Low impact forestry services in Devon and the South West

[arboriculturist]

25 minutes ago, Big J said:

 

Thanks for the encouragement!

 

I've burned loads of spruce myself up here, but I burn anything. 

 

I'd be felling for biomass chipwood predominantly, so spruce would be ideal. It does process nicely compared to larch and fir. 

 

As I said though, the trees were much too large really. 21m of product off a single stem is nothing like first thinning, but it's good that it can do it. It'd only be 2.5 trees or so to the tonne on that. 

 

Very confident that once we're up to speed that we can do a tree in 3 minutes with the winch to one point and reposition every 5 trees  or so. So, 20 odd trees an hour, which would equate to 5 tonnes an hour or so on smaller material. Might do better than that as I'm hopeless on the fairly complicated hydraulic controls at the moment.

The ideal of having the capability to handle most of the smaller stands with your gear sounds ideal. Even hand felling a percentage being the larger trees, at least you can stack and forward yourself. Looks like things are progressing favourably. ?

Edited July 23, 2018 by arboriculturist

[Big J]

And we are here! Exhausting 11 hour drive down on Friday with fully loaded van and trailer, along with my friend driving the 7.5t box lorry. 28-30c heat, no air conditioning and lost 3 hours to summer holiday traffic that actually started north of Manchester. 

 

Lorry unloaded and the weather has been gruesome since arriving. So much for moving south for sunnier climes! 

 

Couple of weeks getting the house completely sorted and then back to work in southern Scotland for a couple of weeks. I've two large contracts up there that could theoretically take up all my time, so might not even be working in Devon for the time being!

Edited July 29, 2018 by Big J

[gary112]

Good luck with everything BigJ hope it all works out down there

[woodwizzard]

Welcome to the South West Big J. You have certainly bought the rain down with you. 

 

Machines still up north?

 

Will keep my ears to the ground for any work, but by the sounds of it, nothing too soon.

[Big J]

2 hours ago, woodwizzard said:

Welcome to the South West Big J. You have certainly bought the rain down with you. 

 

Machines still up north?

 

Will keep my ears to the ground for any work, but by the sounds of it, nothing too soon.

 

3 hours ago, gary112 said:

Good luck with everything BigJ hope it all works out down there

 

Thanks chaps. 

 

Machines are still up north. Didn't make sense to drag them all the way down without any confirmed work when I knew I'd need them up north a couple of weeks later.

 

We've had virtually no rain since early April in Scotland!

[Matthew Storrs]

5 minutes ago, Big J said:

 

 

Thanks chaps. 

 

Machines are still up north. Didn't make sense to drag them all the way down without any confirmed work when I knew I'd need them up north a couple of weeks later.

 

We've had virtually no rain since early April in Scotland!

Hope you haven’t moved to Devon for the low rainfall!!!? Me on Dartmoor gets 3x the rainfall that my sister get in Northumberland- Edinburgh area looks similarly low.

[Big J]

3 minutes ago, Matthew Storrs said:

Hope you haven’t moved to Devon for the low rainfall!!!? Me on Dartmoor gets 3x the rainfall that my sister get in Northumberland- Edinburgh area looks similarly low.

No, I know it can be wet here. 

 

A lot drier in the Culm valley and East Devon in general, I am told

[Matthew Storrs]

I think if you asked a general cross section of the population where they think is drier- southwest or Northeast, most would instinctively say the southwest, they think of sunny beaches in summer etc. Unfortunately this is very skewed thinking. The southwest is a considerably wetter climate- just milder, take your pick which you’d prefer!!

[Matthew Storrs]

1 minute ago, Big J said:

No, I know it can be wet here. 

 

A lot drier in the Culm valley and East Devon in general, I am told

Yep- east of Exeter generally drier by far.

[Matthew Storrs]

Although with your low impact machines this could swing well in your favour?