THE large-scale felling of trees on Exmoor was defended this week by Forestry England.

Wootton Courtenay resident Jean Shortland said she was shocked to discover the scale of the felling in an area where she regularly rides horses and exercises her dog.

Mrs Shortland said she had not been given any advance notice of the work on Wootton Ridge being started despite being probably the closest neighbour.

She said: “They are destroying the habitat up there. What about climate change?

“We did not know anything about it and we should have been notified as a near-neighbour.

“They have closed a lot of tracks where horses are ridden which means riders have to go along dangerous roads.

“Forestry England put up signs saying what they were doing but you cannot get off and look at them.

“Diversions are in place but we tried it and had to stop because it was a dead end.”

Mrs Shortland said the felling was also taking place during the bird nesting season and she had found a robin’s nest with eggs on the ground and seen a tawny owl flying in daylight which it would not usually do.

Forestry England said the Wootton Ridge woodland was a working timber forest managed to Forest Stewardship Council and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification standards.

A spokeswoman said Wootton Ridge had been difficult to access until a new service road was installed in 2021 allowing a number of operations across the forest to improve its long-term health and resilience.

The spokeswoman said: “Harvesting trees is an important part of sustainable forest management and well managed forests support more wildlife.

“We strive to balance the need for woodland management and sustainable timber with the year-round activity of wildlife, but there is no completely risk-free time of the year to harvest timber.”

She said the Forestry England website www.forestryengland.uk/article/felling-and-nesting-birds explained the challenges in more detail.

“Our ecologist has carried out thorough surveys of Wootton Ridge and remains in regular contact with our experienced site team,” she said.

“If we become aware of any wildlife conflict, we will alter our workplan under our ecologist’s guidance.

“Our rangers have met with local community groups and residents in the run-up to this work and have installed new information signs at key access points, so I am sorry to hear that our communication has not been clear.

“We are always keen to improve, if visitors would share their feedback with us via [email protected].”