Land regeneration through fertility, forests, farming and fermentation. The Acorn Project is an unfolding story of woodland reconnection, habitat restoration, the revival of craft and the healing of earth. We look after an area of land in Sussex, which was a farm, with a central pond and ancient wooded valley, and in the last 20 years has become a dense woodland again. Over population of young Oak
s trees combined with extensive deer grazing as the woodland re-grew in these years has reduced the diversity of plants, trees and wildlife in the woodland. As is symptomatic of most woodlands in the UK today – the density of the tree-top canopy allows virtually no direct sunlight to reach the forest floor past the Oak leaves during the lightest months, and few plants (that would benefit the ecology), other than brambles and ferns are able in the diminished light. What does grow before the leaves of competing trees create total shade in Spring is soon devoured by hoards of Deer, who are often seen in large numbers browsing the land. Our task is to make the woodland healthier through sustainable woodland management; encouraging beneficial species and increasing biodiversity, as well as, with agroforestry and the with the ethos of permaculture - to generate income and increased demand for the products of the woodland with our labour and craft and to reinvest and profits into spreading the seeds of forest gardens and woodland restoration.
