Wildwood, a reminder to all of basic conservation in our countryside

Ragged Copse colour change

Mike and some really accurate felling in West Belt

Mike tipped me off this week regards a new BBC4 6 part series Wildwood which looks to be a good basic primer to good woodland management and the benefits to be accrued from this activity. Although I don't own a broadleaf woodland like strawberry cottage wood I can relate to the learning experiences the star of this series has gone through in his first year. Mine have been through working in woodland with NT rangers in the North Cotswolds over the last 18 months. They have generally been good experiences but sadly I feel mostly unadvertised and undervalued in todays NT organisation. This country has little enough of its woodland left that one its biggest landowners seems to be neglecting {or at least steadily reducing resources}  its conservation activities in the countryside {aside from a chosen few flagship areas}. True such activities tend not to be revenue producers but erosion of the sustained care needed in countryside activities like this, along with the skilled ranger resources, will not be recoverable longterm and thats not what I thought the NT stood for. Anyway programmes like Wildwood at least help to give an interesting portrayal of an important countryside activity which needs all the good publicity it can get. It might be nice for the NT to balance its Property & Commercially  biassed {Theme park trend?} communications /support with something on core countryside management,  I can offer up  some suggestions.

Anyway back to this week which although dismal weather wise provided a variety of experiences. We started with some wood deliveries to local customers the first of which was in Windrush. I was pleasantly surprised when we delivered the wood that this new customer had a good appreciation of what work was involved in providing the wood, from 'felling through to splitting'. Having completed the deliveries it was back to the nursery to block and split some more wood which was to be stored in the newly formed shelter. In future blocking and splitting is aimed to be done by machine,  loaned by Ebworth,  which means my axe skills will no longer be required. This means more time will be available for working the woodland and countryside which should be  good for wildlife habitats in general. Interesting to note that in our morning travels we encountered the 'local' hunt in full progress, attended by locals in support. Obviously difficult to stop this tradition and one more countryside activity I am not keen on but 'understand'  along with the Badger cull which thankfully has been postponed { grateful for its about TB Mark Avery blog}.

The afternoon was spent in the West Belt on continued thinning, part 3 of Wildwood next week, where Mike's experience clearly in evidence especially when felling a sizeable sycamore into a very narrow gap and without destroying my pile of cord wood!

There's a lorra, lorra trees

West belt thinning

Cord wood piles building up 

Day set fair for some continued thinning in the West belt and already the difference in space and light noticeable for areas worked on. The new growth of beech and ash coming through also quite evident. In the main the practice of close planting of new trees to promote straighter trunk growth can be seen and of course this is one of the reasons for thinning out the trees to allow the best to mature with sufficient space. For the broadleaf woods like this under Mike's care such woodland management is a lot of work and even with contractors working on the 'mixed' plantations on the Sherborne estate coverage of the 60+ wooded areas is nigh impossible with available resources and priorities. Generally a 20-30 year cycle for harvesting the ash, sycamore and conifers is the norm. But there is also the required removal of damaged {storm, squirrels, desease} trees to add to this and normal thinning.

Generally Mike fells the selected trees away from the ride/pathway which means less work to tidy the 'brash/canopy' and usually the stacking of the heavier cord wood is easier for me! However such was the density of trees that quite a few had to be felled over the ride and my workload increased as well as my vigilance lest any walkers were approaching. Surprisingly no walkers or wildlife were around all day. Sometimes the felling of selected trees proceeds quite smoothly but today a number 'resisted' and quite a bit of clearance of shrub/smaller trees was needed as well {see top picture}. So for example  a particularly large sycamore needed the tree lever, wedge and our combined efforts before it could be persuaded to fall safely to earth.

Lunchtime was to be spent at Sherborne brook where I hoped to spot a reported new bird Mike had been informed about. I only had chance to observe the usual suspects before I beat a hasty retreat back to the estate offices as the heavens opened with a heavy downpour which included hailstones. Fortunately the afternoon was fine for continued work in the West belt albeit with a good deal of additional standing water! Doesn't look like a visit to the water meadows will be a good idea for a while.

Dendrochronology - who knows where the time goes, (Sandy Denny)

This is what a Dendro.. looks like, Andy

Good view of deer park valley, Nigel, Mike, Andy hard at it!

Once more this year the met weather forecast was way off the mark but I have to confess I can't be too unhappy given the fine sunny day enjoyed for most of the day. This wasn't the only surprise since the day started at Lodge Park where we met Andy {Dendrochronologist- tree ring ageing/analysis expert} and Nigel {'Sponsor'} who were to age some of the really mature oaks in the deer park. So with Mike's approval Andy with Increment Borer drilled into the first of the Oak trees chosen. This proved to be an instant success, noting trees several hundred years old often suffer from decay or hollowing, and an excellent core sample obtained with an initial estimate of age by ring examination of ~500 years. Its amazing how quickly the bore hole closes up, so no risk of damage to the tree plus a surprise for me when extracting the Borer, harder than it looks but a lot of compression involved from such a heavyweight Oak! Clearly Andy has to clean up the core tube sample and with the girth measurement produce an accurate figure. Much can also be deduced by the width of the tree rings in terms of varied growth rates caused by changing environmental conditions experienced throughout the trees long life. The next 2 sampled Oaks revealed a hollow core even so the partial core tube samples obtained still provide useful historic data. The final Oak examined provided another excellent core tube sample and first examination suggested this tree was ~200-300 years old, a relative youngster! There is quite a bit more that analysis of these 4 samples can reveal about Oaks/conditions in this area and we are all looking forward to Andy's full report in several weeks time. This days exercise reminds me generally how little we are aware, value or take care of our ancient {and modern trees too} trees where as 'living' organisms they are an essential part of our countryside and can tell us a great deal about the environment over many hundreds of years!

Spent the lunchtime down by Sherborne Brook in the sun watching the resident birdlife enjoying a relaxed time on the water or in the case of the buzzards flying high in the sky, waiting for unsuspecting prey to get careless. The afternoon was spent in the West Belt where Mike continued the thinning, which had been started earlier in the week with Simon's help,  of mainly sycamore but included some ash. This will not only encourage healthy growth of remaining trees and young saplings but build up the wood supplies ready for the winter demand. Again Mike's choice of trees to thin are influenced by a number of factors.  One especially helping protection of the good beech and ash from squirrel damage by leaving some of the sycamore standing to hopefully provide the squirrels food source. So a good day for me, with trees dominating, and with an interesting surprise at the end.

This was strictly after I had 'signed off' but involved the rescue of Bryn a golden retriever who had lost its owner and was wandering down the road to Sherborne village. This took the combined effort of Debbie {NT building manager}, myself and Mike {add Pet rescue to NT country services}. Fortunately there was a happy ending where Bryn's owners were eventually discovered at Ewe Pen Barn and although something could be said regards looking after your dog, Bryn was happy to be reunited, which is the important thing.