An Idiot's guide to Ancient Woodland management

[Stubby]

1 hour ago, Mick Dempsey said:

So, the retort kiln is there to dry wood for high quality firewood?

No Mick . Its to make high quality charcoal bud .

[Khriss]

@Stubby he is a bit slow today. His 'retort' wasn't up to usual standard ? k

[Mick Dempsey]

I didn’t know!

 

Since I left the UK there’s this thing where you burn your shit wood in one container to dry the good wood in another, the government pays you apparently, kiln drying isn’t it?

[the village idiot]

8 hours ago, Gimlet said:

It's the same where I cut my hazel. 80% of the woodland is ash and there's not a single one that isn't showing signs of die-back. At this time of year you can stand back and clearly see the proportion of ash and without them it won't be a wood any more, just scrub land.

Unfortunately the owners of the woodlands have no management plan, other than to fill the place with pheasants and keep enough rides open to ride their horses. They aren't felling or thinning and I doubt they'll even bother to make use of fallen ash. It'll just be left to rot. 

Hmmm, that's a shame.

 

I wonder if they have considered the fact that once the Ash dies and topples over they are going to have a fair bit of trouble shooting and riding?

 

Scrub is good, and other trees will colonise in time to take the place of the Ash. It would be good though, as you say, if the Ash was used for something.

 

I'm going to a Woodland Communication day in a couple of weeks. One of the speakers is talking about managing woodland with Ash Dieback. I'll report back on what the latest advice is.

[the village idiot]

8 hours ago, TIMON said:

Excellent thread and great pictures VI.. Thanks for taking the time to put it together, really interesting.
We’ve lost a few mature oaks at our place. This has inspired me to pull my finger out and do some replanting in the spring. Hoping to get a couple of packs from the Woodland trust. Cheers.

Nice one Ti.

 

Is this at home or at Betel, or are they one and the same?

[the village idiot]

3 hours ago, sandspider said:

I'm very jealous of your "office"...

Thanks sandspider, it's not too shabby is it.

[the village idiot]

3 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

So, the retort kiln is there to dry wood for high quality firewood?

It's not, but it could actually be used for this. The problem would be the batch size.

 

You would only get 1.5 cubic mtrs of firewood per run, and even with the high price that kiln dried can fetch, the numbers would not get close to adding up.

[the village idiot]

1 hour ago, Khriss said:

@Stubby he is a bit slow today. His 'retort' wasn't up to usual standard ? k

arf arf!

[TIMON]

Nice one Ti.

 

Is this at home or at Betel, or are they one and the same?

 

One and the same... I have a 9-5 job and then a 5-9 job. Never a dull minute.... we have around 40 mature oaks along with some ash, silver birch and hawthorn mainly..over around nearly an acre, not much of an understory as it used to get strimmed and flailed being a semi domestic area. The older trees are around 200 years old. We’ve cut the ivy at the stems on most of them as it was really taking over.

I know there are differing opinions on that but I wanted to preserve the trees as best as possible. Here’s a big wind blown one from last winter.

 

 

[Khriss]

Nope @Timon those Oaks will be nicely cavitied in most places. Gotta be able to do yr 'tree condition' if its Public access. I kno bats like Ivy.... I dont ? K