Low impact forestry services in Devon and the South West

[MattyF]

On another note I I’m pretty jealous of your 80t days and nice big timber , managed about 4t yesterday but half the job was burning every thing so the land owner had a nice view whilst fishing so good thing that we are not getting paid by the tonne.

[woodland dweller]

I am the landowner ! Its my back garden and play area! And the team is doing a grand job.

The site was FC owned until i purchased it 10 years ago and was regularly thinned and looked after.

The stand was planted 58 years ago on ancient woodland site.

The soil is thin over a bed of stone so ground is not being churned up.

As i eat my breakfast the guys are cutting and the tractor is at work, a bit noisy but nearly finished.

The site is being left tidy with very little compaction.

Sun shining since they started, so every one is happy. 

One other contractor gave me a price using a harvester but with our calculations could get more out of it with J. 

[Khriss]

10 hours ago, ESS said:

What do you mean by cheapest,wasnt it a standing sale you bid on? Yes, you stated recently you were paying cutters £200 for a 10 hour day? That's ok for the area , but not what would be considered a very good rate.Good cutters in that size /quality of timber would cut 25t in 8 hours, I would put £9/t on hand cutting that.

By the way, I get £80 / hour drawing up subsidence mitigation schemes n BS5837 construction surveys, so why would I pick up my Husqy fr £200 a day ? Problys cos I would like that sort of work and it's good fr you. Possibly a good days work and a fine finish rewards these blokes in ways most people wouldnot get. K

[Big J]

This is a slightly below average weight load as it contains no 4.9s and the 3.7s were a touch smaller than average. Also, so general scenery shots.

 

Managed 11 loads today (around 65 tonnes) but that was extracting directly from felling, instead of from stacks created by the forwarder. 

Edited March 28, 2019 by Big J

[Big J]

11 hours ago, woodland dweller said:

I am the landowner ! Its my back garden and play area! And the team is doing a grand job.

The site was FC owned until i purchased it 10 years ago and was regularly thinned and looked after.

The stand was planted 58 years ago on ancient woodland site.

The soil is thin over a bed of stone so ground is not being churned up.

As i eat my breakfast the guys are cutting and the tractor is at work, a bit noisy but nearly finished.

The site is being left tidy with very little compaction.

Sun shining since they started, so every one is happy. 

One other contractor gave me a price using a harvester but with our calculations could get more out of it with J. 

Thanks for the encouragement Colin, it's a wonderful place to work ?

Edited March 28, 2019 by Big J

[Khriss]

Couldn't better that ! Less ground impact than a herd of mountain bikers. K

[Khriss]

( and you wouldn't have had as good a result with a harvester there as those trees ain't got enuff brash on them, just fluff at top, so the extra weight n tyre chewing would mean you lost out to hand cut / mini forwarder ) 

[Stere]

Locals woods had a harvester in over winter,  am impressed by the scale size  of some of the the ruts that are near waist deep and 10metres long. Now they are basically ponds.

 

Somebody was telling me ruts are actually a bonus as they create a habitat/bare ground which increases spieces diversity.

 

 

There is an area locally of  of sand dune slacks offroaders had being driving over for yrs before it was banned

 

Now they have had conservation volunteers in the same area striping areas of the sand of to recreate "ruts" as offroading has being banned. They also have had  diggers in for weeks scraping vegetation from  the dunes etc to recreat mobile sand.

 

So basically ruts aren't all bad in some respects......

 

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2019 by Stere

[Khriss]

Yr right Stere, however waist deep would class as work at height ! There is some benefit churning up the soils for wildflowers and small bird feeding, but in a measured way. K 

[openspaceman]

18 minutes ago, Stere said:

Now they have had conservation volunteers in the same area striping areas of the sand of to recreate "ruts" as offroading has being banned. They also have had  diggers in for weeks scraping vegetation from  the dunes etc to recreat mobile sand.

We have a local common that was inhibited from returning from heath to secondary woodland by the army manoeuvres with tanks and universal carriers, now it is a nature reserve and the volunteers cannot control the regrowth, such that last weekend 30ha went up in flames.

 

However this is a sandy site and the ruts and erosion can be avoided, this is not the case in woodland where the ruts run along the racks and rides.

 

Also there is no crop so loss of increment from compaction and waterlogging is not a problem.

 

About 4 miles away there is a MOD site which had reverted to forest, it has been mechanically harvested and rutted with arisings left such that one can now only walk the main tracks which were reinstated with a 360.