Cann Woods Proposed Local Nature Reserve

The Cann Woods Proposed Local Nature Reserve is situated on land that was formerly part of the Cann Estate, lying between Tamerton Foliot and Whitleigh. To the east the reserve joins the Whitleigh Woods Local Nature Reserve, which is managed by the Woodland Trust.

The main habitats of this reserve consist of woodland, scrub and grasslands with the grasslands being managed as wildflower meadows.

The woodland cover at Cann Estate comprises ancient semi-natural woodland, semi-natural woodland and plantations. Tree and shrub species include ash, rowan, sycamore, sweet chestnut, silver birch, horse chestnut, alder, beech, crab apple, larch, maritime pine, pedunculate oak, wild cherry, yew, hazel, holly, field maple, blackthorn, dog rose, elder, field rose, hawthorn honeysuckle and laurel. Additional ornamental trees are located across the grassland areas of the site.

The Andy Stevens Nature Reserve

Cann Woods Reserve has been dedicated to the memory of Dr Andy Stevens who sadly died in 2005. He played a pivotal role in advocating the need to protect Cann Woods and in securing the acquisition of the land as part of a planning agreement.

Andy worked as Nature Conservation Officer with the council for over 10 years and worked tirelessly to champion the protection of the cities wildlife. His work leaves a significant legacy in the city’s Local Nature Reserves and one of the most comprehensive ecological databases of any urban area in the UK.

Work at Cann Woods

A considerable amount of work has taken place at Cann Woods in order to improve public access and enhance the quality of the habitats.

Access improvements have involved clearing certain sections of path, provision of steps and the installation of way marking posts to indicate particular routes around the site (see map). These routes also extend across the neighbouring Woodland Trust site of Whitleigh Woods. The way marked routes include a ride that horse riders will be able to use by prior agreement. This particular route does not extend into Whitleigh Woods where there is no access for horses. Gates have been installed and sections of fencing improved in order to discourage motorbikes and unauthorised horse riders.

Forestry work has included a tree safety survey, which resulted in some tree surgery to make safe any trees that were considered to present a safety hazard. Where limbs have needed to be removed from old trees techniques have been used to make things look as natural as possible. Wood removed from trees has been left in piles where it can rot down providing important habitats for such things as invertebrates. Invasive cherry laurel has been cut down and some thinning and coppicing has taken place in order to improve the health and diversity of the woodland.

Several areas of grassland are now being managed as wildflower meadows. This involves once yearly mowing with removal of the cut material. This keeps the nutrient levels low encouraging species diversity.

Volunteers including members of the local community, organised by the BTCV, have been working on the site to carry out a range of practical tasks including coppicing and the construction of some of the steps.

Documents

To view these documents you might need to download some software. Visit our downloads page for more information.

Cann Woods - way marked routes in Cann Woods Reserve. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 1.21MB

[Back to top]