Pear Wood Conservation

AN ANCIENT piece of Harrow woodland is being preserved for rare animal and plantspecies by a group of volunteers.

Ecology group, The Harrow Nature Conservation Forum has been hard at work reviving Pear Wood, Stanmore to protect it as a nature reserve. The Forum is part of the Harrow Heritage Trust and has been working to preserve the forest in tandem with Harrow Borough Council.

The Pear Wood site is one of four local woodland areas that have been under going conservation work. The Forum has also been undertaking important natural preservation work in Stanmore Common, Stanmore Country Park and Bentley Priory.

Steve Bolsover, who is Chairman of the Forum, spoke about the work being done by the voluntary organisation.

Mr Bolsover said: "We work on biodiversity action plans, particularly to protect threatened species, as well as species recording."

Claire Abbott is the Conservation Forum's Warden for Pear Wood and spoke ofthe woodland’s historical importance.

Mrs Abbott said: "It is part of the ancient forest of Middlesex. It is very rare to have a truly ancient forest that is thousands of years old so close. It's age and that it is undisturbed makes it very unusual."

As well as its ancient heritage, the wood is also home to the rare type of ant, the Formica rufa or Southern Wood Ant. Mrs. Abbott explained how the ants, which are usually found in Central Europe, came to be in Stanmore.

Mrs Abbott said: "They're a very large ant, much larger than the normal red ant. They were probably introduced into the wood many years ago by the Duke of Chandos as food for his pheasants."

Mr Bolsover outlined how in the Conversation Forum are planning to help increase the wood’s rare ant population in years to come, through a technique of transference.

Mr Bolsover said: "We translated a German instruction manual of how to transfer the ants. We can move one or more queen ants to a new location when they're quite close to the nest surface."

As well as the ants, the forest sites in which the Conservation Forum are working are home many rare plant and animal species that need protection, such as the Heath-spotted Orchid on the Stanmore Common site.

The sites are not open to the public due to the conservation work being done and the rarity of many of the species living in them.

http://www.harrowncf.org/

Box Piece

Some of the species found across Bentley Priory, Pear Wood, StanmoreCountry Park and Stanmore Common areas:

- Southern wood ant (Formica rufa)

- Heath spotted orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata)

- Fallow deer (Dama dama)

- Wood sage (Teucrium scorodonia)

- Green woodpecker (Picus viridus)

- Creeping soft-grass (Holcus mollis)

- Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)

- Dogs mercury (Mercurialis perennis)

Self Reflective Essay

This was a story I undertook whilst doing work experience on the Harrow Observer newspaper. I was given an AGM report from the Harrow Heritage Trust, a local heritage group who look after the heritage of the built and natural environment in Harrow and asked to see if there were any stories that could worked on in it. Part of the Trust is the Harrow Nature Conservation Forum, a local ecology and conservation group who had included their latest newsletter with the AGM report.

After I the looked through the HNCF’s newsletter, I thought that there might be a story in the fact that the Forum had been doing ongoing work helping Harrow Council to preserve Pear Wood, an ancient woodland in Stanmore. The newsletter mentioned that the woodland was home to a rare species of ant and I thought that this was a quirky angle as well as being of potential interest to local residents. I discussed the idea with the News Editor at the paper, and she also thought it could lead to a good story.

To get more information, I interviewed Steve Bolsover and Claire Abbott about the work being done, and arranged for photographer to take some photographs in Pear Wood.

One problem I encountered with this story was that after interviewing Mrs. Abbott, a representative at the council told her that she should not be speaking to the press about the work that was being done. This placed the story in jeopardy, due to the fact that the council worker was afraid that it might lead to the public descending to what is a private conservation area. But after speaking to my news editor and faxing the story through the to the council press office, the council were happy that I had made it clear that the site was not open to the public.