An Idiot's guide to Ancient Woodland management

[eggsarascal]

1 hour ago, Andyd1606 said:

 

especially if there’s a cuddle as a prize!

 

 

This place gets more n more weird by the day, funny how it seems to happen when TVI is involved.

[eggsarascal]

4 hours ago, the village idiot said:

Steady on Eggs!

 

But thank you.?

I had to come back to this, you explain things so clearly that someone who knows nothing about woodland management (apart from what I've read on here) can understand it. Easy yet interesting reading.

[the village idiot]

8 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

I had to come back to this, you explain things so clearly that someone who knows nothing about woodland management (apart from what I've read on here) can understand it. Easy yet interesting reading.

That's good to hear, thanks Eggs.

 

My aim is to not bore the folks who know all this stuff already but keep it accessible to those that don't.

[the village idiot]

26 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

This place gets more n more weird by the day, funny how it seems to happen when TVI is involved.

I take exception to that!

 

I am under strict self imposed orders to not get silly.

[monkeybusiness]

Superb thread, great back-story too! 

Landowner sounds a decent sort and hats off to you having the foresight and balls to make it work on a personal level. 

[the village idiot]

15 minutes ago, monkeybusiness said:

Superb thread, great back-story too! 

Landowner sounds a decent sort and hats off to you having the foresight and balls to make it work on a personal level. 

Thanks monkeybusiness.

 

The landowner's attitude has been absolutely key to getting to this point.

 

There has been some cost to him over the course of the last few years but it has not been huge, and the work has been increasing the value and utility of his asset into the future.

 

We view it as a mutually beneficial project and the owner is keen to persuade other Woodland owners to consider similar set up's.

 

It is relatively unusual these days for a Woodland to have a permanent Woodsman in situ.

 

It will be interesting to see if this changes at all as Woodland hopefully becomes more valued through new political ideas such as natural capital and ecosystem services.

 

At present it is a tricky scenario to make truly sustainably viable without a large dollop of goodwill from both interested parties.

[sandspider]

12 hours ago, the village idiot said:

LET THERE BE LIGHT.

 

My first practical job in the Wood was to thin out the Norway Spruce and Corsican Pine from the central section of area 3 on the map below.

 

 

This block had been planted up with quite nice Oak with the conifers as a nurse crop. A nurse crop is a largely sacrificial planting put in to help draw the main crop up in its formative years in the hope that is achieves good form.

 

The Conifers were now so large that they were starting to out compete the Oaks so they needed to go. They also needed removing to provide access deeper into the Wood for a tree harvester that was coming in to clearfell one of the two remaining dense blocks of pure conifer.

 

This was a nice 'starter' for me. Conifers are relatively easy to fell, they tend to behave themselves reasonably well, and I didn't have to worry too much about where they came down which was very handy as an embarrassingly high percentage descended 180 degrees off optimum. 

 

It was during this job that I performed my first rendition of the 'two saws stuck in one tree trick'. Back cutting a sizeable spruce with a blunt silky does not come highly recommended!

 

My main issue with this first foray into the trees was that I was not accumulating stems of any great value. Most of the arisings ended up as Swedish candles which I managed to sell wholesale. My takings didn't break the bank, but it was an important first lesson in finding a market for what needs to come out, whatever it happens to be.

The alternative is cherry picking the trees that will achieve best profits at any given time, and this is not how I wished to proceed.

 

I haven't got many pictures from these first few weeks but managed to find a few.

 

Here is a couple of candles at full blast:

 

 

 

A rocket propelled Kelly kettle:

 

 

 

And your's truly warming his hands in his armpits, pretending to know what he's talking about to a visit from the Small Woods Association. You can see my friend Jacob standing on one of the felled nurse conifers with the young Oaks to the sides.

 

 

 

 

Surprised to see you in normal clothes, was the gimp outfit having it's yearly wash?!

[Khriss]

1 hour ago, sandspider said:

Surprised to see you in normal clothes, was the gimp outfit having it's yearly wash?!

....I think you will find that's a nod to the historically amazing KIZZ band of metal fame mate. K

[tree-fancier123]

On 24/11/2019 at 15:22, the village idiot said:

There is precious little truly unmanaged woodland left anywhere in Europe.

I've seen a small area with massive alders and ash, any windthrow just left leaning at all sorts of angles, not a single footpath, ivy nearly to the top of most trees, ferns and surprisingly not all that much bramble. I imagine this is what the dinosaurs knew as home, long before the mammals with opposable thumb and forefinger. We aren't the only creatures that manage woodlands - once a beaver gets to work the woodland can be considered to be under active management.

 

Edited November 26, 2019 by tree-fancier123

[sandspider]

46 minutes ago, Khriss said:

....I think you will find that's a nod to the historically amazing KIZZ band of metal fame mate. K

I think you will find it's just a photo of Graham in his work clothes...