Can I burn rotting pile of brash in field that I suspect is harbouring rodents or other suggestions?

[smallguy]

11 hours ago, scbk said:

Aside from the wildlife, trying to set fire to a large piles of branches usually has a low success rate, so you're going to have to move it anyway.

 

Best off starting a small fire and adding the material to it, then you can have a nice clean fire, safe, everything burnt, and with the least ground damage.

 

 

On the 2 acres is there not space to just leave the stuff to rot down? Better for nature.

Space is not the issue it is the rodents. I have not spent enough time over there to see if they would actually be a problem yet, just planning for that if it is.

 

Leaving would certainly be my first choice actually.

 

Also I have replanted willow on most of the 2 acres, is it good to put it under them instead of burning to 'feed' them as it is otherwise low quality clayey soil?

[GarethM]

9 minutes ago, smallguy said:

I don't know what constitutes many. I have seen a few droppings and a lot of gnawing. Maybe it is only a few doing a lot of damage?

We've already said get busy with a second burning pile, we're not going to justify you throwing a match on a brash pile because you're feeling a bit lazy.

 

Regardless of the levels of wildlife, it's just not the done thing, as there will be fieldmice, hedgehogs, rabbit, hare etc using it.

[smallguy]

7 minutes ago, GarethM said:

We've already said get busy with a second burning pile, we're not going to justify you throwing a match on a brash pile because you're feeling a bit lazy.

 

Regardless of the levels of wildlife, it's just not the done thing, as there will be fieldmice, hedgehogs, rabbit, hare etc using it.

 

Seems like my fate is sealed around here now that I am a lazy guy who likes to murder helpless creatures rather than do a hard day's work.

Edited yesterday at 08:43 by smallguy

[GarethM]

9 minutes ago, smallguy said:

Seems like my fate is sealed around here now that I am a lazy guy who likes to murder helpless creatures rather than do a hard day's work.

That's the reality of small woodland management, it's a ball ache by hand.

 

You do learn quickly that if you're not wanting to burn it to cut/compact and leave to rot in say a dip or valley.

 

Owning woodland is not a swan around it kinda deal, I've acres of it and it always needs work.

[smallguy]

7 minutes ago, GarethM said:

That's the reality of small woodland management, it's a ball ache by hand.

 

You do learn quickly that if you're not wanting to burn it to cut/compact and leave to rot in say a dip or valley.

 

Owning woodland is not a swan around it kinda deal, I've acres of it and it always needs work.

Yea but the whole two acres of brash is an extreme case and not something that will be repeated again.

 

Would be a much smaller scale of management thereafter I would have thought? What else is there to do after replanting, which I have already done? Don't they just look after themselves mostly until they get to a certain size? Nature seems to have done alright without our intervention for a long enough time?

 

I understand they would want more tending if there was some commercial interest but that is not what I have it for, just want it to enjoy.

Edited yesterday at 09:06 by smallguy

[GarethM]

The English landscape is in no way natural, our green and pleasant land have been sculpted and managed for thousands of years.

 

Anyone that told you to plant and walk away, probably was selling you something.

[smallguy]

38 minutes ago, GarethM said:

The English landscape is in no way natural, our green and pleasant land have been sculpted and managed for thousands of years.

 

Anyone that told you to plant and walk away, probably was selling you something.

Read it on a woodlands.co.uk article.

 

What then do you suggest as the common tasks involved at the nascent stage? Not sure what else there is to do when they are just whips except watch them grow?

Edited yesterday at 09:53 by smallguy

[GarethM]

1 minute ago, smallguy said:

Read it on a woodlands.co.uk article.

 

What then do you suggest as the common tasks involved at the nascent stage? Not sure what else there is to do when they are just whips except watch them grow?

Probably best not starting a discussion into those sorts of money making fly-by-nights.

 

You're going to need to keep the ground around saplings clear mainly by hand, remove things that shouldn't be there and maintain everything else you wish to remain.

[NJA]

Just leave it to rot.  Hedgehogs, fieldmice etc won't cause you any harm.  Rodents will only be a problem if its rats, but as someone has said to have rats you must have a food source.  Getting rid of the pile won't get rid of them, better to get rid of the food source (if there is one)

Decision made for you😃

[Steven P]

If you can't get to the ground to get a couple of photos then a better description of what you have might help. Sounds to me like it is a field that was scrubland that has been cleared and you want to make a woodland out of it. Is it flat ground, slopes, water sources, access points, where you want to create your human parts, where you want the wild life to be (sculpting and managing).

 

Will the whole site need planting or replanting? When did you buy it?

 

A woodland isn't something to pop to visit every 6 months and expect it to be picture perfect (that's what the national trust does), it takes work, even silly things like picking up the wind blown litter, clearing the paths and so on can take a half day a month before you get onto planting and developing.

 

Anyway grab a screen shot from somewhere like Google Street view and perhaps an arial* shot so we have a visual to know what your on about. Of course, clip off the location data.