A Woodsman's Work is Never Done
We have just wrapped up a busy week here in the woods selectively thinning a number of Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) as part of our long term management plan. Woodland management is a complicated business, one which I have conflicting views on. In truth I loathe the idea of ‘managing’ any part of nature in any way. Management sounds sterile and dull. Nature is wonderfully chaotic, messy and pulsing with living energy. I am an advocate of allowing natural processes to take place and learning from nature by watching events unfold. However, sadly we have very little woodland here in the UK that could be described as completely natural, our primeval woods are long gone and all our woods show the signs of former management, so when charged with taking care of a woodland you are entering into a contract with the previous generations of foresters, coppice workers, woodsmen and woodswomen who made the woodland what it is today. To manage a woodland well is a skill requiring a mix of science and artistry. A basic understanding of woodland ecology is important; a knowledge of how species interact with each other and of how events will unfold when species are removed or added. The ability to create a vision of what the woodland will look like in the future is equally important too, something that will offer joy and beauty as well as utility. You also need patience in abundance, to be content with the fact that it might be the next generation that benefits from your hard work; a woodland is in no hurry and has no particular goal in mind. But perhaps more than that, you should be able to think like a woodland, to feel part of the living community.
Pine trees starting to outcompete young oaks.
The section of woodland we’ve have worked in this winter was planted back in 1942. Scots pine and oak trees were planted together with timber production in mind, the pines acting as a nurse crop encouraging the oaks to grow taller and straighter with fewer lateral branches as they compete with the pines for light. In this system the pines are usually harvested once they have done their job and sold for timber, whilst leaving the oaks to grow into more valuable timber for a future harvest. Somewhere along the way, this management plan was abandoned by the previous owners of the woodland which has resulted in the Scots pines beginning to outcompete the oak trees, which if left would be shaded out and die. Our own management plan focuses on biodiversity and wildlife habitat rather than timber production, and for this reason we knew it was time to step in and give the oaks a helping hand. Oak trees support a staggering variety of life; up to 2,300 species are dependant on oak for at least some part of their life cycle with over 326 being found exclusively on oak. This alone is reason enough to favour the oaks over the pines, but our long term plan is for the woodland to resemble something which might occur naturally, a completely self-sustaining ecosystem that requires little or no management. Given the huge variety of life that oaks generously host, I like to think of oak trees as a keystone species: a species that has a critical role in the structure of an ecosystem and one which affects and influences every other living thing in that community. Our hope is that by allowing oak trees to flourish, everything else will fall into place.
Tired and soaked after felling all day on the wettest day of the winter.
We usually do all the tree work here ourselves, but felling a large number of large trees in a closed canopy woodland and then extracting the timber is a daunting prospect for a lone woodsman. For a major project like this we needed to enlist some help and machinery, so we called upon Paul Copsey from Wild Sussex to lend his experience and his low-impact timber extraction set up. Paul runs Wild Sussex in Stopham within the South Downs National Park as both a beautiful shop selling firewood and locally made craft goods and as a conservation and land management contracting operation. With a focus on conservation, habitat restoration and nature reserve work we knew Paul’s approach would align with our own and booked him in to work alongside us for three of the days we were felling.
The Wild Sussex mini digger clearing up the brash piles.
Making the decision to fell a tree is always difficult. Even though I know I’m doing this for the greater good, each pine is still an incredible living thing its own right and I felt a touch of remorse as I marked each tree with the fluorescent yellow dot that signals its demise. I like the idea of forming a mutually beneficial relationship with a woodland; if we are part of nature in the same way as any other living thing, then I think it’s ok to take from and alter the woodland as long as we give back or contribute to the ecosystem in a positive way at the same time. A symbiosis. As I fire up the chainsaw to cut the first tree, I take a deep breath and apologise out loud to the large pine. About a minute later it's on the deck. Followed shortly after by another. I look up and can suddenly see the form of the young oak that was trapped between the two pines; I picture the oak stretching out its limbs and breathing a sigh of relief at being released and I feel I have done some good.
Over four days we felled and extracted around 30 trees. Paul’s digger did the hardest work of extracting timber and tidying up the huge piles of brash as well has pulling out any trees that got snagged or hung up on neighbouring trees on their way down (of which there were plenty). True to form for the winter so far, the weather was terrible for the most part, one of the days being possibly the wettest day I have ever endured whilst working outdoors. Now with the work completed and the timber stacked neatly ready for collection by our local sawmill, it feels good to walk around the woods and see the oaks with space to grow. I wonder how it will look in the summer when the trees are in full leaf? The ground has been disturbed by the machinery, despite the low-impact methods, but it will be interesting to see what grows in these areas in place of the bramble and bluebells that usually predominate. We have scattered birch seed in the disturbed soil and hope other pioneer species will enjoy the opportunity to flourish in new clearings, stimulating a new wave of ecological succession.
I guess I'll never know whether I've managed the woodland here the right way; how can anyone predict what nature has in mind? But by prioritising biodiversity and wildlife, it feels like I have at least tried to do something positive for the woodland community and the wider landscape beyond. I'm sure the 326 species that depend on oaks will appreciate the effort. Perhaps one day, in a hundred years or so, someone will marvel at our mighty oaks and be thankful for the woodsman that helped them flourish.
As we face up to the climate and biodiversity crisis we need to begin implementing nature restoration and recovery on a grand scale. Trees and woodlands in particular are set to be a vital part of the solution. Although saving woodlands and planting trees is important in itself for the sake of biodiversity and climate change, one aspect that is often overlooked is that in no other habitat is it easier to see the interconnectedness of everything in nature than in the woods. If we are to make progress and positive change, a completely new relationship with nature is needed, one which acknowledges, appreciates and finds beauty in the complex interconnectivity of living systems and for that woodlands can be our greatest teachers.
Huge thanks to Paul from Wild Sussex for his help, and to Sam Buckland from Sussex Flow Initiative who also gave up a day to help us out in the woods. If you have any questions about the work we do in the woods, feel free to comment or drop us an email!