This month, all the photographs in the series were taken in September, though not this year. My digital pictures go back to when I bought my first DSLR camera, and I like to share them.
This image is from the forest we walk in almost every day. The Forest of Dean is situated close to the border with Wales in the west of Gloucestershire. One edge is bounded by the River Wye, part of its valley is an AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). We are able to take approximately 50 different walks without needing to drive, which is wonderful. Recently, the owners of the region, Forestry England, have been tackling the problems of invasive pests damaging and killing some of the trees. They’ve felled ash trees close to the roads due to Ash Dieback, and are felling large areas of larch affected by a bacterial infection, as well as some oaks subject to Sudden Oak Death. They’ve been quite active in our immediate area and many of our walks have been seriously altered. That activity has stopped for the time being, but they’re due back to finish off the job in October.
Fortunately, we know the forest well and have several ways of avoiding the area where they’ve been working. Much of this necessary felling is exacerbated by the effects of climate change.
There are many different tree varieties in the forest, and much of the planting mixes deciduous with evergreen. In fact, it’s now the policy of the managers to avoid large monoculture planting to prevent the spread of the various tree pathogens.

There are also some steps being taken to reduce the destructive alien squirrels. Grey Squirrels were imported by landowners and brought with them a disease that is fatal to our native Red Squirrels. A current exercise is using the benign method of targeted birth control to reduce the population of greys. They’ve also introduced pine martens and beavers as a way to positively manage the land.

The picture here is from a walk deep in the forest away from the major tracks, a quiet, secluded environment that suits our aim of gathering spiritual refreshment from the trees. This one was taken in 2014.

#

I’m posting a weekly photograph of our wonderful world here, but I’m also Tweeting one each day, with the hashtag #ourworldiswonderful, join me there if you wish, you’ll find me here. I hope you’ll comment, like, and share these to spread the joy of natural beauty to as many people as possible. It just might persuade some to join the cause and fight the coming climate emergency and species extinction.

*****…*****
More pictures appear in the Gallery.
Find over 2400 of my images here for whatever you fancy online, or as art quality prints to decorate a room, office, den, or for book covers, calendars, greetings cards, jigsaws, advertising, or whatever else you need.
The small fee helps me maintain and buy equipment and software quality digital photography demands. Everyone should be able to afford my work, I loathe the exclusivity of high prices.