Phloem

Pretty interesting, sorry if I missed it in previous comments but what's it to be grown for? Fuel? I briefly remember reading about a guy with an estate down in England who pretty much pioneered the planting of eucalyptus and it showed you round some of the plantations. It was in forestry journal, don't suppose that was the guy you're doing work for?

In a nutshell - wildlife and "sense of place". The species native to this country are the species which support birds, insects & various mammals because they have coexisted on this island for thousands of years (and in neighbouring Europe), and all these organisms have evolved together to coexist and benefit each other. A Sitka plantation does provide some habitat for a few creatures, but it's many orders of magnitude less than an oak woodland for example. When I started studying forestry I wondered why we have such boring tree species everywhere and why should we bother with natives, like why not put a shitload of giant sequoias and coastal redwoods everywhere instead of beech, oak, ash, etc. But as times gone by I actually think the native trees we find here, especially when they're allowed to grow old and magnificent, they are what make this small island so pleasant. There's something about them which just fits in perfectly, and because we've ****************ed up most of our ancient woodland, barely any of us can appreciate how amazing the trees which naturally grow here really are.

Interesting.. How many per hectare? What silvicultural system?

Can you explain how that's not really what you should do? I'm new to all the equipment - I know a zigzag can be used for double rope systems, were you using it like the guy with the lockjack in the vid on a single rope?

Were all the trees you gaffed out on quite big? I can imagine if the trunk was fairly big in diameter it'd stop you falling, but smaller ones seem like they'd not hold you. I dunno though?

I've worked mostly in forestry but I'm doing more arb work recently, and will be getting my climbing tickets soon, so I'm not really clued up on spiking/climbing a tree. I've seen lots of guys just spike straight up a tree with no backup, just their lanyard holding them close to the tree which seems stupidly dodgy if they were to gaff out. How do people on here recommend securing themselves in case they slip? There's a Japanese guy on youtube I found who uses a method I'd probably go for, but interested to hear what others think and what other options there are. -