Woodland floor management

[peds]

10 hours ago, Mark Wileman said:

What species are you growing? What sort of height are they at?

 

I'm trying to convice my dad to turn his 2 acres of arable fields that have 2 alpaca on into a woodland for my grandchildren to enjoy ?

Do it, plant a good range of trees, get some fruit trees mixed in there as well, and then release some wild boar into the forest when it’s old enough. This is my retirement plan for bacon.

[drinksloe]

28 minutes ago, peds said:

Do it, plant a good range of trees, get some fruit trees mixed in there as well, and then release some wild boar into the forest when it’s old enough. This is my retirement plan for bacon.

 

Which would be illegal unless very well fenced and u have a licence.

 

Also if surrounding by arable land very irresponsible and unfair to ur neighbouring landowners.

Boar can cause a massive ammount of damage to farmland

[peds]

39 minutes ago, drinksloe said:

 

Which would be illegal unless very well fenced and u have a licence.

 

Boar can cause a massive ammount of damage...

Well, a fence and a license seems a small price to pay for a good rasher every now and then. It does seem a little unnecessary to suggest that you’d want to fence them in to be honest, wild boar have never struck me as the kind of animal who’d stick around under their own volition. The clue is in the name.

 

And yes, they do cause damage. We have them in the forests here, wild wild ones. The evidence they leave is pretty impressive.

Edited October 23, 2018 by peds

[wrsni]

11 hours ago, Mark Wileman said:

What species are you growing? What sort of height are they at?

 

I'm trying to convice my dad to turn his 2 acres of arable fields that have 2 alpaca on into a woodland for my grandchildren to enjoy ?

It's become quite a long list as there was quite a wide variety at planting due to it having been done right at the very start of the Ash ban.

 

So major species would be English Oak, Birch, Alder, Hazel, Lime, Rowan, Wild Cherry. Next in numbers would be Sessile Oak, Scots Pine, Whitebeam, Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Guelder Rose. Then there'd be Norway Maple, Red Oak, Horse Chestnut, Crab Apple, Holly, probably missed something but that's the bulk.

 

So over there first couple of years there were some things that didn't make it and the spaces left by them was when things got interesting. As an example, Birch didn't establish well and given that there was roughly 600 of them even a 20% mortality in the first couple of years gives like over 100 spaces to play with. So since planting what has been added has been Sweet Chestnut, Wild Pear, Ash (dug up about the place and transplanted!), Pears, Apples, Apricots, Asian Pears, Plums, Damsons, Morello Cherries, Blackcurrants, Redcurrants, Whitecurrants, Blueberries, Tayberries, Gooseberries, Mulberry, Sea Buckthorn, Flowering Currant which I've propagated from the hedges elsewhere on the farm, and Wild Raspberries which I dug up along the banks of the railway line which runs alongside us. There's also one Strawberry Tree which the wee lasses sheep got at and ate last winter but I think it's going to recover. That sounds a lot but while some things are in hundreds, some things are in single figures, some things even just a couple. 

 

I'm sure the Alpacas are lovely, but surely they don't need two acres.

 

Maybe there's a compromise to be had somewhere?

Edited October 23, 2018 by wrsni
Forgot something!

[westphalian]

Get the local FC bloke in. Get a management plan and even a felling license. He or she will give good local advice

[Dan.masterman]

1 hour ago, westphalian said:

Get the local FC bloke in. Get a management plan and even a felling license. He or she will give good local advice

Tried that one in the first instance. Had a semi helpful reply saying my woodland was too small for a visit/consultation but did point me to the website where you can design your own management plan, but I was hoping for some professional advice/experience so felt a little reluctant to just plough on myself. Anyone had any dealings with the small woods association, Heard of them recently but would be good to hear anything anyone has to say as can’t find much online/locally

[westphalian]

Well, if the FC aren’t interested go for what you think right mate. Restock with 20% non natives for future proofing

I don’t think it’s rocket science. My FC fellow just said as long there is still a wood there in 10 years they are happy

[spandit]

On 23/10/2018 at 09:14, peds said:

Do it, plant a good range of trees, get some fruit trees mixed in there as well, and then release some wild boar into the forest when it’s old enough. This is my retirement plan for bacon.

Why not just electric fence and put some regular pigs in? Bacon breeds are pretty large and should be easier to handle than wild boar.

[westphalian]

I don’t know but wouldn’t that feck up the ground flora? What acreage would you need per pig for sustainable, what’s the word? Balance??

[Paul in the woods]

1 hour ago, Dan.masterman said:

Tried that one in the first instance. Had a semi helpful reply saying my woodland was too small for a visit/consultation but did point me to the website where you can design your own management plan, but I was hoping for some professional advice/experience so felt a little reluctant to just plough on myself.

I've got a few more acres than 3 and the FC also didn't seem that interested.  What website did yours point you to? I created a management plan using the myForest - https://sylva.org.uk/myforest/home   and found it fairly straight forward. It helped understand the woodland and get a better idea of what to do with it.