Low impact forestry services in Devon and the South West

[Big J]

Finally got the spruce clearfell finished. With a tyre tearing and it being a bit of a struggle to find a replacement, getting finished on site dragged on a bit. Here are a few photos and a video from site.

 

 

 

 

And an aerial video, with many thanks for Olly Swiggs (Mr Mulcher):

 

 

Edited November 17, 2019 by Big J

[the village idiot]

On 11/10/2019 at 22:59, Big J said:

Not yet certain we'll mulch it, but do have a chap from Kingwell Holdings coming out on Thursday to quote to mulch it with a monster purpose built machine

Just been catching up on your thread J.

 

We had Kingwell out for a week this Summer. If you zoom in on the cab you'll see they're pretty serious about bringing on younger operators.

 

[Big J]

1 hour ago, the village idiot said:

Just been catching up on your thread J.

 

We had Kingwell out for a week this Summer. If you zoom in on the cab you'll see they're pretty serious about bringing on younger operators.

 

I did have them out to quote on the site, but the landowner didn't want to splash out to that extent. Having the excavator based machine doing it meant that yes, the stumps are still mostly there, but it was a little under half the cost.

 

Lovely machine though.

[the village idiot]

10 minutes ago, Big J said:

I did have them out to quote on the site, but the landowner didn't want to splash out to that extent. Having the excavator based machine doing it meant that yes, the stumps are still mostly there, but it was a little under half the cost.

 

Lovely machine though.

Yes, they are very expensive but worked out cost effective for me as I am only based in one Wood and have saved thousands into the future.

 

Saying that, I didn't even pick up the bill so even better!

 

[Stere]

Whats the plan for the  strip  in pic above ?

[the village idiot]

43 minutes ago, Stere said:

Whats the plan for the  strip  in pic above ?

We have cut around 5km of very wide rides in the Wood. They will be managed on a three zone system.

 

The centre section will be mown once or twice a year (not that ride in the picture as the centre is actually concrete). this will be zone 1. Next to zone 1 will be a strip mown every third year (zone 2). Zone 3 was not mulched, these are the brambly edges you can see in the photo. These zones will be cut every 7-12 years.

 

It's all about creating different habitats. Before the mulcher came through zones 1 and 2 were littered with Ash stumps and almost impossible to mow efficiently. Now we can cruise along with the chain swipe.

 

The brown areas have already greened up nicely. I'll try and remember to post a picture of the same scene in Spring.

[drinksloe]

3 hours ago, the village idiot said:

We have cut around 5km of very wide rides in the Wood. They will be managed on a three zone system.

 

The centre section will be mown once or twice a year (not that ride in the picture as the centre is actually concrete). this will be zone 1. Next to zone 1 will be a strip mown every third year (zone 2). Zone 3 was not mulched, these are the brambly edges you can see in the photo. These zones will be cut every 7-12 years.

 

It's all about creating different habitats. Before the mulcher came through zones 1 and 2 were littered with Ash stumps and almost impossible to mow efficiently. Now we can cruise along with the chain swipe.

 

The brown areas have already greened up nicely. I'll try and remember to post a picture of the same scene in Spring.

Very impressive habitat management.

Was just wondering with ur zones 2 and 3 will u do all the ride in a oner or cut sections each year so always a bit of the scrubber stuff left??

Have u planted anything special in it, esp zone 1 for wild flowers or butterflies??

 

Cheers. Again hats of to u.

Is there grants for that sort of management?

[monkeybusiness]

3 hours ago, the village idiot said:

We have cut around 5km of very wide rides in the Wood. They will be managed on a three zone system.

 

The centre section will be mown once or twice a year (not that ride in the picture as the centre is actually concrete). this will be zone 1. Next to zone 1 will be a strip mown every third year (zone 2). Zone 3 was not mulched, these are the brambly edges you can see in the photo. These zones will be cut every 7-12 years.

 

It's all about creating different habitats. Before the mulcher came through zones 1 and 2 were littered with Ash stumps and almost impossible to mow efficiently. Now we can cruise along with the chain swipe.

 

The brown areas have already greened up nicely. I'll try and remember to post a picture of the same scene in Spring.

 

8 minutes ago, drinksloe said:

Very impressive habitat management.

Was just wondering with ur zones 2 and 3 will u do all the ride in a oner or cut sections each year so always a bit of the scrubber stuff left??

Have u planted anything special in it, esp zone 1 for wild flowers or butterflies??

 

Cheers. Again hats of to u.

Is there grants for that sort of management?

This is superb, two great posts! 

More of this everywhere please people!! 

Edited November 17, 2019 by monkeybusiness

[the village idiot]

5 minutes ago, drinksloe said:

Very impressive habitat management.

Was just wondering with ur zones 2 and 3 will u do all the ride in a oner or cut sections each year so always a bit of the scrubber stuff left??

Have u planted anything special in it, esp zone 1 for wild flowers or butterflies??

 

Cheers. Again hats of to u.

Is there grants for that sort of management?

Thanks Drinksloe,

 

Yes, zone 3 will be cut in stages, 50 or so mtrs at a time to leave some scrub in place at all times. With zone 2 we will alternate sides each cut.

 

I don't plan to plant anything in any of the zones. We should get some interesting wildflowers coming up of their own accord especially if we 'rake' the rides after mowing.

 

I put the Wood into Countryside Stewardship. The ride creation and maintenance is a big part of the agreement. The Wood is pretty big so we get just shy of £10,000 a year for our ride/coppicing/thinning/pond interventions.

 

Apologies for the derail J.

[Bolt]

I must admit I had grave reservations about this thread back on July 31st, but putting that aside, I reckon this is the best Arbtalk mini-series currently.

 

This low impact stuff is great!