When the Prince of Wales said on the Duchy's website in 2020, "Get into woodlands", he meant that it was a well-paid career choice. The Duchy's head forester says that walking in woodlands is good for mental health, but their strategy for old Cornish woods removes the trees that sustain bird diversity.
The Duchy of Cornwall acquired Perdredda Wood near Polbathic in 2019. A man in a Landrover drove up to the gate one afternoon in May, to explore with a view to culling the deer. A clear-felling of some large sections was completed by October: bit.ly/perocto . Parts of the wood which weren't cleared of all trees in 2019 are now thinned to a level where no deer can feel secure. (That pleasant sense of concealment is gone for a human too.) The deer were mostly of the indigenous Roe species. Three sharpshooters who also work with the county Council took turns in to visit in the late afternoons and pick off any that returned when the machinery was no longer noisy. (Staff have since been closing the wood for weekend and Christmas 'hunts', going after any solitary survivors.) Goldcrests like to nest in dense conifers, so the thinning of the entire woodland in 2025 means they will be gone (see birdfact ) along with the flock of Coal tits. For generations, the biodiversity at Pe...