Paul in the woods

Shii is the name of the tree the take (mushroom) grows on. It's related to our oak I beleive. Anyway, yes I've grown Shiitake on oak and they've been successful. They did take a couple of years to fruit but that's probably down to the fact it was my first attempt. First crop:

I'm lucky in that I bought the wood to produce materials for myself so I can be more relaxed about time and money. I've got a few acres of hazel that was planted 20 years ago that needs it's first coppice so plenty of material to play with. Hopefully I'll have some idea what I'm doing when the better quality regrowth it ready in several years time!

Good question. Currently I have a a couple of acres of scrubby area that has quite a few large, old, hazel stools. Over the last 40 years or so it's been neglected and goat/grey will has moved in, sprawling all over the place. In the area I'm working in there's also blackthorn which has been flattened when a nearby track was cleared, that clearance also dumped other branches and trunks. I want to rejuvenate the hazel and increase it by layering. I don't want the remove all the other trees but reduce some like the willow, especially the stems that are laying across the ground. There's a large amount of dead branches and trunks, not huge diameter but a much larger quantity that you'd normally find. I also have to sort through it to remove stuff that's been dumped such as barbed wire. If I leave it covering the floor it would cover a large percentage, 40%+ possibly. I would like to see what wild herbs flourish when the work is done and have space to layer the hazel so I'll pile up some of the dead wood. It's never going to be tidy. Brash is a separate issue, I plan to deadhedge the area as we have rabbits and deer. The plan for that is to use willow stakes, a layer of gorse on the bottom, other brash and a layer of blackthorn on top. I expect some willow will grow but that will be coppiced off when the deadhedge is removed and will provide sacrificial shoots for the critters. I'm a bit concerned that too much dead wood in once place will suppress other plants from growing up. There's plenty of dead wood and brash all over the woodland and I'm leaving dead standing material where safe.

Can you have too much fallen, dead, rotting wood in a managed woodland? That might sound like a daft question but when I've seen woodlands coppiced/felled for wildlife management reasons much of the wood is burnt on site rather than being cut and stacked as habitat. I'm clearing out an area of scrub to try and turn it back into an area of managed hazel coppice and there's a huge mount of dead wood as the previous owner appears to have done latest management with a bulldozer! If it's fine to leave it, should it be stacked in several small piles or a couple of huge ones or does it not matter? There's not much risk of fire or anything as it's a wet piece of land.

Thank you, that does sound promising. We'll ring them on Monday and see if we can sort something out.

We've seen them out surveying, often buzzing the tree tops in a helicopter. Are your power lines just passing over your land? I'm wondering, the line I'm concerned about just supplies a single house and I'm sure touches trees. It's a thick looking cable so appears to be insulated. Anyone know if that's likely to be the case and if they would still clear 3m around it?

I understand you now Woodyguy. Yes I'm aware a felling licence will cover all my holdings, not sure about the fine detail when you purchase some more woodland. I doubt I can use the limits on my current application as it's site specific. I do still get a 5 cube per quarter allowance though. I will have to see how I get on with the power company. They seem to be currently working in that area but as I don't own the house I don't know if they will speak to me.

There is no felling licence application for these overhanging trees. How much would a power company cut back? Would they fell a tree that's 1 meter away from a cable (if they were asked) or just trim any close branches?

I've currently got a felling licence application in for a different woodland and I would like to avoid doing another. There is also a time issue as I don't own the house and they can take months to approve. I don't think I would be covered by an exemption if the trees were felled, but there may be some ways round it. I had thought about staggering the work but with an electrical cable running close to the trees that will be quite difficult to get the work done as I assume the power will need to be cut off each time work is done? Contacting the power company will be my first step. I'm not sure how much they will trim back but at least it will be a start.

I'm looking to buy a house that has a few acres of mature woodland attached, that's the good news. However, along one side of the property there are several mature trees, beech and ash, that are part of an old hedgebank at the edge of the wood. At a rough calculation they are about 25m tall and are leaning over the road. They also lean over an electricity and telephone line and, most importantly, a neighbouring house. The road is a very quite country land and the cables only go to the house I'm looking at so less of an issue. I think I have several options that I'd like some advice with choosing which way to go. 1) Do as little as possible. However, if a tree falls and causes damage I assume I would be liable as the land owner? Would an insurance company be happy to pay out or would they expect roadside trees to be professional inspected? If so who by and how often? 2) Fell the trees. I do like trees and plant a fair few but I'm also realistic and the trees would make excellent firewood. The problem I have is if all the offending trees were felled I'd probably need a felling license based on my initial calcs and that would be a pain. One possible option would be to pollard to under the cable and fell at a later date. 3) Trim the trees and actively manage them. Although with electric cables running through I can't see this being an easy thing to do so I'd rather get the work done all at once. 4) I gather the power company will trim some of the trees. However, seeing some of their work they have only left a 5cm or so gap between the tree and the cable. Does anyone know if I can discuss the issue with the power company and will they be happy to trim the trees back further? 5) Any option I've missed? Thanks!

