Biodiversity Northern Ireland

Slantry Wood Local Nature Reserve Habitat Improvement

Slantry Wood LNR is made up of patches of wet woodland, semi natural woodland, species rich lowland meadow and one field which is listed as improved grassland. Within the site are stretches of species rich mature native hedgerow. Most of the wood was planted in the early 1970's. In order to improve the habitats on site a number of projects were carried out during 2008. Since the trees are still not mature enough to provide adequate nest sites, bird boxes which are suitable for a range of birds were erected in the woodland. A new hazel coppice has been established containing 600 hazel whips. These will be allowed to become established before being coppiced for the first time. Improvements have also been carried out to the main watercourse which runs through the site. Silt and debris from the nearby motorway which had accumulated in the stream was removed and a small scrape enlarged to improve water quality and create areas of open standing water.