Paul in the woods

8" diameter in 5 years is very good going. Are they normal alder or any special hybrid? Mine have taken over 20 years to get that size, although they are in an exposed site with wet, poor and acidic soil.

I've not seen hornets stripping bark, and we get quite a few hornets around here. A quick google suggests it's common, I'll have to keep an eye out for the damage as I did notice hornets taking an interest in a particular ash tree.

I've no idea, you would think they don't have the resources although I gather they do use aerial photography to check some cases. When I spoke to the FC about a felling licence on my small bit of young woodland they mostly seemed worried about too much open space. It didn't help they were working from very old photos and if anything it has too little open space now. Unless you plan to clear any of the woodland I would have thought you would be ok. You'll probably need to replant any areas that die off, areas of ash for example. I'm lucky in the fact that mines 20+ years old now and the trees are self seeding. I've been thinning out the ash and in most places hazel is already establishing next to the stumps so my tree coverage is the same. As for alder, it does coppice well if the stools get enough light to regrow. The added bonus is the deer don't seem overly fond of the regrowth.

I'm more likely to encourage them myself so don't know how to treat them. However, they don't seem to hand around long, the plant recovered the next year and they don't seem to return.

I think they may be Buff-tip Phalera bucephala. We get them on goat willow and they can strip plants very quickly, you can even hear them munching away. Buff-tip BUTTERFLY-CONSERVATION.ORG When at rest, the wings are held almost vertically against the body with two buff areas at the front of the thorax and at the... Buff-tip Phalera bucephala - UKMoths UKMOTHS.ORG.UK

I can't comment on the saw or bar but have you used the VXL chain before? Have a quick search on here as there's plenty of comments about the chain being a bit grabby and jumpy. I run it on a small back handle saw and wasn't impressed at first.

Looks like laburnam to me.

This Forest Research document will be worth a read, most with be over the top but you should be able to find some useful bits. https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/research/thinning-practice-a-silvicultural-guide/ As for the EWGS, I thought obligations ended after 10 years but worth checking the fine print of your specific agreement. (This should be covered by the sale process as if there are any obligations the vendor would normally transfer them to you). This might help: Legacy woodland grants and obligations - GOV.UK WWW.GOV.UK Claim and manage legacy schemes – English Woodland Grant Scheme (EWGS), Farm Woodland Premium Scheme (FWPS)...

I've noticed this for the first time this year, i.e. squirrels stripping very thin shoots. I've seen sycamores in hedges and on my woodland my field maple has been attacked on narrow leaders, less than 1" in places. The bark stripping is fairly obvious though and you get trees with fairly perfect leaves and then brown withered tips. On a side note, I thought no one knows why grey squirrels strip bark, certainly where I've seen the sycamores stripped there's plenty of water as the trees are next to a stream that flows all year so I doubt it's thirst.

It may also be worth talking to some of the companies that sell woodland to see if they would pass your details on to new owners. They may be able to give you a realistic idea of what people will pay for: Woodlands.co.uk | Woodlands for sale in South East England WWW.WOODLANDS.CO.UK Woodlands.co.uk - providing woods for sale in South East England for enjoyment and conservation. I know many owners, like myself, will do the work themselves but plenty of people just want to turn up for some camping. It's not unusual for people to pay an annual management charge for a holiday chalet for example so I wonder if there's any chance of getting people to pay an annual management charge to look after their woodland? Having said that, getting hold of a much larger land owner such as a farmer or two would be ideal.

Are they not ant mounds? If it is grass I would call them tussocks. This thread comes up on google with loads more names: What are these? | The Farming Forum THEFARMINGFORUM.CO.UK

Since they came from Japan? If you google pictures of my suggestion the nodes are opposite. However, my suggestion was/is just an educated guess - other suggestions welcome. The leaves look too short in the first pic posted but as far as I could tell Salix integra seems to be fairly variable in its leaves. 'Flamingo' Dappled Willow - Overdevest Nurseries, LP WWW.GROWNBYOVERDEVEST.COM Spectacular show of colors - white, green and deep pink - adorn this beauty during the growing season

On a serous note I have seen stumps for sale for well over £100+ in posh garden centres down your way. IIRC they were weathered, but a few minutes with a sand blaster...

I have something similar, a few beech stumps in an old hedge. They were cut down a few years ago and they've all regrown to some extent from the edge. The ones that had a few small low down branches that were left seem ok, the one stump without any branches has thrown up some weak growth that has died off and gone brown over the last month. I assume the growth isn't enough to sustain the stump and it's slowly dying. I also note some mature beech trees are showing the odd patch of die back as well.

Indeed, and it depends what Farmer Miggins wanted. Some farmers round here tend to prune trees by simply driving tractors into them. Personally I'd like it rounded if it's in the garden, but in my wood I'd prefer it more spiky.

I was going to say the first pic looks like oak but the second looks a bit like elm (although I don't have any elm here to burn). I would tend to go on smell as well, oak smells quite strongly. I thought elm should burn ok if well seasoned, I think it gets a bad rep as it's a very wet wood when fresh and needs a long time to season. When you say 15% moisture, is that from a freshly split face from a large log?

It looks like a willow of some sort and a google for variegated willow throws up similar looking plants such as Salix integra 'Hakuro-nishiki'. Does that match?

I've seen people skin an old leather sofa and use the leather to make pouches. Someone may be giving away an old one near you? You can make a simple pouch by cutting out a round, making holes round the edge and threading a drawstring around. No sewing required.

The two blobs look like old slime moulds to me, possibly dogs vomit ( Fuligo septica ). The best pic I can find is here: The mysterious world of the Slime Mould – Woodlands.co.uk WWW.WOODLANDS.CO.UK Woodland for sale throughout the UK, including woods for sale in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Advice on...

I do often check Apsen's dealer locator but I live in a fairly remote part of Devon. The town I tend to shop at had a dealer that stocked it but they seem to have closed. My largest village and next nearest town both have shops that stock motomix so I've started using that rather than Aspen as it's what I can get.

A suggestion would be a young oak bracket fungus, Pseudoinonotus dryadeus. I would wait for someone more knowledgable for a positive id.

Funnily enough that's my main gripe about Aspen - availability still. My localish supplier seems to have closed so it's a special trip if I need some. If only a petrol station, DIY shed or agri store down here stocked it.

They look like boletes (boletes will have pores on the underside of the cap) but they don't look like ceps (boletus edulis). The red stems suggests they're not edible and may be poisonous. I'd guess they are bitter boletes or similar.

This is not a recommendation, as I've not used one, but the Makita EA4300 has cropped up before with an offer that seems almost too good to be true - £245 . Might be worth asking how people with them are getting on? Makita EA4300F45C 43cc Petrol Chainsaw (45cm) + FREE Spare Chain | Fastfix WWW.FASTFIX.CO.UK The Makita EA4300F45C is a powerful 43cc industrial petrol chainsaw packed full of features and is supplied with a 45cm...

So you assume any new builds will be nicely spread out around the country? Most will be around cities, towns, villages where there's work, transport and other facilities - as illustrated by Big J. I can't see this not resulting in very large price rises in the areas where most people would want to build. As for your tax, it's still a tax.