Tree Thinning ~ by WoodlandsTV

Transcript

Julian Evans: My name is Julian Evans. I own a small woodland in Hampshire. One of the things we've needed to do in that woodland is to thin out the trees because as trees grow, we can't just leave them to grow thicker and thicker. And this woodland that you can see behind me here has many trees that need to be thinned out for two reasons. One is to favor the best trees so that they can grow on and grow well. The other is to introduce more light beneath the canopy onto the ground floor so that we can have more bluebells and primroses and all the lovely spring flowers that we like to see.

How do we identify which trees should come and how many? Well I can introduce a rule of thumb. The first is that usually, when you do a thinning, you take out about one tree in every three. You don't need to be mathematical about this, every third tree up a row or anything like that, but roughly, have in mind, one tree in three.

Now I've got here a traditional Kentish billhook which is just what we can use to mark the trees that ought to come out, from just this area where we're standing. The tradition is that you put a blaze on the tree on both sides, [sound of chopping] so that that can be seen easily by the tree feller, operating with his chain saw, coming to cut them through. So that tree is now destined to be felled and removed.

In the old days, when this was done with an ax, there would often be a crown on the back of the ax. If this was the State Forest Service -the Forestry Commission- they would make a mark to show that yes, that was an official tree because otherwise somebody else could come along and put their blazes in on any trees that you, as the owner, didn't want to have cut.

So that's one tree. It is leaning. It is contributing nothing. It has no future. So it is best cut down and removed. But if we now look to my left-hand side, we can see there's one other dead tree. Then there's a tall spruce and a rather elegant oak tree which will make a really good final crop. It is a straight tree. The one thing wrong with it is that its crown is restricted. So what we want to do is to remove one or possibly both of the neighboring trees on either side.

Now, as the owner of this wood, I think what I will do is to mark the hornbeam which is a good wood for firewood but this wood is full of hornbeam coppice. So we will take that tree and that will help that oak to develop its branches towards these other conifers. So we'll go over and we will do a mark on the hornbeam tree. We'll put that blaze on it. [sound of chopping] And that is all that is sufficient to mark your trees.

So the first tree we marked was one that was dead or perhaps it might be diseased tree which is good to take. The second tree we have marked is one that is interfering with a really important tree that you want to grow on because we want to grow really good oak timber. That is the tree that is just next to it. In five or six years time when this operation ought to be done again and the next thinning is due, probably, we would take the spruce tree on the other side of the oak to give it yet more space.

When you have marked all of those trees, the dead, the dying, the diseased trees, the ones that are interfering with the good ones, you might then just select a few others to make up to your rule of thumb that we mentioned at the beginning, the one in three. And so you might just quickly go back through your woodland, your stand of trees and take out a few more to make it rather more even.

Who comes and cuts these trees? Because for most of us who own our own small wood, this is far too big for us to be able to cope with with a handsaw. Obviously it is a chainsaw job. Therefore you need to have a trained person.

A contractor would be interested in coming into this wood, seeing the ones that have been marked and he or she would give a quote to say, "I am prepared to pay so much per tree or so much per ton of wood for the ones that you have marked with a blaze." That is why it is so important to have these blaze marks on so that the contractor knows.

That has a technical name in forestry. It is called "standing sale". It is the easiest way for a small owner to sell their trees. To invite a contractor in to look at the ones that have been marked for thinning and then, if they're interested, they can give you an offer.