Tim Burr

This week has been mainly about felling the last few trees that are not going to be part of the restored coppice area. One of the trees that needed to be taken down is a damaged ash tree. In an earlier blog I described how one of the stems of this ash tree had already fallen over and got tangled up in a cherry tree. This is the second limb of that same tree.

However, the base of the tree was not in good shape with a central portion of the trunk rotted away leaving a gap all the way through. Basically there was no room in the trunk to make an orthodox felling cut. This was a worry. In addition a large crack had started to open up from the top of that rotten section and was running vertically upwards in the main trunk. This became obvious as the strong gusts of wind, caught the top of the tree making it rock quite dramatically. More on the strong gusting wind later.

After much wandering and pacing around; looking and thinking, I figured that a simple quick cut through one side of the forked base would remove enough support to allow the tree to hinge on the other side and fall safely. Quite what else it would do on its way down was unknown. Here goes nothing.

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Ah, so that’s what it did. Not very pretty but at least the main trunk is down. One of my concerns at the outset was as I hadn’t enough room/decent wood to make a conventional “v” notch at the front of the felling cut that the tree would create a “barbers chair” – which is exactly what it did! The extent of the rot can be seen clearly. Still it fell where I had planned.

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Once I had trimmed off all the canopy branches and shortened the main trunk it was possible to roll the rest of the stem off its precarious pivot and onto the ground. Once there it was straight forward to cut it up into sections and finish off tidying up the stump itself. I feel much better now this tree has been dealt with. Its creaking in the wind had been an ominous soundtrack to the rest of the work. The bole of the tree itself is that lovely classic pink ash wood colour and I will mill these logs down into useable timber as soon as practicable.

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Sadly another victim of the strong winds has been one of the standing dead beech trees. This particular tree shed a huge branch a couple of years ago and this week saw the whole thing snap at the top of the stem and come crashing down. I wasn’t there so whether it made a noise – who knows. This is the process that the beech trees seem to follow. The wood is probably at the edge of the chalky conditions that beech prefer and small changes to the ground water makes the roots become too wet and the tree struggles. Once dead they shed a few branches followed by the main trunk. The remaining trunk stands like statue less column until it too succumbs to gravity and falls to the ground. However, each stage of this death and decay offers a perfect opportunity for some aspect of the flora and fauna of the woodland. This is the easiest part of woodland management – do nothing. Just let the process take its course and the whole of the wood benefits.

………having said that I will be processing the fallen branches for making charcoal later in the spring.

Just a final foot note. A couple of weeks ago I included a simple method of estimating where the top of a tree would fall when felled. That is the distance away from the base. I tried this out during the week and was amazed by the accuracy.

The picture below shows a branch on the left had side of the shot showing where I estimated the very top of the tree would reach when felled. the chainsaw is placed at the top of the branch where it actually fell. Not bad and certainly better than making the cut and having no real idea what other trees are in risk of being hit.

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More next time…………………….

Perishingly cold in the wood today with a thin dusting of snow making everything glisten in a weak winter sun – when it eventually got through.

Today’s task was to carry on with the fencing off of the hazel coppice. First job is to create the fence posts. Here the hazel stems that were coppiced from the existing stools come in, each decent sized stem can be used but they just needs some preparation.

Step 1 Select a suitable looking length of hazel pole and trim the ends up so that as in this instance you don’t start trying to split through a knuckle.

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Next step is to start a split along the length of the stem, I use a fro which goes through the whole diameter and makes a good clean break. Next I insert a splitting wedge, this widens the gap so advancing the split down the length but also releases the fro.

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The fro can then be reinserted ahead of the wedge and it in turn used to widen and advance the split and so release the wedge and so on down the whole length. It is sometimes necessary to cut through strands that don’t split but remain tensioned across the split. You can use a saw or if there’s room get in with the bill hook. Just be careful not to hit the wedge or fro if you use the bill hook!

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Then the bill hook can be used to put a point on the thicker end of the pole so that it can be pushed more easily into the ground.

