Blog - health and safety

Learning how to drive a 4X4 car in a woodland

Learning how to drive a 4X4 car in a woodland

by Angus, 17 May, 2017, 1 comments

"It's the most fun I've ever had outside of the bedroom" said one friend of mine about driving a 4-wheel-drive vehicle. "It gives you new powers and you feel you can drive anywhere - over hills and through rivers." But it's a learned skill and not something people are born with, and it's also something you can do with an ordinary driver's licence. Therefore, many people drive 4WD vehicles in woodlands and on farms without any extra training, despite the fact that if they are using a 4x4 for work then Health and Safety rules require that they should have "adequate information, instruction and training". I decided to learn the art of safe off-road driving by going on a proper course. Amongst my group of foresters and woodland managers one of them had heard that the best place to do these courses was Motor Safari, a long established off-road driving school near Wrexham in North Wales based in a disused quarry. It turned out to be an extremely good place to discover how to drive through a woodland while minimising damage to the tracks. Read more...

Weather effects and woodlands

Weather effects and woodlands

by julian, 29 August, 2007, 3 comments

This favourite of all small-talk topics merits attention after the hot April and subsequent very wet months of May, June and July. But I am not going to mention climate change as threatening, indeed potentially catastrophic, as this phenomenon is to all of us and our futures. The weather, particularly very wet weather, affects work in woods and their care and management for the small owner as much as for the large forest estate. Read more...

Wild Flower Guide

Badger

Read our guide to wild flowers of woodland and hedgerow

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