An Idiot's guide to Ancient Woodland management

[the village idiot]

SHIPP AHOY!

 

So now you've all hopefully met John Shipp, I'll tell you what he did.

 

As previously mentioned I had only completed two out of the three coppice compartments (with ponds) and the big 14ton digger was booked for the pond restoration. I had taken all the understorey (Hazel) out of compartment 3 but didn't have time to do all the larger felling. Things were also complicated by the fact that the pond in compartment 3 was pretty big with a lot of mature Ash and Alder leaning over it. I didn't have any kind of winch for pulling trees out of the water, but John has an 8ton excavator with grab. Sorted!

 

John arrived with an assortment of merry men and they set to on the coupe. The excavator is a massive help with this type of job as it can stack brash and timber, pull down trees which have hung up (fallen into the canopy of a neighbouring tree) as well as drag trees from the pond, all without rutting up the precious forest floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's me turning up just as they were finishing  to tell them I'd actually prefer a light thinning.

 

 

John did a fantastic job, as he always does. He stacked all the timber (around 200 tons) at the ride edges ready for extraction. John has the machinery for log extraction but on this first occasion I actually called upon another new acquaintance, Chris Howard (CHC on arbtalk). He had some low impact kit that I was keen to see perform and it was small enough to fit over the small bridge which leads down to my firewood processing area.

 

 

 

You can see by the greenery that the extraction was done the following Spring. If at all possible it's best to stay off Woodland rides until they are hard. A dry spell in the Spring or Summer bakes the heavy clay soils into a surface akin to concrete.

[Woodsman1967]

Great thread !  I'm fairly new to arbtalk and its great to see a fellow woodsmans work in action .

 

I,ve been coppicing ancient woodlands in Essex (mainly in the north and west) for about 20 years now ,

all overstood stuff , mostly not cut for best part of a century .

 

Ive mainly worked in SSSI woods , felling between an acre and a hectare a year , most of it is hazel understory with huge overstood ash and maple .

 

Done all of it hand cutting/felling  and low impact extraction (no big machines , just lots of blood .sweat and tears , mainly sweat ! ), and the vast majority split by axe and sold as firewood .

 

Never made a great deal of money from it , more of a lifestyle choice really ,just love being in the woods .

 

Would love to come and have a wander round and see all your work , preferably once the current rainy season has passed  !

 

 

[the village idiot]

28 minutes ago, Woodsman1967 said:

Great thread !  I'm fairly new to arbtalk and its great to see a fellow woodsmans work in action .

 

I,ve been coppicing ancient woodlands in Essex (mainly in the north and west) for about 20 years now ,

all overstood stuff , mostly not cut for best part of a century .

 

Ive mainly worked in SSSI woods , felling between an acre and a hectare a year , most of it is hazel understory with huge overstood ash and maple .

 

Done all of it hand cutting/felling  and low impact extraction (no big machines , just lots of blood .sweat and tears , mainly sweat ! ), and the vast majority split by axe and sold as firewood .

 

Never made a great deal of money from it , more of a lifestyle choice really ,just love being in the woods .

 

Would love to come and have a wander round and see all your work , preferably once the current rainy season has passed  !

 

 

Hi there, great to hear from you.

 

Do please pay us a visit. It would be great to have a walk around and compare notes. You have many years more experience than me. Maybe it would be possible to visit one of your sites too?

 

Don't be fooled by all the big kit pictures. I spend the vast majority of my time thigh deep in brambles moving sticks from one place to another. The machinery shots generally make for the best pictures. It's very difficult to take interesting photos of stands of trees, although there will be some when we get onto the ride widening posts.

 

Do feel free to post any interesting experiences you have had in the Woods on this thread. The more input from people, the merrier.

 

Do you know how to send a personal message?

[Newbie Forester]

Absolutely agree - great thread! I started trying to get an over stood coppice into rotation 2 years ago. I'm about to take the plunge and try a charcoal business using the coppice and some nearby woodland I can access. Very interesting to hear what you're doing.
I too would love to join the tour of your woods if I can....I can bring tea or ale...your choice!

