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James' Blog: Warton Woods

My name is James, and I’m going to be writing a series of blogs about the environment and the local area, between Heysham and Grange. I have lived in the area all my life, and have always enjoyed the environment and nature in the area.
A young man in a wheelchair wearing a baseball cap and smiling

James, volunteer for Morecambe

As the climate changes, our relationship with our surroundings will inevitably change. The blogs will, I hope, shine a light on certain places in the area and the nature that exists in these places.

Not all of them will have unique wildlife, but interesting landscapes and nature all the same. I’ll write about Heysham, Morecambe’s West End, Central Morecambe, Bare, Hest Bank, Bolton le Sands, Carnforth, Warton, Silverdale, Arnside and Grange over Sands.

Warton is a village in north west Lancashire, and has a few areas of nature, most notably up the crag and in the woods. In this blog, I’ll look at the woods.

Hyning Scout entrance sign

Hyning Scout entrance by James Quinn

Hyning Scout Woods are located north of the village itself, stretching to the village of Yealand Conyers. There are two sides to the woods, on either side of the road that runs through. One side is largely accessible, and is owned by the Woodland Trust. The other is privately owned by Hyning monastery.

Just by walking along the road, you can see several species of animal, including deer and squirrel. Deeper in the woods, you can see badgers and moles, although I haven’t seen them.

Some parts of the woods are classed as ‘ancient woodland’, meaning the woods have been where they are today for thousands of years, although there aren't any trees anywhere near that old.

Every tree plays a role in protecting the environment

The oldest trees in the woods are likely to be about 200- 250 years old, when measured. This means they were planted (or more likely planted themselves) in about 1800, so George III would have been king, and William Pitt the Younger was the Prime Minister.

There are many types of tree in the woods, including Sycamore, Horse Chestnut, Scot’s Pine and Beech.

In autumn 2020, as part of my Open University course in Environmental Studies, I measured some trees in the woods, to see what they mean for the area. Data was gathered from five trees, namely an English Oak, a Beech, a Sycamore, a Scot’s Pine and a Sweet Chestnut. I worked out how much carbon dioxide each tree stores, the amount of carbon dioxide each tree has removed from the atmosphere in its lifetime and the extent to which the air quality has been improved by the tree. Obviously, the biggest trees were most beneficial, in this case namely the Sweet Chestnut. But every tree plays a role in protecting the environment.

A beech tree in an ancient woodland

Beech in Warton Woods by James Quinn

Looking closer at one of the beech trees, it was planted in about 1895. Since it was planted, it has stored about 3,700 kilos of carbon dioxide - this is about the same as a petrol car emits in 21 thousand kilometres.

This is from just one average sized tree, in among maybe 10 thousand in the surrounding couple of miles, meaning the trees in the immediate area have stored in the region of 37 million kilos of carbon dioxide in their lifetime, when grouped together.

When looking at how this equates to the distance a car might travel, it equals 210 million kilometres!

In conclusion, Warton is home to some ancient woodland, that we should continue to value. These sorts of woods aren’t uncommon, but neither are they everywhere. And my final message would be to plant more trees. One tree won’t make much difference, but if thousands are planted locally, in suitable areas, the improvements could be huge.

James

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