Glad I took the saws and winch...
Over Christmas I visited the woodland. I had intended the visit to be used for mapping. However, there had been some wind & so I took the gear required to move windblown trees - just in case...
I am glad I did take the windthrow gear because I was greeted with two trees over the track. One (alder) was blocking the track which prevented me from reaching my woodland.
The other (a birch) had fallen and got hung up on a bunch of mostly dead hazel coppice on the other side of the track. Funnily enough the birch was right next to where the “sketchy birch over a path” was. This doesn’t look too bad in the photo, but that birch tree 100% doesn’t want to survive at 45º for too long. As this track is used frequently by locals who like to enjoy the peaceful nature of the woodland, you cannot leave stuff like this literally “hanging” around. Even though the woodland is private, locals still visit the place and arguing no fault under the Occupiers Liability Act would be an expensive legal process – even with public liability insurance.
So the trees had to be dealt with and whilst I wanted to be down in the woodland mapping and working on the surveying section of my woodland management plan, the universe had other ideas. So whilst these trees were not my trees, they do belong to some of my neighbours – so I did them both a nice christmas solid and I took care of the trees with no invoices issued. The benefits of having a trained forester and arborist as a neighbour.
I didn’t get many photos, but I did take the video camera. It is a shorter than normal video and captures the process of dealing with these kinds of windthrown trees.
This is why I always take a saw to the woodland. I don’t always take the winching gear (it is heavy and pain in the anus to pack and unpack) but if I had not have taken the saw, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything except turn around, drive 40 minutes home and do something else. Probably workshop related as that's a big thing for me at the moment..
Bonus for readers
One thing I didn’t put in the video was that I experimented with creating some laid hedging / fencing using an overstood hazel stool that was at the front of the my woodland. I’m going to go into this in more depth later but we have some on-going issues in the woodland and we’re looking to create natural boundaries to ensure that visitors on horses stay on the bridal ways and that trespassers on motorbikes stay out completely. Not that I have anything against these activities, but they have their place, which for horses is on the bridal way and for motorbikes is “not in the woodland” (it is actually written into the deeds of the purchase as a convenant that you agree not to use the woodland as a motorbike track). I digress…
As part of the natural boundaries, I had an idea. I have lots of hazel along the front of my section of the woodland and I thought that laying the hazel down and then pinning the ends to the ground would create a nice way to get the hazel to regenerate, that over time, would form a nice long natural laid hedge.
This was my first attempt at laying a hedge, and the pleach cuts were horrific. However, the proof of concept is there and I think it looks ace. On the next visit to the woodland I’ll add the stakes to the laid lengths of hazel and peg the ends into the ground to encourage the hazel to take root and start a new stool off. Over time these horizontal lengths will shoot new vertical growth and form a living and vibrant hedge. It’ll look lovely, it’ll keep visitor activities to the bridal path and is excellent habitat for flora and fauna.
More on this later though as hedge laying is something I am very, very interested in. The below video is just as relevant today as it was in 1942. It is an excellent video on the topic.
Thanks for reading and as always, I appreciate your attention.
Cheers,
Jamie.
I enjoyed the video! It's always interesting because I learn things by seing what you do, and it's also a bit exciting because vroom-vroom chainsaws, winches and falling timber :-) Love the intro&outro 'vignette' (?) on the video.
Re. hazel: Only last week I watched some videos about how one can use this species to grow hedges and fences, so I'm very interested in hearing more about this project. As for the old hedge laying video ... I must admit that I've seen it before. I'm a sucker for this kind of old-timey stuff ... probably because I think that we've lost some valuable things during the relentless march of progress, and because I find much of our contemporary culture vulgar, greedy and mean. I'm no prude, but føkkin hell! it seems like all the stops are out now. Then again; that could just be me ... I know I'm not normal, never was.
Apropos old film footage ... here's a gem for you: The Chiltern Bodgers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP5_OJxNccY
So long, my friend! Stay sane, cuddle the kittens and thanks for posting :-)