The Woodlands.co.uk Blog - Trees
Woodland Courses 2009 Pt 2
Whatever you want to learn, there’s a course out there for you. Here is a brief selection from some of our favourite suppliers for the rest of the summer and up to the end of the year. Read more…
A Video Guide to Tree Felling - Part 2
In Part 2 David Rosney assesses the woodland, which trees to fell and why. He explains how he will cut the tree to make it fall where he wants it.
Coppice.co.uk - a resource for coppicers
Many woodlands in the UK have historically been managed as coppice, yielding high productivity and benefiting biodiversity. In recent decades the management of coppice woodland has declined due to mechanisation, conifer plantations and cheap imports of timber. But now, as more people focus
on sustainable wood production, sourcing local produce and promoting biodiversity, the interest in coppicing as a woodland management method is rising again.
How to plant a hedge
Hedges are important for our landscape and wildlife but how do you go about planting one? We’ve written some general guidelines on the tree planting blog . However, a hedge is a bit different in that it is usually planted for quite different purposes – as a windbreak, to keep animals in, to provide a “corridor” along which wildlife can move, and for diversity of plant life. It is also maintained differently - you will not be thinning it.
Chestnut Coppice - The Alternatives
Coppicing is one way of protecting the biodiversity of ancient woodland. Each winter, an acre or so of the woodland is felled, and in the spring a glorious carpet of flowers erupts from what seemed to be barren ground. The next year, too, the flowers may appear, and with them some butterflies and bumble bees enjoying the nectar and the sunshine. But the sunshine also brings out the brambles and bracken and, by the following year, these will have shaded out the flowers. Later in the cycle, the re-grown coppice also shades out the bracken and bramble and the ground returns to its apparently barren condition. So, in order to have flowers and encourage bees and butterflies you need to coppice successive acres each winter, progressively moving over the ground year by year. But, it’s hard work coppicing. Is there an alternative? Read more…
Woodland Courses 2009 Pt 1
Now that you have your new 2009 diary, book some time to brush up your woodland skills or learn new ones. From the purely practical to the extremely esoteric, whatever you want to learn, there’s a course out there for you.
Cricket Bat Willow
Everyone knows that cricket is the sound of “leather on willow”, but it’s not any old willow. Cricket Bat Willow is a variety all of its own – Salix alba ‘Caerulea’. This fast-growing and straight-stemmed variety of willow produces wood that is tough but lightweight and does not shatter easily - ideal for cricket bats.
Mast and Mast Years
Mast is the ‘nut crop’ of the beech tree (Fagus sylvatica), but, in a broader sense, is the production of an enormous number of seeds. Read more…