Many woodland owners get firewood from their woodland for stoves at home. Cutting the wood is important but splitting it into useable pieces can be a real challenge.  There are powerful electric machines to do it such as the hydraulic splitters (one described here) or you can split it by hand.  If you want to avoid using a traditional axe or a similar tool a good alternative is the logmatic wedge axe. With this log splitter you place the point where you want the log to split and push the handle down with an energetic thrust.  This sends a strong hammer blow Read more...

Where do you holiday with your husband, 82 year old mother, three teenagers and a dog?  A challenge, you’ll agree.  Forest Holidays’ log cabins in woods managed by the Forestry Commission promised the mix of peace and tranquillity, energetic activity and poor mobile reception that we were after. Surprisingly, persuading the children to book a cabin in the Forest of Dean wasn’t that hard.  The thought of "Go Ape", segways, canoeing and wi-fi in the cabin was enough of a lure. Read more...

"Work has really picked up recently," says John Rathbone, co-owner of knightstreeservices.co.uk "We've had new contracts doing roadside work for Flintshire Council and clearing for the local powerline company and for private individuals. So much so that we've bought a new tracked chipper to go with the 12 inch chipper attached to our unimog. Mind you, every time you get new kit you need specialist training. For us, most of our training is at Llysfasi College and we all have regularly to update our first aid and chainsaw certificates." John points out that things are changing in the tree services sector: equipment is getting better with their chainsaws now having self-tuning so that a manual choke isn't needed. Read more...

Wilderness wood, in East Sussex, has its own Christmas tree plantation of about 5,000 trees. The enterprise sells about 500 trees each year for between £20 and £30 each so it's a helpful source of income for the business. Although the soil is difficult, the trees, once established, do very well on a south-facing slope, and are protected against rabbits, deer and disease. At least flooding and drought are not a risk in these wet, sloping woodlands. Chris Yarrow, who set up the plantation, laments the state of the peaty soil complaining that it "has very little goodness in it and needs constant draining." He'd prefer a greensand soil but is pleased, at least, that it isn't on heavy clay: "the good growth you see here is the result of 30 year' hard work" he explains. Read more...