Cheap management options needed

[Arborator]

Hi all,

I'm part of a very, very small team responsible for all arb on a site of over 300 acres. Part of the site is approx 35 acres of asnw. Tree mix in the wood is mainly oak with pockets of ash/beech some sweet chestnut, lots of sycy invasion around the fringes, and laurel in one area too. ground cover is heavily overgrown bracken and bramble.

 

There has obviously been no efforts at managing the wood for a long time, I estimate 90 yrs (site is a former staely home and the owners left in the 20's and its has been passed around a lot since then) the wood now gets lots of footfall, and there is a public footpath running alongside.

 

So, with no budget, and barely any workforce, any suggestions on how to manage the wood? It needs to be relatively safe, and yet retain its ecological significance.

 

I was thinking reduce standing dead timber/dangerous trees near paths but leave the rest. Fell the sycys, and take a brushcutter to the bramble/bracken.

Not sure how to tackle the laurel, but that lot would keep us busy for years anyway.

[Mark James]

In what part of the country are you in, and are you looking some help doing this?

 

 

Sent from my aye phone using Tapatalk

[Charlieh]

Depending where you are in the country you may find you can get a free advisory visit and some guidance on how to manage the woodland.

 

You would also be likely to get FC grants with it being ASNW, this could help with paying for some of the work to take place in the woodland.

[Arborator]

Thanks for the response guys,

It's just outside Watford. They went the woodland grant route before, and well, the woods don't appear to have had any work done on them for several years.

 

Its not really my problem anymore, as I'm pretty much being forced to leave. Really annoying that these people have got an amazing resource, and they just don't want to invest in it to realise the potential.

 

Meh.

[Lee Winger]

coppice the lot lol

[Yorkshireman]

ring a local training provider they either do the work for free to be able to do training, or & log firewood supplier who'll keep so much of the timber