Big J

I can't disagree with that.

Some size of bridge to have to fell 540 trees 😲 Anyway, I'm sure you'll shift the timber easily. Not so much oak is being felled at the moment due to ash dieback work, so less on the market.

Apologies. I'm a couple of years out of date with ASHS now. Is it a windfarm? Seems like it might be with the hilltop location.

Out of curiosity, how did you manage to get a licence for that? There is almost no chance they'd grant a licence for an oak clearfell down here. The quality looks to be fairly mixed, but you'd expect that in Scotland. Get in contact with the Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers - they'll be able to take it. I wouldn't be surprised if Jim at Scottish Woods took a fair chunk - lovely chap to deal with too.

The weather this month has been awful. There is a chap 600m from our house who's a senior forecaster at the Met Office. I'm able to access the weather station data at his house. He sees considerably less rain than us as we're a bit higher up. Either way, we've had only one rain free day in the past 23. That was Christmas Day. In addition to that, we've had a total of 152mm of rain recorded by him (will be about 20-30% higher with us). I'm really rather envious of all the snow pictures.

I disagree. I fail to see how the oak tree is negatively affecting the house. I'd bet that it's a stand out amentity feature on the road, and that the neighbours would be very sad to see it go. It has ecological value too, and will help with solar shading in summer. It would be no more expensive to perform a well considered and sympathetic reduction which would bring it down to a more appropriate size for it's setting, whilst maintaining the amenity and ecological value of the Oak tree. The last thing a modern housing estate needs is a reduction in the number of mature trees.

I can't say that it's to my taste, but as the others say, if it's something you like, go for it I do love a good car search though - what is your criteria? What is your budget? There are loads of interesting cars at that price point. An original A6 Allroad 2.5tdi is pretty comparable. Mpg is similar, though it's a touch slower. Very comfortable and 4x4 is useful. A W211 Mercedes E-class would have been a contemporary, and very smooth indeed. A Lexus GS is again similar, with Toyota reliability. I do totally appreciate the appeal of an old school cruiser. The V10 Touareg I have fits that bill nicely, though it's possibly a bit too brisk to be considered relaxing. Somehow, it's only £255/yr fully comp with business use too

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No public access just yet at Ausewell. A bit more to do in there. I'm low impact working in there, which unfortunately wasn't how last years operations went. Please don't blame me for those 🤣 Some softwood/broadleaf respacing and pine thinning this year. There was supposed to be a couple of hectares of spruce first thinning too but that block was missed from the felling licence.

The saplings are being sold through Bryan Elliot at Eucalyptus Renewables. We work with him a lot. I don't think that it's especially rot resistant, but it's a really good fuel wood. Happy to show you the euc plantation whenever - I love walking around there. It's forestry on steroids

I'd forgotten that you were there. I'm working at Ausewell Woods and Hembury Woods after Christmas.

Yep. As far as I'm aware, it's mostly glaucescens that is being planted up north. There are plantations springing up around Scotland too.

I'm not going to go into forensic detail here. But yes, the carbon is one of the primary driving factors for planting now. It stands alone (without carbon) very favourably as a crop, but the addition of the carbon revenue means that we can put it on the most productive (ie, highest value) sites, maximising tree growth. I'm sick to the teeth of harvesting on ground that is second rate, stupidly steep or has terrible access. As such, we only plant on drivable, lower level, fully accessible sites.

Not intentionally so. Just a little pressed for time and it's a longer topic. The woodlands we're establishing are investments. People wanting to diversify income, rather than just straight agriculture. They derive income from the carbon, the harvesting and the amenity value. It's multifaceted, but they are being planted for economic reasons.

Happy to show you some of the plantations if you like Paul. I don't make anything out of the actual planting, but we have invested in a local nursery which is growing nitens for us. An acre of nitens would easily do your domestic firewood needs in perpetuity, with first thinnings at year 4.

It's a crop that fulfills several key criteria. Firstly, it produces a crop very quickly. Secondly it sequesters carbon very quickly and thirdly, it's a nice amenity. 10 year old nitens is a nice place to be. You can't say the same for 10 year old broadleaf or sitka. We planted 55,000 eucalyptus this year, mostly nitens.

Various plots planted for various reasons. Carbon offsetting, wood fuel etc.

This was a Forest Research block, so not planted for economic reasons, though management has reverted back to the estate that owns the land now it's 10 years old. I'd hope a lot of it ends up in the firewood market as the ash won't last long. Also the sawlog market, for fencing, pallets etc.

