Study tour of the Basque region Trees

[David Humphries]

Following, is a photo-visual diary of my trip to the Basque region of Spain.

It will be a marathon, so bring a pack lunch with you

 

Nowhere beter to start than, ......the Trees

 

including; in no particular order, Old Beech Pollards, Veteran Field Maples, Birch, Ash & Plane pollards.

 

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[David Humphries]

The reason behind the trip, was to assess & evaluate regrowth, on a number of lappsed pollards at various sites, that were worked on by a callaboration of Spanish. Swiss & British Arborists from 3 years ago.

 

The trip at the beginning of October, was an opportunity for a group of Ecologists, Rangers & Arbs from the City of London, together with a couple of members of the Ancient Tree Forum, to climb & record regrowth & failure since the original work of '07/08 to provide data that will hopefully build a blue print of how & when to return very old lappsed pollards back in to cycle, to a state where self destruction is mitigated.

 

The Ecological importance of these trees continuing to be being maintained, both in mainland Europe & back here in Blighty, is huge, as they support the micro habitats of a vast range of fungi, lichen, invertebrates, mammal & avian life with many of these being the on Red data lists of threatened species.

 

To follow, will be images of the people, the work, the flora & fauna & the scenery that helped make the trip for me incredibly memorable.

 

 

You may note that there is an obvious exclusion of mycological shots on this thread, which I hear you say is a tad odd for Monkeyd.

Fear not, I haven't forgotten them, they have already been posted here....http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/fungi-pictures/10467-travelling-fungalburys.html

 

 

 

 

Credit for some of the shots to J Dagley, K Davies & H Read.

Edited March 28, 2010 by Monkey-D

[Mark T]

Sweeeeet!

[Tommy_B]

Fantastic pictures Mr H!! Cheers for posting!!

[David Humphries]

The people......

 

CoL team -

Doctors Helen Read & Jeremy Dagley BB & EF

Rangers, Martin Hardup, Kevin Davies BB

Climbers, Ian Barker & David Humphries EF & HH

 

Atf, Caroline Davis & Roy Finch

 

We met up with some incredibly passionate local Ecologists, Arborists, Rangers, enthusiasts & fungi foragers.

 

Some of the above I hope to continue the association with.

 

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[Hannah]

Truly Wonderful!!!

[Arborist Sites]

Dave,

 

what do you think of the Arbotom ? was it as useful as the kellykettle

[Mesterh]

Fantastic pics!!!

 

No doubt you had a great time there!

 

In pic 25(i think) the roadside pollards had they been pruned with a machete or something since they didnt look like neat cuts.

[testcricket01]

some interesting pics there thanks for posting

[David Humphries]

 

Ash trees, pollarded for fodder every three years by hand Axe

 

 

Out of the 38 or so trees to climb & assess, there were only a handful of any considerable height.

The majority having been pollarded almost back to the top of the bolling.

Although a few were up around the 50/60' mark, having been reduced by only 2 or 3 meters

 

So not the most challenging of ascents, but the issue was how fragile the regrowth was.

The object being, not to damage/knock off any new epicormic or adventitious sprouts.

 

We were measuring;

distance between terminal bud scars before & after the reductions on the retained growth.

How far back the callous tissue had retrenched down from the cut stubs.

Which orientation the stubs were cut to.

Comparing traditional Axe cuts to Chainsaw ones.

& the length of the new regrowth.

 

And of course, taking lots of photos.

 

One of the beter opportunities, was to compare & share climbing techniques and equipment with the Spanish Arbs who were present.

Left them with AT buisness cards, copies of photos of micro pulleys & hitches and tied a few hitches for them.

 

Last shot is how it's traditionally done

Great skill though

 

 

So, here's some of the Arborial shots.

 

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Edited November 18, 2009 by Monkey-D