Autumn Update

Well, here we are in October.  Not much logging over the past couple of months, but plenty going on in the woods.  Here's an overview of what we've been up to, and how the management plan is coming along.

Activity - Learning

I've been working my way through Ben Law's book; "Sustainable Woodland Management".  In it he has some case studies of woodlands that have been, or are being, regenerated.  One of these, Leckmelm Wood in Ullapool, is not far from us, so I went to visit.  Bernard Planterose, the owner, was very welcoming and showed me his plans and ideas.  Bernard runs a very successful timber building design and construction business from his wood, which he bought derelict from the Forestry Commission around 30 years ago.

In August we had a professional forager come and spend the weekend with us.  His speciality is fungi. It was staggering how much there was to learn just by walking around the woodland with him for a couple of hours.  I discovered that we had a lot of edible, and very desirable, species in the wood, including Ceps, Larch Boletes and Saffron Milkcaps.  We brought home quite a harvest and spent a happy evening over a bottle of wine, cooking up and sampling the various mushrooms.

During the summer we headed down to the open weekend at Trees For Life's estate in Glen Morriston.  Trees For Life is the organisation that is attempting to re-establish the Caledonian Pine Forest in Glen Affric.  We had an interesting morning wandering around their tree nursery and understanding how they prepare their saplings for planting out in the arduous upland conditions.

Activity - Woodland Work

Most of our time has been taken on woodland ride clearance and maintenance.  The rides are around 8 feet wide and cut through the plantation every 25 yards or so.  They were well constructed, with plenty of stone being put down, but many of them have become overgrown n the last few years.  Maintenance involves keeping the side branches of the ride-side trees brashed up to a height of about 8 feet, periodic mowing through the summer and remedial ground work to put right the damage caused by Landrover usage.  The net effect is to provide corridors which assist airflow and provide hunting grounds for bats and owls.

Other maintenance has included some routine fence repairs, and I'm hoping to get some guttering up on the cabin before the winter.  This will allow rainwater harvesting as well as preventing water from flowing under the cabin on the concrete apron, and soaking through the joists.

Also over the summer we have:

- Marked out and cleared a sunny area for a tree nursery

- Identified and cleared a site for our first speculative "Glamping" site

- continued with thinning work and some firewood processing.

With regard to planning, I spent a happy afternoon walking the woodland earlier in the summer, identifying natural glades that can be opened up as sites for edge-Planting of additional species (mostly broadleaves for coppicing).

We're now moving into the busy time for the foliage business.  The contractors will be arriving in early November to start cutting and bundling the Noble Fir foliage, and we've already attended the industry's first big trade show in Cheshire.