Paul in the woods

Choice will depend on what your objectives are. I would stick with the Scots pine as they can be slow to establish but seem to grow well after a few years. In my 30 year old woodland the Scots are the tallest trees. They are good for wildlife and they don't shade out the ground that much. (Down side the squirrels love living in them). This time of year also shows the benefit of the maligned ivy as that provides a large amount of evergreen cover throughout the woodland which is a great habitat. If you not after huge trees something like bay laurel could be useful. I've been surprised by the growth of it and it can grow into a decent sized small tree. The flowers also seem to be loved by wildlife. It will need protecting from deer though as they seem to love it.

Yes and no. I've had an advisory that I've not sorted and the next MOT it passed without the advisory. It was the same garage and inspector as well.

My 352 has small plastic teeth (dogs, bumper spike or whatever) at the front. I've never really needed anything more.

I agree, they are a bit messy to run. I don't mind the mess from the logs but the ash can make the room a bit dusty. I use a wood burner as I like them but also have access to cheap wood, plenty of room to season the wood and I don't mind processing it myself. We also get a few power cuts so need something that runs without electricity. I also don't have mains gas so I'd need a tank.

More observations. I don't really notice much difference in length with between the 12" and 14" bars, but notice the difference in chains and sometimes the smaller bar nose if I'm doing something delicate. I prefer the Stihl chains. I am happy with the 14" bar though as the Echo can cope with it and I log up some decent sized wood. Also, not being a pro, I'm happy with a lighter and more relaxed saw. (I do have a Makita EA7900 for the really big stuff). Note the 14" Echo has 13.5" of usable bar and the 12" Stihl only 10.5".

You don't say what you're coppicing? I'm a smallholder for want of a better description, with several acres of woodland. I have a few acres of mixed broadleaves that was planted about 30 years ago and I'm thinning and coppicing it. I have a Still 120 CBQ battery saw, a Stihl 170 and an Echo 352ES. The 120 is great for use on the odd job and for coppicing hazel but not for thinning say ash. The Stihl 170 was bought as a cheap backup saw and is ok, but struggles a bit on stumps and can be a bit troublesome. The Echo 352 has been faultless and copes fine for my needs. I've had if for 5 years and I also deal with larger trees and that runs fine with the 14" bar buried in ash. It's obviously not the fastest saw or the same as a 50cc pro saw but fine for me. It's also frugal and very easy to start. However, the dealerships haven't been good and if you want to make use of the 5 year domestic guarantee it'll need a service which can cost a bit. I'm not keen on the VXL chain for coppicing work either, I'm currently running the PX chain and think it's better.

That's not what I mused. I wondered if planning would be given today. The house appears to on the edge of the RPA and I note in a different post you suggest doubling the RPA if you want to protect the trees health.

It's not me, it's a summary of many planning apps in this area. Often the incomers are the farmers and those complaining are people who've lived in the area far longer.

Whilst I tend to agree to some extent, life is often not that simple. People often don't have a great deal of choice when buying a house for example. There are also different degrees of what you can/should accept. I quite like the typical country smells for example but I wouldn't be happy if a farm suddenly build a huge slurry lagoon right next to my house and didn't empty it for months on end as I'm not keen on the anaerobic stench. Going back to the tree, to my uneducated eyes, it would appear a bit close to the house. I would be curious to know if the house would obtain permission to be built so close to the tree in it's current size. If not, why was permission originally granted.

You need to add a field in the sign-up process to ask them where they heard about the directory.

Looks very edible to me. If you can post a picture after a couple of days. What tree are they on?

Just mix it with tonic and, if you're feeling posh, a dash of Angostura bitters.

Thanks for that. Good to see the screens as I hope to do something similar. As you say, the crates do look interesting, I wonder how long they would last with firewood in them?

That's rather harsh. I've lived in the country most of my life but that doesn't stop me from having an allergy to silver birch (discovered when living in a town with a silver birch planted stupidly close to the house!). Hasn't stopped me buying a packet of birch seeds though. Anyway, to the OP, this may have been covered in your other thread but I thought tulip trees are low allegen? Does you son only have symptoms when it's in flower or all year round? Have you tried air filters in the room at all? Tried asking on a US forum where the trees originate? Before I splashed out on tree reports and cost of felling I would try and discount other possibilities. Are there more cats in that area for example, is the house more dusty etc, etc.

@tcfengineering were posting here late last year, hopefully they'll see you post.

Anyone for a bit of KLF? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbsEHtpoQxyWVibIPerXhug/videos

Yew got me. (Actually I know dogwood very well, I was humorously referring to what you may call dog rose when you catch the thorns.)

I think you're confusing dogwood with dog rose. Anyway, I hope they catch the thieves and give them a good birching. I know some will say that's harsh as they probably didn't have any Elders to look up to when growing up.

I own a few acres acres around our house which are on a fairly steep south slope and a few acres a couple of miles away that is fairly flat. Both to the NW of Holsworthy. Both quite different although both are likely to need restocking with something after a fair bit of ash is removed. Something I can get a harvest from within a decade is certainly appealing.

Thanks for the offer and I would love to see some one day. I have intended to plant some Eucs before you mentioned Nitens so don't need convincing. The site might be less than ideal so if I do plant it up it may be of interest to you and the nursery to see how it does. Have you posted up their details at all or can you PM me them please? And AHPP, this would all be done with my own money purely for their practical use. I could see similar people to me (smallholders) being interested in them as well. On that note, does Nitens have any other uses? Is the wood rot resistant at all for example?

It's just a few acres of amenity woodland, not a plantation. But it does highlight many problems. I'm not convinced pine martins are the answer to grey squirrels everywhere, they may well eat them but they also eat a lot of other mammals, birds, eggs etc. Also not sure how many decades it'll take to eradicate greys from places like Devon. With regard to fire, even it wet Devon you do get extended dry periods where fire does become a worry when you're living on the edge of woodland. Not sure if Euc is any worse than gorse and pine though. I'm seriously thinking of putting in a acre or so of Euc, just for our own firewood. Something to diversify away from the ash that's coming out elsewhere.

As someone with a few acres of young oaks and a few beech I can second this. Before the canopy closed I selected a few dozen good looking oaks to try and prune the stems up a bit. Sadly most have now been badly damaged by grey squirrels so it will be lucky if much firewood is produced let alone anything more useful. I do control them, more out of principle than any thing more constructive as there's hoards of the critters on neighbouring property waiting to move in. It's a puzzle why they aren't regarded more like rabbits or rats and legislation put in place to force people to control them. Sadly the opposite seems to be true and most people regard them as cute wildlife that shouldn't be touched. If we are going down the rewilding route, then doesn't that mean leaving mature trees to age, fall naturally and decompose rather than harvest them? And surely for areas to be wild that would mean reduced public access? Most people round here for example seem to regard woodlands as dog toilets and areas to let their hounds chase anything that moves.

Did anyone cedar the thieves in action? I expect they are leylandiing down for a while.

That's Sods Law.

On a serious note, this is why it's so important to plant mixed fruit hedges. ... the police are guaranteed to come out if they hear a Damson in distress.