About the area

Giggle Alley is an irregular shaped woodland of 8.9ha, located to the south of Miterdale, on the western side of Cumbria. It is owned freehold and was acquired in 1961. It sits to the northern edge of the village of Eskdale Green and is mostly used for recreation from the local residents, alongside the presence of a Japanese Garden within the woodland. 

The woodland is subject to a Statutory Plant Health Notice (SPHN) requiring the removal of all larch to reduce the risk to neighbouring woodlands for Phytophthora ramorum. 

As such, this forest management plan aims for conversion of a mixture of broadleaf and conifer areas, with a focus on future resilience. 

Objectives of the forest plan

Economic

• Establish economically viable and commercially marketable parcels of timber to maintain future productivity of the forest.
• Successfully restock sites and underplanting operations with minimised pest damage, and controlled regeneration of larch species.

Environmental

• Restore to native species. Thinning and clearfell programme to continue to reduce presence of infected larch,  and to increase structural diversity in the broadleaved components.
• Protect and enhance historic features through operational best practice.

Social

• Ongoing restructuring of the woodland and local community engagement as appropriate.

What we'll do

Giggle Alley will undergo a significant species change during the plan period, with the larch component being felled where appropriate, and girdled and left standing as habitat where appropriate, to form a deadwood habitat.

The opportunity to create new, mixed stands of broadleaf species will improve the forest in the period after this felling takes place. This plan provides opportunities to increase the areas managed under Low Impact Silvicultural Systems to the long-term benefit of the forest, through increased age, species, and structural diversity.

The current plan outlines management proposals including felling and restocking over several decades, with felling licence approval for operations up until 2035.

For further information regarding species composition and the future management of Giggle Alley, please refer to the full plan below.