2 to 3 acre forest

[Feu]

Hi All,

 

I own a property in France with a 2 to 3 acre forest. I am no arborist so please forgive any obvious mistakes. I'd like to utilise the forest for primarily nature (as we have plenty of deer, boars, birds, etc) and firewood. At the moment I don't have a real estimate on our consumption as we're undergoing a large renovation but even if I could supplement it somewhat I'd be happy.

 

The property covers 3+ hectares with plenty of trees, many in a similar state as shown in the attached photos. I think the previous owners let things grow and didn't do anything for ~20 years.

 

Any tips dealing with the forest? We have cold winters and hot summers (in the south of France). They all seem tall and skinny and many seem to have co-dominant trunks.

 

Thanks for reading. I really appreciate any feedback.

[scbk]

(not helpful but), I think nature would prefer it if you left it alone!

 

Others will have better advice, but yes you could thin some of the trees out to produce firewood. Maybe make an area for camping/bushcraft if you're into that sort of thing.

 

Ideally you would want a powered machine to carry wood out, don't know what you've got already? Could be anything from a small tractor, an old mower, quad bike, power barrow, old jeep etc. Then think about clearing paths/tracks through the woods.

 

On the rest of your land (7/8acres?) have you got any space you could plant up with fast growing trees for firewood? (...or an orchard?)

 

There's lots of good books on the subjects of trees and woodlands, sit by the fire in the dark winter nights and go through ideas 

Edited Thursday at 13:03 by scbk

[Feu]

Thanks for the reply. I'm in the market for a tractor, I'd actually be keen to hear some advice on that too (perhaps does a different post), but I'm leaning towards some kubota B or Iseki tractor, 19-23cv.

 

We have space but we're planting orchards (approx 200 trees - I think) for my wife's business. Perhaps we could dedicate some of that for firewood but I wouldn't want to reduce the potential yields too much.

 

I agree nature would prefer it untouched, but also it's pretty messy. My plan is to encourage growth, create some paths and hopefully benefit from some firewood.

 

I'll browse posts for any books mentioned. Thanks again.

 

 

[roys]

My woods look very similar to yours, when I first got the place I got an environmental guy in to give advice as we were wanting it to be a bit of a nature haven but be safe (right to roam in Scotland) and be able to keep me in fire wood.

The advice was:

Remove and destroy the rhododendrons, ongoing and constant battle.

Keep unofficial natural paths clear.

Remove trees that get damaged in wind, this is what keeps me supplied in fire wood, about 10 cube a year.

Rhoddy gets burnt on site after it gets pulled up and piled up and dried out for a bit. Big bits do go to my firewood cubes.

The smaller branches from the trees that get sorted out get piled up in brash piles for little nature havens.

I used a quad bike and trailer for extracting the timber out. Needless to say the safe use of a chainsaw is a must, no chance of doing it by hand in my lifetime. Some areas of my place are a bit wet and boggy so a decent 4wd with diff lock quad bike was essential for me.

[roys]

PS forgot to add, the knowledge, advice, contacts, help I have received from this forum has been a huge help so stick around.

Also by wind damaged I mean trees that have blown over, trees that have snapped, trees that are now leaning on others, the hung up ones and leaners can take a bit of thinking about if you are not used to it to enable it to be done safely.

Re chainsaws I currently have 3 saws of different sizes, which would probably be classified as “farm” saws which aren’t as good as the pro saws that most of them use on here but are better than the £100 diy standard saws, I am not on the saw for 8 hours a day though, probably about 3 or 4 hours a week so a farm saw is good enough for me, Stihl or a Husky are the ones to go for.

Edited Thursday at 15:01 by roys

[Feu]

18 minutes ago, roys said:

My woods look very similar to yours,

 

Thanks Roys, that was incredibly useful. Nothing about felling trees very close to one another or the split trunks? Just let them do their thing?

 

[roys]

Sorry edited my 2nd post while you were posting, damaged trees get removed as they are usually a hazard or a hazard waiting to happen.

Trees close to each other don’t bother me as much.

[peds]

Definitely leave a few patches, as big as you can stand, where you do absolutely nothing and let nature take its course... if you can spare the space... but you also want to use and enjoy your woodland, which is fine. There's space for you and nature both.

 

Walk around the woodland and choose a few of the biggest, nicest looking trees of the best species to you (might be pure native, might be a few foreigners that you particularly enjoy... only you can answer this question) and thin out any nearby skinny ones to give them the most room to breathe. 

Don't be scared to really open up some areas and raze everything to the ground... forests love a bit of sunlight to hit the floor every now and then, opening up a clearing provides the opportunity for new growth. It's a drastic change, but that's part of the natural cycle of things in a woodland. 

 

If you can spare any of the good trees, think about knocking over a few of them and leaving them as untouched as you can... whole trunks or collapsed crowns offer a different kind of habitat to stacked logs or brash piles.

 

Start with that and see what kind of volume of firewood you get stacked up, and try to compare it to how much you use over a year...

 

 

 

On top of that, definitely think about planting somewhere to specifically coppice for firewood and materials, it'll be more productive spacewise than harvesting firewood purely from the established woodland, you won't feel as pressed to do so, and you'll be able to dedicate more of the woodland space to nature... if that's what you'd like to do.

That said, 3 acres should definitely sort your own personal firewood needs easily enough, unless you are trying to heat a 300m² barn with no insulation, 24/7... in which case, invest in some insulation! 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 15:46 by peds

[Steven P]

One thing that has intrigued me to make - but not yet done - is a stick fence if you want or need to segment areas - like a hazel fence, a few strong uprights and in filled horizontally with brash, small logs and so on, as it rots it needs topped up, some of the logs might sprout into a hedge and is a fairly space efficient wildlife reserve. Roys comment about brash piles made me think of that again.

 

 

My wood isn't near that but the few paths I've mown in (bramble city) are well used by the deer, badger and fox (and maybe a theoretical wild cat but yet to catch that one) - a handy and safe cut through from field to field for them now. This year going to build them a bridge, I'll use it once a month, deer will use it all the time. Some management like that can be beneficial.

 

As for firewood, 3 acres / hectares (?) should give you enough firewood as above without cutting too much down. Not sure if you have looked - are there many self seeded saplings growing for regeneration or will planting on the wood be something to consider once you have worked out your management?

[Mick Dempsey]

Is there a pond or permanent water source?

Nothing entices animals to reside in cover like access to water especially in baking hot Southern France.

If not could you dig one?