This month sees the opening of a new trail within Lincolnshire’s 6,000 year old managed woodlands. Education Ranger Mary Porter speaks to Lincolnshire Pride about how a £1m investment in the county’s oldest and most impressive feature has created a resource that everyone can enjoy in 2008

Even Mary Porter, Forestry Commission Education Ranger at Chamber’s Farm Wood near Wragby, has been surprised by just how positive the response has been to their development. “One lady even said ’It’s changed my life’” says Mary. “People of all ages are discovering the woods – it’s never too late to fall in love with them.”
Despite existing for around six millennia, Chamber’s Farm Wood is enjoying a makeover as part of the five year £1m Lincolnshire Limewoods Project. Much of the work is due to be completed early in 2008. The investment has been funded through the Heritage Lottery Fund and involves partners such as English Nature, the Forestry Commission, Lincolnshire County Council and Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, highlighting the area, which covers 60 sq miles of Lincolnshire and the aim is to develop the area for use by all members of the public, as well as proliferating a habitat for the country’s rarer species.

The National Nature Reserve woodlands consist of uncommon smalled leaved lime, oak and hazel, and are already a habitat for certain species of butterfly and are a haven for the dormouse population, which has been introduced into countryside from which it had previously disappeared.

In addition, many groups are finding the woods to be increasingly accessible and enjoyable, despite many people across Lincolnshire still remaining oblivious to the presence and accessibility of the 15 areas which make up the Limewoods – now just a quarter of their original size.

Around 900 acres of the total wooded area can be found at the Wragby site, which is also the base of operations for Mary, Chamber’s Farm Wood’s Education Ranger, responsible for interpretation and for introducing the county’s schools to the valuable natural resource. A former school teacher, Mary spent a good deal of time working in Suffolk before moving to Lincolnshire in 1988 and working with the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust until 2005 when she decided to take advantage of being able to work closer to her home in Bardney.

 “I reached 50 years of age and didn’t want to slow down.” She says. “I wanted to be fit, not fat, and I wanted a job which would keep me