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So far so good but it is now important to check that the other end of the post fits into the post rammer. That’s the big yellow tube with handles.

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The post rammer is another of those tools that is very simple in design but make a job so much more practical and easier. I guess the alternative would be to use a sledge hammer but to be able to reach the top of the post you’d have to stand on a step ladder! Te rammers come in a couple of sizes, the one I am using is a 4″ diameter version which has enough weight to hammer the post home whilst also being practical for a one man operation.

With each post in place it is sensible every 5 or six posts to brace the post. This helps to stiffen the post and become rigid enough to act as an anchor to the wire tensioners that wind the excess fence wire and make the wire taut. more on these little devices next time.

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The slanting supports are cut to about 2/3 of the length of the post but prepared in exactly the same way. These are then banged in at an angle adjacent to the post. The support is offered up to the main post and where they touch I cut a slot in the main post just below that point and cut out a wedge. The support is then forced down into that notch and the same process completed on the other side. It is amazing how much rigidity that this creates and all without any nails or screws.

When all the posts are up,and that includes a doorway to allow periodic access, I will start on stringing up the three wires (top, bottom and middle heights off the ground) that run between each of the posts. the deer proof netting is tied to these wires.

Now lets get inside and warm my fingers up.

More next time……………

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.

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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!

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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………………….

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The coppicing work in the actual hazel trees within the coppice is virtually complete and so I have now started to take out some of the wild cherry trees. The removal of these trees will reduce the canopy considerably and let the sunlight reach the woodland floor and most importantly reinvigorate the coppiced hazel stumps and help promote healthy regrowth.

According to The Woodland Trust, the spring flowers provide an early source of nectar and pollen for bees, while the cherries are eaten by birds including the blackbird and song thrush, as well as mammals such as the badger, wood mouse, yellow necked mouse and dormouse.

The foliage is the main food plant for caterpillars of many species of moth, including the cherry fruit and cherry bark moths, the orchard ermine, brimstone and short cloaked moth.

In Highland folklore, wild cherry had mysterious qualities, and to encounter one was considered auspicious and fateful.

Traditionally cherries were planted for their fruit and wood, which was used for making cask hoops and vine poles. The sticky resin was thought to promote a good complexion and eyesight, and help to cure coughs.

These days cherry wood is used to make decorative veneers and furniture. The wood is hard, strong and honey-coloured, and can be polished to a good shiny brown colour. The main photograph at the head of this post is a bread board that I made with wild cherry earlier last year. Wild cherry has many cultivars and is a popular ornamental tree in gardens. The wood burns well and produces a sweetly scented smoke, similar to the scent of its flowers. The wild cherry bark is a reddish colour and is remarkably tough and endurable. A feature of the area immediately below a cherry is a range of branches that have fallen and rotted away over the years leaving the “skeleton” of the limb in its bark “clothing” which is largely intact.

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There are something like six or seven wild cherry trees within the coppice area that I am restoring and these will each have to be taken down and cleared out of the way.

The first of these was felled this week. The cherry trees in Pops Wood have developed very large bases at ground level but that quickly split into two stems. Practically this means that the felling cut is at waist height which is not ideal but does allow each stem to be felled separately and the direction of fall to be better controlled.

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Plenty of wood to process into milled timber and also a great pile of branches that I use to make cherry charcoal. It will be interesting to see how it goes through that process and what a finished cherry charcoal looks and smells like. Will it carry over the fragrance of the cherry blossom as is reported to be the case when it’s burnt conventionally?

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More next time……………….

The featured picture shows a wild cherry tree that has fallen over and landed on top of an existing hazel. I don’t know when the wild cherry actually fell over but it is likely to have been say 10 years ago as the hazel tree has responded by setting root where it has been pinned to the ground by the cherry.

Although the cherry has been down for a while I am hoping that it may well be in good enough condition to be milled into planks and live on in a piece of furniture maybe.

