Ecological woodland management

[arbmark]

liking this thread very much, and i'm off to the course on WIG on exmoor. Nice one Charlieh. Cheers mr

Mark

[APC]

Nice one! Amazingstoke day for me.

[Austin Spanners]

Good thread

[Charlieh]

Ok this week I have been involved in a ride widening to allow more light into a woodland thats a local wildlife trust nature reserve, here are a few pics for the last few days. The photos are looking up the ride before (including the elusive lesser spotted logbaron) and after the widening has started end of day 1, then a panaroma of a ride intersection heavily opened up, and finally the timber stack after day 2 and the low impact alstor being used for the extraction.

Edited February 22, 2012 by Charlieh

[Charlieh]

Ride widening / thinning, glade creation and scalloped edges to rides are one of the big things in "ecological" woodland management at the moment with large amounts of funding being driven through WIGS (woodland improvement grants). In this area one the main ones is the bird WIG, this has targeted the decline of many woodland birds through improved habitat mangement.

 

This 20page FC document gives a fantastic overview on planning such works, including considering factors such as gaining maximum benefit from light by favouring thinning to the southern side of rides.

 

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/ewgs-on011-ride-mangt.pdf/$FILE/ewgs-on011-ride-mangt.pdf

 

This grant funding is also helping to get unmanaged woodlands back into some form of management, along with also improving woodland infrastructure as rides are drier so usable with less damage, and scalloped edges provide handy timber stacking areas, and if planned correctly these will act as sun traps and are very warm so ideal for seasoning timber in the woodland, especially if its being processed or converted on site.

[RobArb]

a bit of rhodi and beech regen thinning

[armybloke]

Nice thread and very useful for me. I am involved with carrying out Woodland Management for the Wildlife Trust and I have taken some tips off this thread for my work at the weekend. I will post some pics of before and after next week.

[polish pete]

wow, it starts to make sense now! for last 4 years i've been involved in conservation work in silverdale/arnside area. we were widening rides, opening up some areas for butterfly conservation trust as well as preparing hazel plots for future coppice.

i knew it does something good to the ground but i wasn't sure how it works. really interesting thread!

i'm intersted in reading more about conservation side of woodland management, can you recommend any books on the subject?

[corylus]

as well as preparing hazel plots for future coppice.

 

Very interesting...............tell me more (please)

[polish pete]

Very interesting...............tell me more (please)

 

hi,

first it's cutting old hazel. we leave few younger shoots to lay them. they need to be flexible enough to be bend to the ground. you do a cut at the place of contact with the soil and then bury it in ground and stake them. if there's not much of hazel we plant some new one as well. whole area has to be fenced off- lot's of deer around.

these plots hopefully will be used in few years time for harvest. it looks like 2, 3 years more and there will be enough to cut different coup each year and to get a full cycle.