MUSHROOM SEASON...

The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is upon us, but this is also the season of mushrooms, and Three Cornered Copse has several species proudly on display.

The leaves are only just starting to fall in the woodland, so the fungus has to begin sporing before the forest floor is covered with the leaf litter in deepest autumn.

There are over 14,000 species of mushroom in the UK; most are edible, but even experts have no real way of telling which are poisonous, unless they can make a definitive identification. A general rule is to avoid the ones with a red cap (among others). The one pictured may well be a Meadow Puffball, but there are no guarantees... Unless you’re a real expert, don’t forage for mushrooms in Three Cornered Copse.

Our new information board is ready for installation, and waiting for our next work day, with a willing Park Ranger, to supervise its erection. It’s taken a few years to get there, but now the work on the house at the bottom end of the path has completed, at the junction with Goldstone Crescent, we can go ahead. The board was removed from the twitten between Woodland Avenue and Woodland Drive, cleaned and treated for re-deployment.

One corner of the copse still remains under threat from the traffic plans for the widening of Dyke Road Avenue. Mixed and uncommitted answers from the council’s planners add to the uncertainty. A recent question on the viability of the proposal to shave off the top of the copse land to provide tarmac for a council-specified pedestrian and cycle lane was answered as "The requirement for/suitability of this proposed change will be determined by an assessment of its impacts and the designation/status of the land involved." Clearly, the decision has not been formed, and it’s worth writing to our councillors to let them know the strength of feeling on this, before it is decided. Some support for the copse from Campaign For Rural England (Sussex) is listed as a comment on the planning website. "This [Three Cornered Copse] is a fantastic area of woodland which should be protected, without sections being sliced off for tarmac." It’s encouraging, but may not be enough. But our work days persist, and as usual, all are invited. The next few dates are 12 October, 9 November and 7 December. All permitted by decent weather of course.

Simon Baxendale