Big J

We're milling ash next week from our most recent forestry job and there might be a bit spare if anyone needs any. We've two artics to fill, but there might be a couple hundred cubic foot spare at the end. It would be a mixture of thicknesses from 1.25" to 2.5" and would be around £8-9 a cubic foot collected. From good, straight forest grown ash, albeit smallish trees (14-20" diameter generally). Good colour in the heart. PM if interested, and I could possibly help with delivery.

As I said, not defending anyone here - far from it. I would simply prefer not to see any such behaviour on the forum. Given that so many people seem to take issue with him, it suggests that they may have a point, but the formation of what is equivalent of an online lynch mob is equally distasteful. The end result is that both sides have in equal measure ruined the thread and my point is that it could have been handled better.

I'm venting frustration at a funny thread ruined. I would simply prefer not to see that sort of thing on what is almost entirely a good humoured and civil forum. I'm not blaming anyone, taking sides or really saying anything more than I personally don't want to see it.

Quite agree. I was really enjoying the thread to that point

I'm just saying that there seems to be a sustained effort to be unpleasant towards Vespasian. I don't know whether it's justified or not, but I don't believe that it has any place here. This thread was light hearted and fun before it descended into that. If you've an issue with someone take it up with them in private, take it up with the admin or ignore it. I don't think anyone comes here to see that kind of flaming or bickering.

It was a general statement. Please understand that I do not care one way or the other. My point is (for members in general) if you don't like what someone says on a regular basis and regard their posts to be inflamatory, then report to the appropriate admin and then ignore. I have no personal issue with you, or indeed anyone else here. I like to poke the bear sometimes on the topic of politics, but that's quite different

I have no feelings one way or the other towards Vespasian, but can I ask that if people have a personal objection with regards to a member, can they either raise it with an admin or just ignore them? Seeing constant flaming (justified or not) drags the forum down and I just don't want to read it. Again, not taking sides in any way (I don't really care). If people have something meaningful to say then great. If not..... Also, if Mr Vespasian is regarded as a troll, you know what they say about trolls.

Don't know about that - the stumps are a touch on the high side.....?

I know it's not ideal for retailed firewood, but I really like the dross produced in processing. Ideal kindling and in a cube bag, how much space does it actually take up?

It's like a race to the bottom. Companies trying to out quote each other for work, driving down the value of the industry and driving down the pay for the workers. Too many "arborists" coming out of college thinking they are the bees knees when it comes to tree work means a saturated market where little value is placed on quality work and the bottom line wins 4 times out of 5. Perhaps we need an Arbtalk wide living wage policy!

Getting back into forestry after a few years in a sawmill, I'm developing my policy towards wages for cutters and it's as follows: I expect a good day's graft, working on average 10 hours (07:00 to 17:00) with decent breaks and banter (I might work though a meal on the forwarder, but don't expect cutters to). I expect very high standards of technical skill, presentation and attention to detail. I expect a grace period where folk adapt to my way of working, during which they are paid slightly less, but once up to that standard, I pay £200 a day for a self employed cutter. If the cutter isn't able to get to that standard, I won't continue using them. The funny thing is that I think you get a cheaper tonne (on the deck, ready for extraction) paying your cutters really well because you are only using the best and their output is so much higher. And they're happy too as it's a proper wage. I look at forestry jobs now thinking of how I'd approach it with good cutters and if I can't make money on it paying a decent wage to my cutters then it's not worth doing. If you want motivated, skilled contractors, you have to pay the right money. If you want repeat work and recommendations, you need skilled operatives to do a good job. That being said, over the years I've had folks on site who weren't worth £50 a day, so you have to keep your eye on your worker when determining what to pay them!

I have 300w of LED lighting on my forwarder. I can safely work in complete darkness with the machine. Only issue last night was the dense fog which shrouded the hill - it was like having full beams on when driving the van!

I'm sure I heard on Radio 4 the other day that they were starting to investigate the whole RHI system in the UK. I can't reference that though. Worth remembering that "cash for ash" brought down Stormont in Northern Ireland. The RHI scheme in the rest of the UK is no less corrupt. And I say that as someone who has repeatedly considered jumping on that bandwagon and don't hold it against anyone who has. I just think that in most cases, it's clearly bananas to burn good timber to produce heat and power.

