Woodlands.co.uk
Greenridge – my wood.
Having been born and brought up in rural Devon and then subsequently spending a career of 50 years at sea, the prospect of retirement with all its encumbrance of zimmer frames and wheel chairs was not sitting too comfortably on my shoulders. A year into this experience, at about the time the wife stopped talking to me, and with the feeling of guilt experienced every morning of really not doing very much constructive with my life, except walk the two Springers the obligatory six miles a day along the coast outside my home – it really felt as if the rot was well and truly starting to set in. That is until one day, whilst exploring a quiet part of Northumberland, I espied a Woodlands.co.uk for sale sign. Read more…
The NHM Bluebell Survey – update
Back in 2006 (and 2007), the blog posted information about the Natural History Museum Bluebell Survey.
- http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/flora-and-fauna/recording-your-bluebells/
- http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/flora-and-fauna/bluebell-survey-2007/
This is an ongoing project, apart from studying the distribution of native and spanish bluebells (and the hybrids, which now may be more common than their Spanish ‘parent’) – the project is also looking at the flowering time of the bluebell (in relation to climate change / variability). Full details of the project (and lots of information about bluebells) can be found at the NHM website. Read more…
Containers in woodlands: forest stores and shelters
There are two ways of “doing forestry” – traditional forestry works with teams of forestry workers who descend on the plantation, do their work and move on, storing no equipment. In the other model with smaller scale management a more permanent presence is needed and minor works are done throughout the year, and there is usually a need for somewhere to store equipment. Such forestry equipment can include tree-planting kit, hand tools, fencing materials and even camping stuff. What the owner or manager needs is some space that is dry and secure and does not need expensive and potentially damaging foundations. Many owners wish to manage their woodlands in this way but they need a store and shelter of some sort. Steel Containers can be the answer.
Read more…
Small Woods Association – a nunnery or a hothouse?
The Small Woods Association is a remarkable organisation with three unusual women at the core of it – Jude Walker, its CEO, Angle Pollard who runs their social forestry programme and Diane Wood – the SWA treasurer. For those who notice these things, it’s interesting that that their surnames are all related to woodlands and what they do – encouraging walking and pollarding in woods – an illustration of aptronyms perhaps (names which are very apt for the job they do). These women, along with Phil Tidey and their team at the Greenwood Centre, have built up the Small Woods Association into a very effective charity which has turnover of almost 3/4 million pounds and a clear objective of promoting sustainable conservation of small woodlands, but in recent years it has developed a particular emphasis on social forestry, meaning woodland projects with health and social objectives. Read more…
The pasqueflower : Pulsatilla vulgaris
The pasqueflower is not a woodland plant, but more one of open grassland (on chalk or limestone), sometimes growing with upright brome and tor grass However, it is a particularly beautiful and rare flower – having deep purple petals, that surround the many vibrant yellow stamens. The flowers usually appear in mid-April when the daytime temperatures have risen into double figures; it is often associated with Easter, and is, otherwise known as easter flower, meadow anemone or dane’s blood. The flowering period of the pasqueflower is quite long, lasting for some 4 – 6 weeks. The pasqueflower is a member of the ‘buttercup’ family – the Ranunculaceae, like the wood anemone and traveller’s joy
The flowers are protogynous – that is the flower has a separate male and female phases, with the yellow stigmas (female structures) maturing first. Protogyny, or indeed protandry, are mechanisms that some plants use to promote the exchange of pollen between different plants – i.e. cross-fertilisation / outbreeding . The plant is covered with many silky hairs – these are present on the leaves, stem and flowers (see the various images in the gallery below). Read more…
Monterey Pine – Pinus radiata
Monterey Pine or Radiata Pine (Pinus radiata) is found naturally in the coastal area around Monterey in California. There, it is under threat from Pine Pitch Canker (a fungal disease), which makes them liable to attack by bark beetles. Monterey pine is to be found growing in milder parts of the UK (where it grows faster than in its native habitat), and in coastal areas as it is resistant to salt spray.
The pine is extensively and intensively used in forestry, especially in countries like New Zealand (like the Kaingaroa Forest on the North Island). The monterey pine can be used for erosion control on steep slopes – as it has a widespread and fast growing root system
The growth form of the tree is conic at first, but as the tree ages it becomes dome shaped with heavily, twisted branches. Read more…
What’s been happening to Scottish Forestry? Tilhill tell all.
Tilhill UPM manage many large private forestry estates and produce an excellent annual report on the state of the market both for the land itself and forestry products. Some time back, I went to the presentation of Tilhill’s 2011 Forest Market Report which was surprisingly upbeat. The main message was that land values are strongly up, forest product prices are strongly up and volumes of land sold, measured by value, are at historically high levels. Property values have increased about 15% in the year to the end of September 2011, according to Crispin Golding of Tilhill UPM, mainly because: there is increased demand for land from investors who are tax-driven or who are looking for safe havens for cash, or both; timber prices have gone up principally because of high oil prices and the devaluation of the pound (making UK timber forestry output more competitive with foreign countries including the Baltic States who are enormous timber exporters). Read more…
My wood – part two
The second instalment to “my wood” has, like Spring, this year – sprung rather too soon. I’ve been away for most of the last week starting work on a new area of woodland in Norfolk that I hope to be able to bring to market in the early summer. So after nearly a week of absence , I hurried across the field as the light rose on Saturday morning accompanied by Stig who seemed even happier than me, tail wagging frantically in the bitter frost.
Despite some savagely cold dawns, a couple of weeks of unseasonably warm weather has transformed the woodland. It has been more of a boom than a Spring bloom this year. My hornbeam is in leaf, the hawthorn is in blossom, Read more…