AS the first year of large-scale tree felling works begins, it's a busy time for conservation workers down in Habberley Valley.

It can be hard to see tree-felling works as a good thing for wildlife, but on many of the habitats found around the Wyre Forest District this is true.

Don't get me wrong, trees are great for a whole host of wildlife and the woods we find around the district are a fantastic wildlife resource we should treasure and nurture.

There are a wide variety of plants and animals out there though, that would find it impossible to live in a wood as this particular habitat just does not have what these creatures need to survive.

Unfortunately for them, in the past it has often proven easier to develop and farm areas where there are no trees and if left to its own devices, without the influences of large grazing animals, nature tends to allow almost any area to succeed into woodland.

While it may take many centuries to develop a truly ecologically diverse area of 'ancient woodland' a scrub woodland of birch and oak can develop in a few decades.

This and the other threats to non-wooded wild areas have led to the rapid decline and loss of many of our country meadows, heaths and marshes. This is very much true for Habberley Valley.

When you look at old postcards showing this nature reserve when it was home to Jennings' Fair and a host of teashops not that long ago, the site resembled the bare, sandy open heaths of Hartlebury common.

These days there are only fragments of heath and just the few patches of acid grassland that remains.

Fortunately, some of the unique heathland and flora and fauna is still clinging on, hence the restoration project that has just begun.

I feel it would be impractical to roll back the clock to recreate the fairground days landscape, so works are targeting what remains of the heath and acid grassland habitat and is clearing younger trees from these.

Habberley also supports a population of adders, which these days are very rare.

Some estimates indicate there are less than 120 left in the county, so the tree work has to be done in a manner sympathetic to them.

This has therefore ruled out the use of heavy forestry machinery.

A small forestry team with help of their specially trained shire horse, whose muscles are used to pull and extract the timber to a place where it can be collected, is carrying out the work.

This is a far cry from modern forestry practice and is reminiscent of times long past.

If you would like to see this heavy horse forestry team at work. go along to Habberley tomorrow.