Bamse's Wood is a newly planted forest and nature reserve that sits between

Gosforth Gosforth is a suburb of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It constituted a separate Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district from 1895 until 1974 before officially merging with the city of New ...

and

Nether Wasdale Nether Wasdale is a village in Cumbria, England, located in the Wasdale valley, near the River Irt and just over a mile to the west of the Wastwater lake. Notable features The main church in Nether Wasdale is St Michaels and All Angels Church ...

in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

, Cumbria, England. The 17-acre reserve is approached via Guards Lonning an ancient

bridleway A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding horses, riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now s ...

. The

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...

supported and gave advice for the scheme which has the effect of forming a wildlife corridor between the commission's own Blengdale Forest to the north and Meolbank Plantation along with Bolton Wood to the south which is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. The planting of the wood is designed to provide a habitat for the endangered

red squirrel The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris'') is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' common throughout Europe and Asia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent. In Great Britain, Ireland, and in Italy numbers ...

and allow mobility for the squirrel between forests. Tree species are predominantly indigenous

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

with an accent on fruit and nut producing types. The wood is named after Bamse, the St Bernard dog that was the mascot of the Free Norwegian forces during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The wood was bought and planted to offset the

carbon footprint A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Greenhouse gases, including the carbon-containing gases carbo ...

of the children's book about the dog written by Anna Mandell, who suffered from

motor neuron disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

and whose ashes were buried in a small garden area within the woodland in September 2016.

References

Forests and woodlands of Cumbria Gosforth, Cumbria {{Cumbria-geo-stub