Surrey Wildlife Trust to fell thousands of Ash trees

[Mark Bolam]

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[steve collins]

Now most likely they will get a harvester in to do the job as there have been words from euroforest saying no hand felling of ash as its safer??

 

What happens when they get to a rotten tree/ heavy leaner or tree to big for the head??

[Marc Lewis]

Gob cut, back cut, stand clear, winch over.

[LGP Eddie]

8 hours ago, steve collins said:

Now most likely they will get a harvester in to do the job as there have been words from euroforest saying no hand felling of ash as its safer??

 

What happens when they get to a rotten tree/ heavy leaner or tree to big for the head??

Not a job for a Harvester if you need to consider the surrounding trees. I’ve the kit to get such trees down in safety without manual intervention and need little room to do it.

 

Eddie.

[Khriss]

19 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

Mr. Mannix seems to be a sensible guy...

Hort Week recently had a piece about an estate felling all their ash ‘because they’re all going to die anyway’.

 

If ash are going to survive I think a more measured approach is necessary.

 

...possibly the same arguement a mad gun man in a bar would have.....

If the woodlands were poorly managed in the last two decades I might go with it - but 'safety first' would mean I would be felling all my trees as the target value is massive , K

[steve collins]

29 minutes ago, LGP Eddie said:

Not a job for a Harvester if you need to consider the surrounding trees. I’ve the kit to get such trees down in safety without manual intervention and need little room to do it.

 

Eddie.

I know you have the kit, But can an excavator with a grapple saw cut accurately to length?  or will it go through a bed processor aswell? no different to a harvester or highly skilled handcutters?? imo

 

As im sure the trees being cut would have to be sold on as firewood.

 

Its all down cost at the end of the day

 

 

 

[drinksloe]

10 hours ago, steve collins said:

Have just completed a job this year where 550 plus mature ash were felled on a THINNING PROGRAMME  where the trees are heavily monitored over 5 years due to it being a high public access and has a road along one edge, what they are saying is a clearfell which is just ridiculous.

 

Now the major problem is that they are saying they "  will only fell them at two metres or six feet, in case there is re-growth that may withstand the disease."

 

Hands up who wants to fell potentially rotten diseased ash at 2 metres??

 

The way i read the article it was the other bloke the objector who was saying fell at  6ft/2m essentially pollarding the trees.

 

I don't know enough about that area or ash die back and how common/devasting it is in eng to really comment on wot is right or wrong.

 

Reading the article i can see both points of view and both have valid points, it really all depends how many ash are affected and to wot extent.

The objector said fell/pollard anything over 50% dieback, but the trust boy says trees already have 80% dieback, if that is true then it really is a non story as the objector would be felling them too.

The only issue then is wether pollard hieght or coppice hieght??

 

Dunno the age of the woods/trees or % of ash but it will open up areas to potential windblow in the future

 

Surely it wouldn't be that bad a job to hand fell? Folk have been felling dead ash for years even before dieback came, just got to be extra careful.

Get a decent skidder/winch, throw line the anchor a decent hieght up.

probably ur biggest problem would be felling tree the way they are leaning as u couldn't trust ur normal 'safe' cuts to hold, u'd prob be safer winching it against the lean so winch has the pressure.

With a big enough winch u wouldn't need to be anywhere near the tree when it started to move so little dange of limbs dropping of

 

 

LPG eddie, wot sort of machines would u use for a job like that?

Only seen harvesters in softwoods so don't know how they'd handle all the big limbs at ackward angles, no doubt saw always be at wrong angle.

Plus most heads only have a 80ish cm bar and while i've seen them take trees far bigger than that i'd imagine they really would struggle with a large hardwood.

Also i bet getting/guessing the wieght/balance right on a big hardwood must be hard just the way a crown grows, very different from even a big softwood which is usually pretty obvious where the wieght is and all wieght in the stem intself (again making it easier to do multiple cuts on oversived trees)

[steve collins]

15 hours ago, drinksloe said:

 

The way i read the article it was the other bloke the objector who was saying fell at  6ft/2m essentially pollarding the trees.

 

 

Yes your right it was the objector who was saying fell at 2m but from what i can gather is that he is also the owner of two of the woodlands so id hope he gets a say in whatever process they choose.

 

They should just identify the worst trees and come in with a thinning programme which may take out pockets of trees but leave the remaining trees for monitoring/inspection and less chance of windblow, also the retained trees can be identified easy for ongoing works.

 

Harvesters are an option where they can cut the easier material(cleaner/straighter) but the head/machine does take a hammering, personally its a hand cut and winch job.

 

Im sure the job has gone out to tender, be interesting to see who won it and how its being completed

 

[timbernut]

We’ve found the only real problem with felling them by hand is if you use hi lift wedges good sized bits can drop off as you’re pounding em in so only use a winch now.

I also really don’t get the reasoning behind pollarding/coppicing as the regen, like the seedlings, is far more susceptible to the disease, or has this thinking changed? We now cut em flush t ground cos the regen always succumbs within 2 years.

There’s a half decent (3.5k per hectare) re establishment grant for ash woodland, with the disease, (much less for non native though)

[steve collins]

we only use skinny wedges and stack them if needed or use winch. There was a memo stating to not use hi lifts but cant remember from who.