heathers and grasses, along with many large juniper bushes. The
area of heathland managed by the Burnham Beeches team has
considerably increased with the acquisition of
Stoke Common.
Deadwood
Deadwood is an important habitat at Burnham Beeches. It provides
food and shelter for rare wildlife and should not be disturbed.
Deadwood includes fallen branches, felled trees, log piles, dead
branches in living trees and standing dead trees. Deadwood may not
look pretty, but it is very important for wildlife.
To find out more about deadwood
Download the deadwood factsheet (99kb)
Fungi
Toadstools and mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungi. Fungi
play a vital role at Burnham Beeches. They break down dead and
decaying material and play an active role in helping trees and
other plants thrive by assisting with the uptake of nutrients.
Burnham Beeches is home to a great variety of fungi but picking is
not allowed for the following reasons: some are very rare and
removing them could threaten them further; they provide habitat for
many creatures, including some rare or threatened species; by
removing the fungi you also remove their ability to produce spores
and thus the next generation is put at risk; and with over 500,000
visits per year, if people collected fungi there would soon be none
left in the woods for future visitors to enjoy. You can find out
more about fungi in our Fungi fact sheet and also by reading our
fungi policy.
Download the fungi fact
sheet (216kb)
Download the Burnham Beeches fungi
policy (42kb)
For more information on Habitats found in Burnham Beeches and
Buckinghamshire see the Biodiversity Action Plan for the
area.