Help us to capture the beauty of our country parks

We are asking visitors to take pictures while they are out and about and send them to Nottinghamshire County Council’s social media channels to capture the essence of the autumn season.

Weather in recent months have ensured there is a bumper crop of acorns, berries, fungi, elderberries and rowans and frosts will trigger the winter shut down which in turn encourages leaf colour changes.

And with the first frosts taking place in the county this season, this has also been helping to encourage autumnal changes in recent weeks.

Any images capturing the season are welcome from Sherwood Forest, Rufford Abbey, Bestwood and Cotgrave Country Parks and we will put them on the county council’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Meanwhile, the winter programme is under way at Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve as part of the Higher Level Stewardship scheme which is financially supported by Natural England.

Such schemes are ten-year environmental management schemes which require support from a range of partners to develop a comprehensive agreement and achieve a wide range of environmental benefits for the long term.

The scheme at Sherwood features three separate aspects:

l High canopy competition pruning by specialist tree surgeons on adjacent mature trees which need to be pruned away from the ancient oaks to help them to thrive, whilst still retaining the mature trees which in time will become the successors to the ancient trees.

l Thinning of young oak and birch trees to reduce overcrowding and restore wood pasture conditions;

l Halo thin around some of the ancient oaks to give them much needed space and light;

As well as this vital conservation work, there are a huge number of events taking place within our country parks over the coming weeks and months.

One of the most symbolic events for this time of year was the very successful Seed Hunt Sunday at the end of October. This annual event features two guided walks and enables people to look at exploring the forest and the ancient oaks.

They then get to gather acorns from some of Sherwood’s amazing and magical oaks, and then our rangers explain how visitors can grow the acorns at home and bring the saplings back in a couple of years’ time for replanting in the wider Sherwood area.

For more details about other events , please visit the Nottinghamshire County Council website: www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/whatson

To get involved post up autumn pictures on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/nottscc or Facebook: www.facebook.com/nottinghamshire