Oliver Rackham and a day of pollarding

 It’s such a rainy day I been reading Oliver Rackham’s book about landscape history. Interesting to speculate about what he would think about my woodland creation. Probably he would have been fairly negative about the biodiversity - and said that I would be much better spending my time in the restoration of a coppicing cycle in an ancient woodland rather than trying to create a new woodland. This was illustrated by the story of the woodland planted by monks 750 years ago which still doesn’t have as rich a flora as the adjacent ancient woodland.

Fascinating to read about how human activity has altered all of our environment, with echos of history in the patterns of fields, the hedgerows and woodlands.

Pollarding the willows.

Yesterday was Solent pollarding willows in the woodland. The branches are too high to cut with a chain saw, as using a chain saw at head height seems unwise. A hand chain saw is the answer, as the ropes either side of the chain allow us to be 10m from the tree being cut. However, it is a really good upper body workout!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Darlac-Pocket-Chainsaw/dp/B002D18CU4/ref=sr_1_20?crid=1MB7G6496Y9DH&keywords=Rope+chainsaw&qid=1645395344&sprefix=rope+chainsaw%2Caps%2C56&sr=8-20

Pollarding creates lots of branches, as well as rotten wood good for insects and holes for nesting.

Expertise from Woodland Trust

 I have come across this recently published manual from the Woodland Trust - the "Woodland Creation Guide".

It is pretty detailed (more than 300 pages) and is definitely not 'light reading'. It made me start reflecting on what I would do differently if starting again today:

1) I would pay more attention to the edges of the woodland and not plant 'future big' trees (such as oak and beech) near the woodland edges. I am correcting this now by selective thinning - leaving the smaller trees (such as service, wayfaring, hawthorn) around the edges, but I could have saved myself some work by panning this from the beginning.

2) I would not use plastic tree protectors, plastic mulch mats and tannalised stakes. There is no good evidence that these additions make the trees grow better, and they will give long term low level plastic and microplastic pollution. I have tried to mitigate the negative environmental impact by constructing 'bug hotels' (see past posts) out of the tree protectors and stakes.

3) I would have planted less trees - I used 1m centres which is way too close. 3m apart if probably about right.

If you are thinking of planting a woodland this guide is a 'must read'.

A birding first and early signs of spring

A new bird for the woodland - a goldcrest being busy, busy, busy flittering around the old alder seed heads. This takes the total bid list for the woodland and wildflower meadow to 69.

Coppicing and thinning continues, but there seem to be some early signs of spring:

The catkins have been out for a couple of weeks, but today for the first time I noticed the tiny red female hazel flowers

Underfoot the bluebells are poking their heads into the leaf litter

There are leaves of Herb Robert showing:

The weather has been so mild that we are having a ridiculously early spring - we don't usually have to mind our footsteps while coppicing to avoid the bluebells.