It's all about the banter when planting I feel. You have to work like a nutter to get the job done, but have a laugh whilst doing it.

Agreed. Most of it will be sawn, not burned. Would take decades of UK burning to do that one wildfire.

I've probably only done a few thousand trees in my time and I've always enjoyed it. Just don't like doing it by it myself as I found it works better on a production line type approach. IE, first person lays out stakes, 2nd person tubes, 1st person saplings, 2nd person hammers in stake, 1st person plants sapling, 2nd person does the tube. Doing blocks of 100-200 trees like this is quite quick.

Let's say 40 tonnes per acre, for arguments sake and you've got nearly 67 million tonnes of wood. To contextualise that, the UK produces a total of around 11 million tonnes per year of roundwood according to the Commission.

Week after next I will be doing some replanting on a site near Taunton. Depending on what the landowners go for, it'll be either 250 or 1000 trees planted in clearings amongst standing trees. I can handle 250 by myself, but might lose the will to live on a 1000 without someone to banter with. Is anyone in the area up for a few days in a nice woodland planting hardwoods? They'll be tubed and staked, done to a high standard. Cowboy planters needs not apply ?

I came across a couple of standing dead ash within the stand, which is something I've rarely seen before. 70ft trees, completely dead. The floor of the woodland is prolific with regeneration, amongst which would presumably be resistant ash. Interesting perspectives though. Having done a fair amount of elm clearance up north, my first instinct is to simply clear and start again, but I appreciate that it's not appropriate for all sites.

They just don't move much air and the peltier module wears out over (a fairly short) time. I've had several stove fans and they at best serve as a visual indication of how hot the stove is. I have a thermometer for that though. As I said, what brought into sharp focus how little air they move is having a tiny fan of just 17w move many many times more air than the stove fan.

Probably not. I've gone off stove fans to be honest. I always used to have them on my old stove back in Scotland. One of the issues is that over time they slow down. What has been most apparent with the new stove is that they move very little air. We have a double sided stove at the new house and the stove fan on top did nothing to push the hot air into the living room. A small electric fan mounted on the fire guard on the other side (running at 17w) moves many many times the air of a stove fan. If your set up allows, perhaps a high temperature duct fan mounted in the recess for the stove would be more effective.

I'm putting in a proposal for a fairly large thinning operation on an amenity woodland in Devon. It's in a valley with a public right of way at the base of the woodland, next to the river. The woodland is a mixed species, mixed age stand, with the dominant species being ash and hornbeam. There are a number of oak, sycamore, beech and sweet chestnuts amongst them. In the understory, there is very strong natural regeneration with hazel, hornbeam and sycamore dominating. The mature trees are generally 40-60 years old and the regeneration much younger, ranging from 10-20ft mostly. Having taken another wander through the stand today (and also trying to figure out to get the timber out of the valley) I'm reflecting on the best approach as regards thinning the existing stock. With ash dieback getting a foothold across England, I feel that there is no point in retaining the ash in the long term. The issue is that within this stand 50% of the mature stock is ash in some areas. The hornbeam is the next most dominant species, but as previously mentioned, the regeneration in the lower story is very strong. My feeling is that in proposing the thinning, my focus should be almost exclusively on ash, retaining them only when removing them would leave nothing else in the area. Conversely, removing trees of other species would only be done if they are densely packed and crowding each other out. It's an attractive woodland with very good continuous cover. I want to make sure that we take the right approach, and my feeling is that focusing on removing the bulk of the ash would be correct. If I were to perform a more general thin and the ash died within the next decade, it would leave large holes in the cover. How are other people adapting their thinning policies in the wake of chalara?

Bet you're going to look at that Holder! Nice looking tractor Can't help on the forestry shops I am afraid. The M1 is better than it was the fastest route most recently was M74 / M6 / A66 / M1. Used to live in Scotland and my mum is just outside Derby.

Not all felling is done for timber plus in the tree a full wrap can be nice when using a Humbolt gob and on the ground for humbolt Fair enough I suppose. I just like a low stump!