On Tuesday 17th February 2026 the Hyndburn’s Woodlands project was back at Whinney Hill woodland continuing with the Invasive Non-Native Species removal started last year.
This took the form of clearing a large encroachment of Henry’s Honeysuckle, this voracious species, at one point, was fully blocking the path, as well as strangling a young Oak tree. The species is a climber, and so was finding its way onto and up anything nearby.
We have spent a lot of time snipping all of the climbing material’s connections to the ground. This has worked wonders for the material up the Oak, all of which has now died off, freeing up the Oak for Spring growth.
The material on the ground has proven much more difficult, despite piling it up into large stacks, we have found that it is still managing to produce new growth with little to no light.
We filled 3 large builders-sacks with cut material (and 2 smaller sacks), this still only amounted to half of the material that was onsite. After one more session all of the material should be fully removed.
We then carried out a small supplementary tree planting activity to replace the Guelder Rose we unfortunately had to cut down previously (as this was covered in Henry’s Honeysuckle and had its roots intertwined.
Thank you to our wonderful volunteers who helped us keep Hyndburn’s woodlands native! As always, thank you to our funders at Lancashire County Council, Hyndburn Borough Council, and the Windfall Fund for making it all possible
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