Luke Quenby

Post '87 storm plantation of Douglas Fir to be clear felled. Average dbh 10cm. To be felled, brashed and cut and stacked into metre blocks in situ. Approximatley 50-60 cu. metres / 2.5 Ha. to clear. Hardwood to be left standing (small amount of young Birch, Sallow etc). £14 paid per cu. metre cut and stacked. Must be clean, tidy and experienced cutters. Suit 1 or 2 people. Own saw's ,fuel, ppe and transport needed. Work can be done at weekends, or 1 or 2 days per week if someone needs to 'top up' on their current workload. Could be a good opportunity for a less experienced but reliable, keen and tidy cutter(s). Expected to start late January / early February near Battle, East Sussex. Please PM me for more info / to come and look at job.

I've heard of a paste being made of powdered lime being used, does the job so I'm told, but obviously takes longer to act, maybe worth considering if you don't want to use herbicides, probably cheaper to in comparison to say Broadsword or Timberill etc.

Scary, mans a fool. I like the comment afterwards 'did you cut it on the tree or the chainsaw'!! Work it out!

Catweazle, McArthur Fencing, in Broad Oak, Sussex are pretty big merchants for buying and selling palings, either in bundles or as fences, I would imagine not to far from you. Tate fencing are ok, but pricey. Mcarthurs number is 01424-882888. They're pretty sound to deal with.

What sort of size / form / numbers / varieties are you looking for?

Really interesting pictures, thanks for sharing, when were they taken?

There's a 1 day course being run by Rural Development Programme for England near Battle in East Sussex at the end of November, £80 or £24 if you work in Agriculture, Forestry or related. Looks pretty good, full details on the Woodlots website. Quite a few other good 1 and 2 day courses on there.

We've got smart water on pretty much everything, quad, saws, strimmers, trailers etc. Good stuff, we got a few signs and stickers with the kit to put on the stuff warning potential thieves it's smartwater marked. I think every little detterent helps, definatley money well spent. I used to have it on my bike too, and it brought down the insurance cost, not sure if it's the same for general kit though?

Have PM'd you. Thanks, luke

Thanks very much, will have a look around for them, not to hopefull though as they were taken 8 years ago, before I went digital!

I'm based in East Sussex at the moment, still manging an estate, but this is something for the future, about 6 - 12 months time. I'm just putting out a few feelers at the moment, will be going in with an old friend / collegue in the Beds / Cambs area in time. I think what's making me get back into it is knowing I can do it really well, one of the better ones in the country, and now I'm in a postion where I can have a bit of control and do something a bit different and for myself. Once things pick up economically, which they are slowly statring to, we'll be well positioned to offer new and interesting ways of doing things, plus the traditional, with minmal overheads and maximum experience. Or thats the plan! I guess I'm using arbtalk a bit as I know through experience that when tree's / hedges come down, they quite often get replaced, so this could be a good place to make a few contacts with more arborists and landscapers

It certainly did! They are in Jubilee Park, at Canary Wharf in docklands. There's Metasequoia, Elm, Tilia and Taxodium. Around 200 in all. I was involved with nursery project of bringing them in, from all over Europe, unloading, containerising and pruning, then dispatching upto 3 years later, and installing. If I can dig out a few photo's I'll post them

Not to sure where the best category to post this was, but I figured this was close enough! After a couple of years out of the semi-mature / mature tree nursery industry, I'm going to be getting back into it, as a sideline initially. I just wanted to offer my services to any arborists / landscapers etc with regards to moving, buying and installing trees. I have good links to the best nurseries in the UK and Europe, lots of experience in moving and planting also, as well as aftercare, anchoring systems etc. From Hornbeam whips for hedging, to 13 ton 60 foot Metasequoia's and Tilia and everything inbetween. Be it quality, quantity or both, if anyone has a planting project as part of a job, give me a shout, and I will help you out best I can, be it advice or prices for said trees, craneage, transport, lifting systems etc. With planting season pretty much on us, rootballed, containerised or bare-root, I'm pretty confident I can source just about any tree varity or size, for a very good price, or just give you a few ideas if it's an awkward site, fussy clients or more, there's not much I havn't come accross in the past when it comes to this sort of thing. If I can help anyone out, reply, pm or calll me. Cheers, Luke

