Dead Wood Society

The Dead Wood Society will achieve an important step towards the overall Severn Treescapes vision to create a resilient and connected 60-mile corridor between the Lower Wye and Wyre Forest for trees, woodland and their associated species. This will help wildlife to thrive on our nature reserves, across farmland and in community greenspaces 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 dead or decaying wood 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, eye-catching violet click beetles and noble chafer beetles have become a rare sight.  

Finch-sized lesser spotted woodpeckers have also faced rapid decline. Compared to 130,000 breeding pairs of great spotted woodpeckers, only 1,000 breeding pairs of the smaller, quieter relatives 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 deadwood, with all its decaying crevices, slime and rot, more quickly. With the right orchard management, lesser spotted woodpeckers, noble chafers and many other invertebrates and fungi, can stand a chance. 

Support for landowners and communities

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.

Orchards are particularly special as the fruit trees tend to age quicker than broadleaf species such as oak. We also offer orchard workshops to help landowners best manage their orchard to enable the habitats to continue to thrive and grow. 

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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