Pollards, the forgotten art-discussion

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Paradise, When i say darwins theory is wrong, which is not REALLY what i meant but how it was took due to my over excited and somewhat emotional reply! what i measnt was that, whilst i appreciate the Selfish gene thing is of course twadddle, there are definate and very obvious truths in the theory of "Inclusionality theory of evolution" i believe it is more like "the theory of evolution by natural inclusion) bit of a mouthfull!

 

The thing with dawkins is, he is as religous in his fervour for the darwanistic views as any of those creationists he seeks to disprove, Inclusional theory, is as much about a state of mind, as it is about a state of evolutionary, nieghbourly thinking.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

howdy, i am glad you have a sense of humour, i think you need to realise that most of us arent against a pollarding, i think you should spend some time looking through monkeyd's threads over the last couple of years, i have only been on here for just over a year and i have had my eyes opened to diferent techniques, but i do have a mortgage to pay and if i dont do it someone else will, i certainly wont jepordise my reputation thats for sure. but the trouble with a private contractor doing monoliths, pollarding, very light reductions etc. our customers have a budget and there is the insurance side of things, i can guarantee to take the sail effect out a big sycamore if i pollard it but not if i trim 5 feet off it all the way round, and who wants a rotting stem in their back garden attracting bugs and fungis. i have spent a lot of time wondering why why why, now i am quite content on because it just is, i dont have the IQ to take in half the stuff anyway.

 

Come on fella, you aint fick! and why not garauntee a five feet reduction all round?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

English oak,amongst other species,was the backbone of early industrial revolution,as before then timber was grown and cut for boatbuilding,land transport and building.

Coppice and pollard provided for the many structural forms now replaced by plastics,metals and concrete.

As the comercial viability of timber declines due to 'new materials' and timber imports,these old 'working trees' are left to their own devices.

It is my wish that they(coppice & pollard) were still worked and the produce used.

 

i totaly agree, and it isnt as though we dont have a market for the produce iether! madness

[Nick B]

can i just ask, does everyone agree that we need as humans to change our thinking?

 

don't read between the lines! as it states!

 

You get a yes from me as well:thumbup1:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

How about ''culturally selfish'' I like the sound of that.............

 

well thats kinda where the term selfish gene mislead. if you mean what i think you mean, if you know what i mean! lmao:001_tt2:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

madness, I gave you lot a thread for this imensely interesting debate and you all want to have the gene evolution flippin talk in this thread! go on the lot of you, get on over to the rayner thread and keep it going!

[geoff]

As an aside,(so please forgive),I was today talking to a ma who mills/splits and works timber suplying various trades(lock gates,furniture,chestnut fence etc),and he is making and selling shingles,usualy made from resinous evergreen, well,he is also producing shingles from poplar,and reckons they are durable.

Back on track,these old pollards/copice that are now not worked,what prognosis for their future? I feel they would live for longer,even as a legacy of our past,if they were to be worked.

But fear they were used as a 'spring board' to lift us to the 'plastic era'!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

As an aside,(so please forgive),I was today talking to a ma who mills/splits and works timber suplying various trades(lock gates,furniture,chestnut fence etc),and he is making and selling shingles,usualy made from resinous evergreen, well,he is also producing shingles from poplar,and reckons they are durable.

Back on track,these old pollards/copice that are now not worked,what prognosis for their future? I feel they would live for longer,even as a legacy of our past,if they were to be worked.

But fear they were used as a 'spring board' to lift us to the 'plastic era'!

 

those old pollards will in time all split themselves to pieces, and doubt many of the best examples of hornbeam and beach have long if we dont act soon.

 

I had an idea once to gather a clan of like minded men of high calibre, we would call ourselves the ivy leuge and go about the country volunteering to work ancient pollards to save them, totaly free of charge, landrover a tipee and a chipper, loads of eco work done while at it sort of thing.

[Stephen Blair]

why not guarantee a 5 feet reduction?

 

i am not thick but the year i thinned out 2 trees they blew over in a storm a few months later, one landed on a main rd during the day and the other miseed a house by a cats whiskers, they were both root bound, one was about fo ft high and the other was about 3 feet in diameter. i never recomended the works, i originally wanted to fell them but i was convinced by the customer to thin them out, there were no visual signs of root problems above ground.

[woodmad]

I have been working for the last few yeasr with a sawmill and 're marketing' the idea that the timber we are surrounded by can be re used- a tree taken down in a garden can be made into furniture, or a shed in the very place it came down. Because thats exactly what we used to do, coppice and pollard products were used locally, those products kept people employed locally and thus the cycle continued, until cheap oil. Thats the problem we face. Its far easier and cheaper to buy a picnic bench from b&q than have one made from local oak. But if oil gets expensive and 'timber miles' get expensive then we will need to use local timber for local product. But it about education and money. Your man with his tree next to the house mibght like the idea that if it were pollarded it would keep him in firewood for life, but hes got a gas fire..

So just fell it and be done..

 

The world has changed, for some its for the better. Life in the woods to get your products is hard, trying to sell shingles and compete with tin is hard, splitting firewood is hard. People want an easy life. You come home and switch the lights on. They wrok without anythought as to where the power is coming from.

 

Its all well and good looking at how pollarding fits with nature-bugs , fungi etc, but how does it fit with your man in the street?

 

Starting to waffle again..