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Matthew Arnold

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Everything posted by Matthew Arnold

  1. Matthew Arnold
    The first thing that came up on Castle Hill once it was cleared of trees was nettles. Its taken about 2 years of continuous mowing to get it to almost all grass
  2. Matthew Arnold
  3. Matthew Arnold
    Yep. We are planning on having the pond cleared of the vegetation and we plan on clearing the brambles near the steps as we get some decent wild flowers there. And with any luck we will take a few more sycamores out on the slope to open the view even more off the top. We will be leaving the two massive ones on the hillside unless the rootplates start to give way in this rain.
  4. Matthew Arnold
    ye. ideally after you clear the monument you wait until late spring - early summer to go around and cut and treat thr stumps. We normally use neat round up to treat them. It has a 98% success rate but then give it a few years it would be worth using a forestry mulcher to get rid of the stumps n various bits. But obviousily being careful of the terrain. We cant do that on any of our monuments as they are all on steep slopes.
  5. Matthew Arnold
    we could leave the green as mulch but any of the wood arising from the winter clearance we burnt on site. On all of the ancient monuments we manage we have authority to burn in a specific area which is pretty hand. We have already got them booked in for this winters work plan. We will be borrowing some colleagues chipper for about 8 weeks. during the winter. Its mainly to catch up on what we missed last year as one of my colleagues broke his leg felling a tree.
  6. Matthew Arnold
    Lots more images will be apearing on here this winter as we have 4 ancient monuments to clear. one of which hasnt been touched on its outer flanks for nearly 15 years. And the site is an SNCI due to its wildflower contents.
  7. Matthew Arnold
    How did you guess lol. Its the only site in shaftesbury we manage at the moment. As well as the monument to manage we also are controlling the nightmare plant Himalayan Balsam. The only trouble is we have a few new plants growing in 4 ft high brambles.
  8. Matthew Arnold
    Here are a few images of my work truck after nearly sinking to the axles on a boggy track. My colleagues were wetting themselves as my truck had about half a ton of kit in the boot. The last picture was taken the same day my boss reversed into me. I couldnt go backward as the gate had been locked up behind me. And the gate is a Forestry Commision gate filled with cement.
  9. Matthew Arnold
    Sorry for the massive set of pics
  10. Matthew Arnold
    As several people have added threads i thought i may as well add one too. This is basically showing any ancient monument clearance that we have carried out over the past year or two. Feel free to add your pictures.
  11. Matthew Arnold
    We got a couple of Lombardy's like that. One which is pretty much being held up by the butress roots and one with about 4 inches of wood all round. The boss isn't looking forward to the one with the butresses
  12. Matthew Arnold
    Yep. I wouldnt be too keen on having a tree that size in my gardne anyway. It has been there a lot longer than the house and the rootplate would have been either cut away or badly damaged. If it was in my garden i would get a tree surgeon to put a slackish strop around both stems so if they do fail they drop either straight down or stay up there. Maybe have a fairly tight one between the two so if the base fails it'll hopefully go away from the house
  13. Matthew Arnold
    ye. we are having constant arguments with the farmer as his cattle keep going onto the old railway line and trash the surface and the slopes. So this winter we are going to fell a big lot of ash and sycamore and put a nice 6 foot high stock proof bridleway spec fence along the top of the embankment and then charge him for the fencing.
  14. Matthew Arnold
    lol. the boss felled a heavily leaning Ash proceding as normal thinking the tree was perfectly sound last winter. Unfortunately when he had bored the centre out to prevent a barbers chair occuring the whole coppice stool fell apart. The biggest stem flattened a neighbouring barn. We put it down to an act of god but the farmer was certain it was my boss taking off the leaning stem that caused it to fail. He only tapped the top of the stem and it went over. The stool went over about 30 mins after. Do you think we imbalanced the stool even though it was pretty much ready to split anyway?
  15. Matthew Arnold
    Now that was very lucky. One hell of a natures stunt fell.
  16. Matthew Arnold
    Ah ok. We have been asked to keep it vegetation clear so the surveying could be done easier. It wasn't much fun being on the top of the MEWP in a bloody monsoon. We were watching it make it way across the blackmore vale. You could hear it as it came through the town lol. We had about 3 inches in 45 mins. I was piss wet through for the rest of the day.
  17. Matthew Arnold
    Do you remember the day when it absolutely hammered down? and the council trucks driving up and down the really narrow bit at the bottom.
  18. Matthew Arnold
    Probably leave it to pollard naturally but trim it every 10 years to keep the knuckles n joins relatively fresh
  19. Matthew Arnold
    This link shows the MEWP we used to clear a national treasure of vegetation. You'll recognise it from the Hovis advert. BBC - Gold Hill's wall gets a weeding
  20. Matthew Arnold
    We sometimes find that going up in a telehandler bucket is safer than climbing. We've had close calls with the boss when he is climbing up a tree to de-limb or deadwood and the limb that he is standing on suddenly gives way. Atleast with a telehandler you don't get that trouble. We also hire MEWP's. We hired a spider like one for use on uneven and slippery ground.
  21. Matthew Arnold
    The last time we had seriously strong gusts it split lots of forks in most of the mature trees. Not exactly top notch H +S but we borrowed a contractors Manitou Telehandler to attach the ropes to the branch n then pull em out with the tractor. The boss was all harnessed up when he went up in the bucket. The highest he went was 40 ft. Might have to do it again this week. We have just got rid of the answerphone messages ready for this week.
  22. Matthew Arnold
    Ye. Hopefully it will keep everyone happy. It would open that section up. We plan on doing it on the oak on the other side of the road. It has the same problee but with a nice big split running from base to crown. We hope that if we pollard that one too it will be a nice bat habitat as there are signs of bats in the split. I shall try and get pictures of the split when the weather is a bit nicer. I will be checking the trees on our sites with defects on friday afternoon. Heavy rain and strong gusty winds don't mix.
  23. Matthew Arnold
    We may get it reduced and deadwooded at firts. But we have said that if the rot is extensive at the unions then we would give the go ahead to pollard into a monolith and let it continue to grow.
  24. Matthew Arnold
    Potentially yes. We spotted a small hole down in the base and i know that trees are generally meant to be cyclindrical around the base but these are deeply ridged where the butress roots are. In between the butress roots we tapped them with a rubber mallet and it sounded very hollow. So all being well that'll be coming down too. But we have to wait unti lthe bloody TPO's are removed from the trees. We are planning on crown lifting the pair of large Grey Poplars as well.
  25. Matthew Arnold
    Maybe be a candidate for a stunt fell. Enough room if it goes wrong. And the town council(who own the green space) aren't too fussed if it leaves dents in the grass.

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