[the village idiot]

24 minutes ago, Newbie Forester said:

Absolutely agree - great thread! I started trying to get an over stood coppice into rotation 2 years ago. I'm about to take the plunge and try a charcoal business using the coppice and some nearby woodland I can access. Very interesting to hear what you're doing.
I too would love to join the tour of your woods if I can....I can bring tea or ale...your choice!

Great stuff, interested visitors are always welcome, especially those bearing goodies! (chocolate hobnobs gain you free entry).

 

I do have an Exeter retort. I'll try and bring the charcoal section of the thread forward a bit so I can give you my thoughts.

 

You can also have a good look at it when you visit.

 

Where are you based?

[Woodsman1967]

1 hour ago, the village idiot said:

Hi there, great to hear from you.

 

Do please pay us a visit. It would be great to have a walk around and compare notes. You have many years more experience than me. Maybe it would be possible to visit one of your sites too?

 

Don't be fooled by all the big kit pictures. I spend the vast majority of my time thigh deep in brambles moving sticks from one place to another. The machinery shots generally make for the best pictures. It's very difficult to take interesting photos of stands of trees, although there will be some when we get onto the ride widening posts.

 

Do feel free to post any interesting experiences you have had in the Woods on this thread. The more input from people, the merrier.

 

Do you know how to send a personal message?

Yes of course , there's a 60 acre SSSI wood near  I've worked in for years , thats all back in rotation now , felled the last overstood coup last winter though unfortunately Chalara is everywhere in there now .

The other wood is also 60 acres , not had much done to it for years but lots of potential , done 3 plots , about an acre each so far , will post some pics soon .

 

 

[GilesO]

I'm in complete awe of what you are doing. I can't wait for the next installment. Fantastic work- both in the woods and as a wordsmith. Completely captivated.

[the village idiot]

BIGGER DIGGER!

 

Now that John and friends had helped me finish the third coppice area around the ponds it was time to get the larger digger in.

 

The ponds had been totally surrounded by trees for decades. All the autumn leaves had been falling into the water, sinking to the bottom and forming a thick silty slurry that snuffs out any oxygenating water plants from getting established. Because of all the shading from the trees, any plantlife that did get a foothold in the water or on the margins didn't get enough light to grow and soon died. 

 

Without the plants there were no insects, and without plants and insects there were little or no amphibians. The ponds were to all intents and purposes dead.

 

Just taking down the trees around the pond would have brought some life back, but to really get the ponds buzzing with activity we needed to dig out the sloppy leaf mulch and get back to the clay bottom.

 

Enter Crispin and a 14 ton excavator.

 

I got to know Crispin through Pete Fordham (Suffolk Wildlife Trust Woodland Warden). Crispin owns and manages his own Wood near the Suffolk coast and also contracts himself out as a digger driver specialising in ponds.

 

It was quite a tight squeeze getting the machine down some of the rides. Note the low ground impact:

 

 

Crispin was working to a specification drawn up by a lovely lady called Juliet who is a friend of the Woodland Owner and is our conservation adviser. She was very specific about details such as the angles of the slopes down to the water, and length of the margin to leave untouched. She even asked Crispin to chuck some material back into the water to give the pond bottoms an uneven profile.

 

I have a 15 page document detailing the woodland ponds with pictures and a lot of detail about the management options. I can probably post up a link to it if any of you want to get nerdy?

 

In the meantime here are some pictures of Crispin in action:

 

 

 

 

The pond sites looked horrendous straight afterwards with a layer of thick smelly slop surrounding each pond on all sides, but within a growing season or two, and once the water has settled down the results are spectacular, both visually and in terms of the abundance of life that moves in.

 

Here is a picture of the pond in the above photo 2 years later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by the village idiot

[the village idiot]

14 minutes ago, GilesO said:

I'm in complete awe of what you are doing. I can't wait for the next installment. Fantastic work- both in the woods and as a wordsmith. Completely captivated.

Gosh! Thank you Giles.

 

I've actually been really enjoying telling the story.

 

It's really nice to learn that there is a lot of interest in the subject.

 

There's not that many people doing this sort of stuff, It would be fabulous if there were a lot more.

[eggsarascal]

Have you kept a diary that you are referring to for this thread TVI?, I struggle to rember what I did yesterday.