Winter came to Pop’s Wood with a light covering of snow and temperatures in the dip at the bottom of the wood still below freezing at lunchtime.
All the wild cherry trees that I intended to clear from the coppice area have now been felled. It is sobering to realise that it takes less than 5 minutes to actually fell a tree but then takes several hours to deal with it once it is on the ground. Still, once it is on the ground you can breathe a sigh of relief as all the variables that you had had to consider before making the cut are now resolved. I was very pleased that all the trees came down “largely” where I had planned them to which given there are so many variables this was very pleasing.
However, I find guestimating the height of the tree to be one of the most difficult aspects to assess. At first glance it looks as if it should be easy to say where the top of the tree will land but in each case I was about 10′ too long or too short. I think it may be sensible to go back to a more scientific approach and use trigonometry to solve the problem.
Thanks to Wikipedia for the diagram and following instructions. Standard stick method: 1) Find a straight stick or ruler; 2) Hold the stick vertically at arm’s length, making sure that the length of the stick above your hand equals the distance from your hand to your eye. 3) Walk backward away from the tree. Stop when the stick above your hand exactly masks the tree. 4) Measure the straight-line distance from your eye to the base of the tree. Record that measurement as the tree’s height to the closest foot. Simples!
When I was looking at where it was best to drop the last cherry I noticed that there was a hazel potentially in its path. As a precaution I trimmed the stump right down leaving only one stem for layering at a later date. Also in the path was a small field maple which, although I wished it no harm, was in my mind the more expendable tree of the pair. The trunk of the cherry missed the field maple leaving it unscathed but, as you can see from the photograph, it fell right on top of the hazel stump. Thankfully the trunk was held up by a pile of cut hazel logs that were on the ground immediately in front of this stool and so no damage was done. Phew, a near miss.
List of things to do now:
- clear up all the cut logs that remain within the coppiced area and prepare the ground for planting
- split some of the cut hazel poles to make fence posts
- hammer in all the fence posts around the edge of the coppice and brace the corners to take the strain of the fencing wire
- fix the deer proof fencing
- fix the chicken wire to the base of the fence and semi bury/pin to the ground to discourage rabbits etc
- plant the hazel trees and layer the existing stems
- have a cup of tea and watch everything grow
More next time………………….
Tim Burr 