TECHNIQUES dating back hundreds of years have seen a boom in the number of plants and animals at an RSPB site.

The RSPB’s Garston Wood reserve, on the border of Dorset and Wiltshire, has been coppiced for more than 1,000 years, and last winter volunteers re-opened many of the rides and woodland glades, where wildlife is thriving on the newly sunlit margins.

The dingy skipper butterfly, a conservation priority, whose numbers have halved since the 1970s, has been recorded in the wood for the first time; and wild garlic, wood anemone and bluebell – all indicators of ancient woodland – have been prolific this spring.

As well as those early flowering woodland plants, orchids such as early purple, greater butterfly and twayblade – tway comes from the Old English for two, after the plant’s distinctive pair of broad leaves – are responding to old fashioned management.

Tony Goddard, who leads the RSPB’s South Wiltshire local group, which carried out some of last winter’s work, together with other volunteers and members of the public, said the rides in particular had become very dark and there were noticeably fewer butterflies.

He said: “We have been working in the woods coppicing for 30 years, but this year’s work has been a bit different, it has been our mission to do the ride-side work.

“You can see the flowers have responded and have been looking magnificent, and I am sure the butterflies will follow suit, you get an instant response from some of these species.”

The work has been complemented by school groups from the Ancient Technology Centre, Cranborne, who have also been coppicing Garston Wood in the traditional way.

Coppicing, which largely died out in British woodlands after the Second World War, historically provided most of the wood needed for everyday purposes, and the patchwork of light and dark, coupled with trees of different heights, was ideal habitat for many plants and animals.

Luke Winter, who manages the Ancient Technology Centre, said Garston Wood had provided some of the hazel poles needed for the centre’s Iron Age roundhouse, Viking longhouse and Anglo-Saxon house.

He said: “We know Garston Wood has been coppiced for 400 years. If it was coppiced 400 years ago we can be sure it was coppiced 1,000 years ago, and if it was coppiced 1,000 years ago we can be sure it was coppiced going back to the Neolithic.

“Although our slant on it is historical and archaeological, we cover some of the fundamental bits of learning, so the children can put the world around them into context and they get experience of the outdoors, which as we know, many people lack nowadays.”

Andy Jones, who leads the RSPB’s management in the ancient wood, and oversees the efforts of supporters and volunteers, said: “Garston Wood is like an echo of the past, like walking into a bit of history, and it’s nice to keep historic working practises like these going.

“Last winter’s work has shown an almost immediate positive impact, the fact that we have seen this new species of butterfly on the rides for the first time is fantastic, and the impact of the wild flowers, especially the orchids, has been quite marked as well.”

The wood is also home to several species of bat, dormice and the spectacular silver-washed fritillary butterfly. Marsh tit, a bird with a liking for mixed woodland, which has suffered rapid population decline in recent years, can also still be seen in numbers.