That would be the lowest roadside value, I'd hope. I'm hoping to be able to put it into the firewood market, and some into log. The sawmilling market for eucalyptus in the UK needs development though. Not sure that's a risk here - it never stops fecking raining. The primary issue with the plantations there is lack of demand for the product, so they aren't thinned as often as is needed, resulting in a lot of standing deadwood.

4.5 ha. Already standing at about 2100t at 10yrs, 7 months. It's epic. Doubly so because it established badly due to the harsh winter 10/11 when it was only 7 months old.

Using the example of the eucalyptus plantation I've been mentioning, I'd start strip felling and replanting along the north and east side of the block. The trees are largest here, having been sheltered from the prevailing wind. Conversely, the trees on the western edge are smallest, so these would be the last to be felled. I'd spread the felling out over 8 years, allowing 2 years between each operation. Tackle the block in four bites, each time replanting immediately. Each time, moving further west and south. The retained trees would afford the newly planted trees substantial shelter, the brash left on the ground would help surpress weeds to an extent, and canopy closure would be achieved in 18 months. The final strip to be felled would be the western edge (which, from my measurements if about 30-35% less productive). The replanted trees on this edge wouldn't have as much shelter from prevailing winds, but it would only represent a quarter of the plantation and would still be no worse than a new planting. They'd still have the brash on the ground. Then, leave for 5-6 years and repeat. Most of the plantation has decent protection from inclement weather through it's growth cycle and production on this site exceeds 50 cubic metres per hectare per year. So each 1/4 removed would be around 600t, with 2500t being the expectation per 12 years. If you were to completely clearfell, you'd stunt the trees a little in their first couple of years until canopy closure was achieved. More broadly, looking at other species, there are loads of other reasons for CCF, many of which focus on the composition of the soil. Either way, I don't like clearfells and I try to avoid them now.

I'm sorry to hear that your plantation has suffered. Unless a cooperative approach between neighbouring landowners is adopted, any control you do on your land will simply open a vacuum for other squirrels to fill. Chatting to a chap at the National Trust, they are trialing a form of contraception for greys, which if successful, would render them effectively infertile. Best solution is pine martens though. They are extraordinarily effective at reducing grey numbers. I take your point about limiting access for rewilded areas, but I'd counter that yes dogs can be an issue, but with a great deal more open access, rewilded land, the spot pressures that we see now (given that there is almost nowhere to walk freely) would be hugely reduced. By giving the public the right to access (what would effectively be) common land, we can (with education) get the public to be emotionally invested in their surrounds. I'm not saying this would definitely work, but the idealist in me likes to think so.

I think it is, yes. I see countless stands of trees through work. Mostly younger stands these days too. Of everything that I have seen in the last year or two, I can think of only one young broadleaf stand that is anywhere near decent. It's part of a much larger sitka plantation (about 47 hectares all in) and the native broadleaves have been planted on the steeper, wetter ground and the alder and cherry has done really quite well. I haven't looked at it in great detail, as I was there to tender on the spruce, but it's fine. The only other hardwood plantations that have had decent growth/form have been those with ash and the ash has died/is dying. The rest of the broadleaf plantations have been awful. I'm talking dozens of woodlands, hundreds of acres of stunted, squirrel ravaged bonsais. The difference is that when these older stands (that's we're presently harvesting for hardwood) were established, the grey squirrels weren't an issue. So they were able to establish. Until grey squirrels are irradicated, I can never counternance planting native broadleaves as a crop tree. It's either pointless, or extremely hard work.

Very interesting points, and I'm entirely in favour of continuous cover, if it's possible. I do do clearfells, but I don't like them. The issue is that the management regime of a woodland needs to be focused on CCF from the outset. You can't decide halfway through a cycle to then switch to CCF and expect it to stay standing. Fundamentally, trees grow best when in a micro-climate, sheltered from prevailing weather. CCF allows for new planting/regeneration to get it's best possible start, but at present the entire forestry model in the UK is plant > thin > thin > clearfell. As regards eucalyptus, CCF is very doable, but you're working on a much shorter timescale. Given that you can take nitens from planting to final crop in 12 years, intervention can be as often as every 2 years. Coup felling blocks and replanting, whilst still taking advantage of the micro climate is the way I'd do it. I can go into more detail....