Great building material, but as others have said, will need drying and does tend to move a bit, even when 100's of years old. Elm was often used as flooring and framing in old houses, and the creaking and 'things that go bump in the night' can often be put down to the timbers / floor still moving. In most cases! But if you can get hold of some, definatley worth using, will make a lovely building, lots of charecter in the wood to. Good luck!

Rowans don't like heat, and like a fair bit of water, they quite often look poor in a street situation in the summer

If there are no targets around, leave as long as possible, Walnuts often don't take that well to being worked on. Or would agree with Dean, and do a little at a time. Could allways replant a couple elsewhere or save some of the fruit to grow a few on that will have it's vigour to replace it when it finally does go?

Honda 350 Foreman with a winch fitted to the front. Electric transmission. Never misses a beat, never got stuck, never run out of work for it!! Seems to take all in it's stride and is pretty light to, unlike some of the bigger 500's etc. Not to sure about the new version, ours is 4 years old, seems it's built to look the part a bit to much maybe? Pulls like a train to, only thing it misses on is it will loose traction before it looses power. Great bikes though, for farm and forest.

After a bit of help and advice, we have around 10 acres of mature corsican and scots pine, each with around 1.5 - 2 m3 in each, and around another 10 acres of douglas fir that are about 20 years old and un-thinned. We are looking to clearfell the mature stuff, and allow it to regenerate into native woodland of the type around here (hornbeam, sweet chestnut etc). I was wondering if anyone had any advice / contacts for marketing, selling etc and the best way to go about it. All has pretty good access. The Douglas fir were planted in a hurry after the '87 storms, don't have very good access and arn't very attractive in the middle of native woodland. Any advice for these also? We were thinking possible biomass / chip outlet. Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appriciated. We are based in East Sussex. Thanks

He doesn't have a web site, and I don't have any pics, but am getting him over to do some clearing up after some very overdue coppicing in the next few weeks, so when that happens, I'll take a few and put them on

Or you could try Stephen Judd - 01825724095, he has a tracked chipper that has a hiab on and will do upto about 9". He supplys this with a man, fuel and delivered for £420 a day including vat, so it's actually about £350. When you work out fuel and labour and delivery etc for Coppards, it's about £300 a day to run, so if it's a job where the brash can be heaped up a bit, it could be more cost effective to get Steve Judd in, as his guy is pretty quick and that will free up labour a bit. It's quite a small / low ground pressure machine if the site is sensetive. I think it's mounted on a landini / ferrari type machine.

Coppards plant hire - 01892662777 - based in Crowborough. They have a tracked Jensen A540 T which will do upto about 7". We've just been using it for a couple of days and is a very good machine, manouvrable and powerfull, poor grouind clearance though. Has vari width tracks which is very handy. They charge £175 per day for account customers, plus delivery and sharpening. Watch out for that as they will tuck you up a bit so best to pick up yourself if poss. Good machine and a good firm though. Hope this helps

True that absurd energy prices and the coldest winter for quite a while and the recession have meant log sales and prices have gone thru the roof. I've had quite a few people pilfering from around the woods and from the log / cord heaps themselves. Usual story of you wouldn't mind so much if they asked / didn't live in houses worth more than i can count to! Worth noting that some softwood, like seasoned Scots pine on a log burner is a lot more usefull than say leylandii on an open fire! Not all softwood should be labled rubbish for burning.

Could also be interested if Tommy isn't, always looking for yew, and any other 'interesting' wood for furniture making and turning purposes, ideally in the south east of England. Any chance of a photo or telling us how long they are? Thanks

If you havn't a barn, palletts on the floor and roofing felt on top works fine, felt allows logs to breath better than a tarp, keep the back and front open. I always try to split when green, time allowing