2 to 3 acre forest

[JonnoR]

Hi Feu,

I own a hardwood forest in France too.  The first thing I would say is that if you haven't already got experience of working with trees, don't just leap in.  Depending on your ambitions for the property, having (or learning to conduct) some sort of survey on the place is vital.  Secondly, wait a year or so before putting a saw to ANYTHING.  Understand the lifecycle, put out trail cams, get some expertise in.  And learn to use a saw on simple stuff.

 

I was lucky enough to live close to Mick (who posted above), who helped me out massively with a danger tree that was beyond my capabilities.  Also, depending on your age and motivation, don't leap into getting heavier equipment, because you'll find an excuse to use it, and you'll denude your forest quick sharp!  I now own some lumber handling equipment, and a couple chainsaws, which makes life way easier for firewood, but don't fetishise the harvesting of timber because it's counterproductive to your environmental ambitions.

 

And don't let any wood pikey neighbour 'help'.  It's cheaper in the long run to pay a professional, than rely on some bellend who's only after a bit of firewood!  DM me if you'd like - I'm an enthusiastic amateur, so I won't give advice, but I'm more than happy to share just how retarded I was 5 years ago!

Edited Thursday at 18:38 by JonnoR
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[MattyF]

I think with woods you have to set out with a plan of what you actually want to achieve , if you want timber trees they want thinning, there’s looks to be some fairly decent oak among them that will need more room and high pruning if to ever make good grade timber …  if you want nature leave areas and dead trees alone.. or combine the two and have areas of both but try but try and plan it out with what you want where , there’s no point going flying in with a saw and cutting stuff you will regret later or leaving stuff until it goes to far the other. 
 

[Feu]

2 hours ago, peds said:

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! 

 

 

 

Thanks for the reply. Tomorrow I will walk around and pick out some definite keepers. Regarding space around the tree, are we talking say 3m around it? I am looking for the recommended books...

 

 I do have some larger trunks in another field which could be moved and spared the wood burner. I'm leaning on the side of keeping it more for nature than myself. As much as I'd like to take 100% from the forest I wouldn't want to run it down. When I know my actual heating requirements post renovation I can at least make an informed decision.

 

We're more like 600m2 but after renovation we will be heavily insulated!

[JonnoR]

There is a very large private forestry community in France, which means there are all sorts of initiatives to help inform landowners, whilst maximising their contribution to timber-dependent industries.  I had a free assessment conducted by this quango: 

CNPF, la gestion durable des forêts privées

WWW.CNPF.FR

 and found them very helpful.  I have a dual fuel (pellet/log) boiler and would rather pay a little cash for pellets, than feel under pressure to get rid of slow growth hardwoods.  Give yourself time to really get a feel for the wood.  Mark trees in the summer, which look to have lost the race to the canopy but perhaps don't rush into felling them straight away.  They grow slow but irreversible mistakes are made quickly.

 

Do you live in an area with a communal hunting agreement in place?  If so, the local hunt will exercise their right to hunt your land, unless you withdraw permission.

[Feu]

1 hour ago, Mick Dempsey said:

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?

 

Hi Mick,

 

Unfortunately not. We do have a spring/well/basin in another field but in the forest there is none. I'm slightly hesitant to create a pond because of mosquitoes. It is a bit of an issue around here. We've added some plants to our other ponds and now have frogs/dragonflies which will hopefully help next year.

 

thanks

 

[Feu]

5 minutes ago, JonnoR said:

There is a very large private forestry community in France, which means there are all sorts of initiatives to help inform landowners, whilst maximising their contribution to timber-dependent industries.  I had a free assessment conducted by this quango: 

CNPF, la gestion durable des forêts privées

WWW.CNPF.FR

 and found them very helpful.  I have a dual fuel (pellet/log) boiler and would rather pay a little cash for pellets, than feel under pressure to get rid of slow growth hardwoods.  Give yourself time to really get a feel for the wood.  Mark trees in the summer, which look to have lost the race to the canopy but perhaps don't rush into felling them straight away.  They grow slow but irreversible mistakes are made quickly.