That's what I thought but the WES has a lower power output, 1.39kW vs 1.50kW, according to Echo UK. I've been considering a CS-360WES for coppicing work so would it would be good to hear how you get on with yours simsimo or anyone else with one.

I bought a few acres of woodland. The companies that buy up large woodlands and sell small parcels also restrict what you can do, so you may not be able to run a log business of any sort from it. I found my patch by noticing a couple of fields for sale that had a bit of woodland attached. I managed to get the woodland on it's own for a much cheaper price than you tend to see advertised. It is good mix including hazel that needs to be coppiced for the fist time and old hazel stools that have been neglected for many years. I would have thought that you may be able to find a local farmer or land owner that might be willing to sell off a small patch. Would it be possible to buy a larger patch and break it up into smaller lots yourself?

With Premium bonds they are underwritten by the UK government so fairly safe. However, the prize fund is based on an interest rate, currently 1.35%. So, simply, you would expect a return of around 1.35%, but not guarenteed and your chances of wining a large prize are slim so the interest rate is going to be less than 1.35%. Worth having for security and the monthly fun of seeing if you've won something but not a guaranteed return.

Is it not possible to get the numbers of rabbits down or will even just the odd rabbit cause too much damage? I've noted that rabbits seem happy to nibble the bark from brash left from a bit of thinning rather than attack the trunks of mature ash trees. Just wondering if a bit of rabbit control and leaving brash would avoid rabbit damage on shoots.

Has anyone tried those Dremel chainsaw attachments? They seem to get mixed reviews but at least you can run them at a slow speed.

I think woodyguy is closer to the mark, but don't forget your other responsibilities such as ensuring no harm to protected species. I would look through this: Felling Licences (England) and work out some numbers using this guide: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/140606TreeVolume.pdf/$FILE/140606TreeVolume.pdf That should confirm if you need a licence and if you keep a record of your measurements and calcs you can refer to them if you get any queries.

I'll stop you there, it was Labour not the Conservatives that bailed out the banks. I expect they would have done something similar but then labour would have raised VAT as well.

They have councils, an MP and MEPs acting out their policies so they are being implemented as they currently stand. Yes it's good they are debated but most people I know who've voted green don't have much of a clue about most of their policies. I'd also like to the policies costed as it's very easy to promise stuff if you're never going held to account. When that's done I expect they've be much more similar to the current parties.

I don't think it means that as that's basically the current arrangement. I think they mean gun clubs have to have all the firearms kept on site and that idea was floated a few years ago and was dropped when people realised how daft it was. Again, clarification is needed which leads to the conclusion it's rather pointless producing large number of policies if they're open to interpretation.

Does it? That's a different sentence so I'm not sure and for many woodland owners selling off stalking rights to people who do it for pleasure raises essential income and manages the population. A fair bit of new woodland is currently planted for game cover. It's also going to be hard to shoot pests if private ownership of guns is banned.

Nope It also just doesn't add up. Their forestry policy looks great initially, 8% woodland cover goes up to 25%, yey! Their farming policy also looks good, less pesticides and artificial fertiliser, great I'm pro-organic. But how are they going to grow all the food? I expect they also want to import less food as well.

I do wonder if people who say they'll vote green have actually read through their policies. There's plenty to like but also plenty that'll just cause all sorts of problems. From a forestry point of view they wish to stop shooting, so what are you meant to do about deer, squirrel or rabbit numbers if you have a problem - talk nicely to them?

It's the sap that's coloured so in freshly cut wood it comes to the surface. If the wood is seasoned less or no sap will come out and the wood stays quite light. So, if the wood in the photo is alder it's probably been slit when it's mostly dry, hence less of an orange surface than if it was cut when fresh. In my experience that is, I've only cut fairly young alder.

Yes it goes very orange when cut/split if it's fresh but when it's seasoned and then cut/split it doesn't go orange. (Sorry, I wasn't clear in my post). The wood from trees on my woodland don't go orange after seasoning and items made from seasoned alder that we've bought aren't orange (it looks almost like birch). I'm not sure about burning it green either, it'll have a very high moisture content when fresh, especially as it grows on wet ground. Agree that it semms to season quickly.

If it's very light then I'll change my mind to alder. The bark doesn't look quite right to me for mature alder but it is a very light wood when seasoned, and it doesn't go orange when split either.