On a beautifully hot and sunny May day, Mike welcomed a group of existing and potential woodland owners to Ferriby Wood, in the Yorkshire Wolds.  The purpose of the gathering was to share experiences of woodland ownership.  Folks met at his clearing where a fire was burning and the kettle was on. After a cup of tea and an introductory chat, we set off on a guided tour. Mike showed us how he has been managing his woodland in the five years since he bought it, looking first at a small section of coppiced ash.  He explained that he has been selling the poles to his local allotment association for use as bean poles, Read more...

French forestry - six times as big as British Forestry If you drive through France on the toll motorways ("peages") you will have seen woodlands through the car window and may have wondered how the French organise their forestry.   Not only do they do things differently but they do forestry on a much larger scale than the UK.  France itself is more than 2.5 times as big as Britain in area and its woodland cover is much greater.  The French have 28% tree cover whereas the UK is only about 12% wooded.  The effect of a larger country with denser tree cover is that the french forestry sector is over six times as large as UK forestry.  You can get a feel for this larger size when you consider that one French forest alone (Foret des Landes in Aquitane near Bordeaux) is as big as 50% of all UK forestry combined.  It covers 12,600 square kilometres (about 112 kilometres by 112 km) and contains vast areas of maritime pine and scots pine and is a favoured location for free-range chickens. Read more...

This is not a book filled with impenetrable botanical terminology and nomenclature, nor is it  a “coffee table” tome.  It is far more readable and useful than such texts.  It is written by Edward Milner, who has a strong background in ecology and natural history and consequently he addresses the biology, history,management, ecology, and uses of our native trees *. Read more...

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...

Back in 2006 (and 2007), the blog posted information about the Natural History Museum Bluebell Survey. https://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/flora-and-fauna/recording-your-bluebells/ https://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...

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...

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...