 

Do you live in an area with a communal hunting agreement in place?  If so, the local hunt will exercise their right to hunt your land, unless you withdraw permission.

 

We do have hunters around here. We've withdrawn permission and we're classified as a refuge with LPO. Obviously got the signs up too... The hunter who runs the local organisation is sensible and was very understanding when he dropped by for a chat.

 

I'll check out CNPF, that sounds perfect. Thanks a lot!! I don't want to rush anything. The only thing I'm doing at the moment is removing an old log store which is far too small and falling down.

 

Ahh boiler talk! We've gone for a Froling S4 turbo (yet to be fitted), a 3000L water store and solar panels (water) on a barn roof. I can't quite remember the size, I think it was 28kw? It's approx 550-600sqm, 250-300 sqm underfloor heating and maybe 10 rads. It can do pellets but I'm sticking to firewood at the moment. Dried oak (delivered) is 85 eur per stere here which doesn't seem too bad, I've got 10 stere coming on monday.

[JonnoR]

2 minutes ago, Feu said:

 

We do have hunters around here. We've withdrawn permission and we're classified as a refuge with LPO. Obviously got the signs up too... The hunter who runs the local organisation is sensible and was very understanding when he dropped by for a chat.

 

I'll check out CNPF, that sounds perfect. Thanks a lot!! I don't want to rush anything. The only thing I'm doing at the moment is removing an old log store which is far too small and falling down.

 

Ahh boiler talk! We've gone for a Froling S4 turbo (yet to be fitted), a 3000L water store and solar panels (water) on a barn roof. I can't quite remember the size, I think it was 28kw? It's approx 550-600sqm, 250-300 sqm underfloor heating and maybe 10 rads. It can do pellets but I'm sticking to firewood at the moment. Dried oak (delivered) is 85 eur per stere here which doesn't seem too bad, I've got 10 stere coming on monday.

I've got a Froling too.  Great boilers.  They run incredibly well off pellets.  I buy about 4 tonnes every other year, and that supplements my log burning and for periods when I'm away.  If you're going to start replanting, or supporting natural regeneration, you might want to consider getting the hunt in from time to time.  The farmers won't thank you if you end up with an out of control population of boar, and the Roe will decimate your sapplings.

[Feu]

5 minutes ago, JonnoR said:

I've got a Froling too.  Great boilers.  They run incredibly well off pellets.  I buy about 4 tonnes every other year, and that supplements my log burning and for periods when I'm away.  If you're going to start replanting, or supporting natural regeneration, you might want to consider getting the hunt in from time to time.  The farmers won't thank you if you end up with an out of control population of boar, and the Roe will decimate your sapplings.

 

Good to know. The pellets are convenient when away. We've got a wine vat that I can potentially convert into pellet storage next to the boiler but we'll see how it goes.

 

There is no way I can persuade my wife to let a hunt happen on our a property, total no go. She loves the Roe too much.

[Feu]

50 minutes ago, MattyF said:

I think with woods you have to set out with a plan of what you actually want to achieve , if you want timber trees they want thinning, there’s looks to be some fairly decent oak among them that will need more room and high pruning if to ever make good grade timber …  if you want nature leave areas and dead trees alone.. or combine the two and have areas of both but try but try and plan it out with what you want where , there’s no point going flying in with a saw and cutting stuff you will regret later or leaving stuff until it goes to far the other. 
 

 

Hi Matty,

 

Thanks. This seems to be the consensus. I've had some great advice on getting a plan together. I won't be touching anything until I do that. I'm not sure what I want so I'll spend some time thinking about that.

 

I'm going to go around, mark some noteworthy trees and get a survey done so I know what's what!

 

thanks

[JonnoR]

7 minutes ago, Feu said:

 

Good to know. The pellets are convenient when away. We've got a wine vat that I can potentially convert into pellet storage next to the boiler but we'll see how it goes.

 

There is no way I can persuade my wife to let a hunt happen on our a property, total no go. She loves the Roe too much.

If you have room, the wood framed Froling pellet silos are great.  They keep it all low humidity and you can order bulk quanities which are pumped directly in the silo.  Mine will take 5 tonnes at a time and it's way cheaper and more convenient 'en vrac'.