Veteranizing trees

[Stere]

Countryfile fans rant about ‘Tree Killing’ segment

UKDAILY.NEWS

 

I understands the concept but it seems crazy imo.....

 

Grey squirrels & storms damage trees enough already id think?

[Dan Maynard]

Probably not, if you've got a healthy population of young trees they just grow tall together and block out all the light. Terrible for wildlife - you lose flowers, hence insects and butterflies, hence birds and bats. You lose understory berries and fruits, hence bad for small mammals.

 

It's the reason our conservation work at the local SSSI wood is all felling trees, some people do come in and get upset at the "destruction" but it's not destroyed it's just part of the cycle as its been in the woods for centuries, probably millennia. It's quite a modern thing to say all felling is bad and stop harvesting the woodlands really.

[GarethM]

I've not read the article, but it's the sorts of people who only visit once a year that complain.

 

Go back in August and they probably couldn't even read a book under the canopy of tightly spaced trees.

[Stere]

It wasn't about felling it was hitting a healthy oak tree with a sledge hammer to damage the bark at the base to promote rot cavaties etc

 

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by Stere

[Dan Maynard]

4 hours ago, Stere said:

It wasn't about felling it was hitting a healthy oak tree with a sledge hammer to damage the bark at the base to promote rot cavaties etc

 

 

Excellent, all good habitat for fungi, bugs, beetles, bats, etc that have nowhere to live if it's all healthy young trees with smooth bark all over. 

 

[daltontrees]

Let them rant, they must understand very little about nature and habitats. Trees are at their best when they are a bit knackered, that's when they start to be part of a woodland instead of juast being trees. The article explains it very well. Anyone that has to do habitat assessments to meet the english biodiversity net positive or the new scottish biodiversity enhancements of National Planning Framework will appreciate that the benefits of a range of ages and conditions in woodlands is the ultimate situation. The benefits can be measured and quantified.

Yeah, let the townies rant at their 72" flat scren TVs after their fleeting artificial weeekend encounters with lollipop trees.

[Thesnarlingbadger]

The simple fact of the matter is the people

ranting and raving have no idea what they are talking about.

 

 The reason for veteranisation of trees is to create a habitat for wildlife within these trees. We have around 15,000 ancient trees noted in the uk and they are dying and being lost quicker than they are replaced. If we do noting and leave trees as they are then the ancient trees will die out and there will be a gap in habitat for that wildlife that depend on these trees in decline. Leave a gap and these insets and other wildlife will become extinct and will be no more, this will have a knock on effect to other wildlife and we will see a rapid decline in species. Quercus app. are particularly important here as there are lots of species of wildlife that are directly to oak.

 Ok I get from a outsiders point of view they might think that it’s vandalism and I didn’t see the episode but I would say that the general public should be educated a bit more when it comes to these sorts of things. 
 

 I’ve had people go awal with me in the past when I have been ripping out limbs with winches. But usually after explaining to them what we are doing and the reasons why they are really happy and think it’s great.

 

[Stere]

I get the reasoning but often storm damage &  unhealthy trees are still is cleaned up when alot more could be left - then you get others going out to  re-create it but only probably re- creating a small % of what was removed.

 

Different landonwers have different priorities I suppose.....

 

Id think as % of habitat humans are just tinkering at the edges with this atm the compared to  impacts such a grey squirrels  and  general storm damage reponse?

 

 

The amount of hardwood estate woods about that are un-managed is maligned but looking in some that haven't being touched for yrs they look very good for habitat. Alot of fallen phoenix tress deadwood etc that are often the first things cleared up when  a woodlands is managed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Stere

[daltontrees]

2 hours ago, Stere said:

I get the reasoning but often storm damage &  unhealthy trees are still is cleaned up when alot more could be left - then you get others going out to  re-create it but only probably re- creating a small % of what was removed.

 

Different landonwers have different priorities I suppose.....

 

Id think as % of habitat humans are just tinkering at the edges with this atm the compared to  impacts such a grey squirrels  and  general storm damage reponse?

 

 

The amount of hardwood estate woods about that are un-managed is maligned but looking in some that haven't being touched for yrs they look very good for habitat. Alot of fallen phoenix tress deadwood etc that are often the first things cleared up when  a woodlands is managed

There should always be an objective for management, even if it's vague. But it can be quite a complicated business when one sits down to write it out (e.g. formal woodland management plan). Increasingly public or quasi-public woodland is managed to retain biodiverse habitats including (especially) deadwood. Unfortunately the public want the right to be there and it's not long before someone's complaining about risk and then habitat-rich wood gets removed. I have seen the public worried by coronet cuts because they think healthy trees have broken. And the usual whingers when you are in there stripping out invasives and non-natives to try and recreate native habitat.

The formalising of a Woodland Management Plan can be a very useful provess because it forces the ladnowner and the adviser to weigh up competing objectives and make the tough decisions. If it does nothing else it forces a good proper look at what's there. And what's not. And what shouldn't be. And what should be. And how to change it.

Generally the public love to rant without any understanding but equally they (mostly) appreciate understanding eradication and veteranisation if it's part of a plan. If they still complain, they're the problem and it's as well to ignore them until you find them camped in a tree.