Another year at Old Copse: A summary

The Scots Pine thin is almost over. It's taken longer than we expected due to machines breaking down,  other jobs that needed to be fitted in by the foresters, and the endless rain that hampered operations, especially the extraction of cut tree trunks. Still, now  all the felling has been done, the timber has been extracted and taken up to the roadside collection point where the great big articulated truck loads up and takes it away to..........not sure where. All that remains are a few tree trunks that need to be winched up to the Ride as they are on a steep slope (the winch broke and had to be mended) and a few more that are hung-up on other trees. Then some Ride restoration to smooth out the ruts.

Moving the wood as the light fades

Up in the stacking area

Three artic loads were collected on the shortest day of the year 

Final total will be 200-250 tonnes of timber removed - now just the mud and ruts to sort out

It's a relief that this major piece of work has been successfully concluded. We aimed to get it done by January 2016, and we will have met the target.  It looks a great deal better with the remaining pines spread out more,  far less regimented. Though there are still a great many pines that will go during the next thin, in  about five years time. A woodland manager told us that in a neglected plantation like ours, trees 'lose the habit of growth '. Now that they have more space to grow, we hope they'll get into the habit again,  producing  more sawlogs and fewer chiplogs, and be of increased value in the timber market. We shall see.

We've been busy with other tasks this year as well:

• Finally finished Ride-side thinning in the Spring.
• Also in the Spring, finished pollarding the willow (horrible difficult job) in the 'willow grove', to encourage the Purple Emperor butterfly back to the wood.
• Holly clearance went on all year; when we started this we optimistically thought it would only take 6 months. We haven't done too badly though there remains a little more to get rid of while still leaving enough for the bats and birds.  Our major achievement has been clearing the 50 foot holly ( horrible difficult job on a steep slope) which was hiding a good number of mature oak and beech adjacent to the Frenchbridge Ghyll stream in the North West corner of the wood.
• Created a new Ride/track through the birch on the East side of the wood.
• Plus all the routine activities such as; collecting fungi to eat immediately or turn into  'Old Copse Porcini'   (makes welcome Christmas presents); bracken and bramble control; fence mending, litter removal from the boundary fences; regeneration protection; processing cordwood for our own use and for sale; organising increased deer 'management'.
• And lastly, not work as such, but an important and enjoyable part of woodland life this year -   hosting social get togethers like the wedding and mid-summer parties, and having lots of visitors to enjoy the cabin, the wood and its wildlife. Our lovely volunteers,  Milo and Martha are much missed, and now live in the USA, in Eugene, Oregon where Milo is working as a forester and tree surgeon.

Next year.......... well, first job is to do some tidying up  where the Scots Pine has been felled. The brash layer is not nearly as dense as we feared it would be and will rot down within a year or so. Much of it will be left undisturbed but we need to organise it a little, clear it away from paths so that we can move about the wood. Creatures are already making good use of it, both small mammals and birds. Sarah disturbed a woodcock from under one pile the other day. We'll also be doing some work filling in the ruts where the machinery has been, but past experience has shown us that nature is the best  tidy-upper in the wood.

Woodcock (library picture)

Then it's on to replanting with broad leaves where  needed, though we hope, if the deer numbers have been reduced, that natural re-generation will increase. We also want to do more work in the birch side of the wood, 'halo' thinning the spindly birch around the oaks, beech and rowan, and at the sides of the new ride,  pollarding the birch, and planting hazel.

All in all, a satisfying and productive year. Hard work, but really good to see the results.


P.S. We found out where our timber is bound  - Timber destined for Chip goes to North Norfolk , and the Sawlogs go to Wales. This is because these are the nearest sawmills that deal in softwoods. Bit of a shame though that it has to travel such a distance, and can't be processed locally.