Here are the “before” and “after” shots of the initial clear up. I will go back and coppice the hazel on the next visit.

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It is amazing how a hazel uses every opportunity to survive. If hit and partially uprooted by another huge tree many trees would give up the ghost and die. But the hazel adapts and grows into whatever situation is created and becomes stronger as a result having put down new roots and in effect regenerated into additional potentially separate plants.

One aspect of cutting into the area around roots and fallen trees lying on the or near the ground is the risk of hitting a flint with the saw. There is no surer or quicker way to blunt a chain saw blade than to run it for a few seconds on a flint! No other option than to sharpen the blade as without an edge it simply tries to rub its way through the tree.

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The flint above appeared from amongst the root system of the cherry and is a curious item in that it has a hole in its centre. Not sure how this would have been formed but it looks perfect even down to appearing to have a countersunk edge to the hole.

Standing dead wood is a very positive aspect of any woodland providing suitable habitat for numerous species of insects and in turn a source of food for the birds. There are a series of beech trees in Pops Wood that have died over the last decade or so but have been happily stood there sentinel like, becoming bleached in the weather. Sadly one of these standing dead trees came down over Christmas. However when you look at the base of the tree it appears that it was simply balanced there anyway as the roots are completely rotted away.

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I will clear the broken bits of the fallen beech away but leave the main trunk to carry on rotting on the ground.

After all that effort a pan of refried cold potatoes on the stove made a lovely lunchtime treat.

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More next time………………………

Having cut up the various trees that were affected by the collapsed ash tree, there is now a need to move the logs up to the top of the hill. Here there is a log store awaiting milling into planks. Also given that the lower area is about to become a hazel coppice/plantation there will be limited opportunities for clearing the logs later in the process. So the idea will be to complete the coppicing of the existing hazel trees and then fell the larger trees that are selected to be removed to reduce the canopy cover and let the sunlight reach the coppice stools so encouraging new growth. Each of these felled trees will be logged into say 6′ to 8′ lengths and then processed for timber by milling them into planks. 

All that said leads to the need for a reasonably efficient method of moving the quite substantial logs from the bottom of the wood up the hill to the  log store at the top of the wood. Oh if it was only the other way around and gravity could do most of the work!

Just over a year ago my brother visited the wood and when he got home he designed and built a prototype log carrier. My main criteria was that I wanted to minimise the physical impact that the log carrier had on the woodland itself. I was and still am not keen on having a lot of rides carved into the wood. I think that these can detrimentally change the character of the wood and also lead to an increased security risk as all felled timber has a ready route out of the woodland. I guess also I am not keen to spend all my working time in the woodland with ear defenders on and breathing in 2 stroke fumes. 

This is a great design. There is a hinged ramp at the back with a winch and cable at the front for dragging the logs up the ramp onto the carrier. the main load is carried directly above the rear axles and the wheels are puncture proof. The first task the is to drag up the first log.

The winch made short work of hauling the log up. The second and third logs followed suit.

 Seemed sensible to try and maximise the load on the carrier and manage to take three logs up at the same time.

The winch wire is then puled out from the front of the carrier and stretched as far as practicable say 50′ or so and attached to a webbing strap wrapped around a suitably place tree. the winch then is wound in and the carrier pulls itself up the hill. Simples. Having the winch at the front to the carrier means that any snags can be spotted and dealt with without a constant walking to and fro from the winch to the carrier and back etc if the winch was placed at the secure tree end. Whilst not exactly fast progress is steady and the carrier deatl very well with the uneven and spongy terrain very well. The process is repeated a seach tree/anchor is reached. That is the winch wire is released and paid out again, a new anchor tree selected and the webbing attached etc. This way the carrier trundled its way up the wood and reached the more level section at the within an hour or so the worst bit of the steep section had been covered.

However the terrain had taken a toll on the carrier itself.

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The design was great and worked very well but like any prototype it is not until you actually start to use in a real life situation that the weaknesses are revealed. Because of the height of the winch above the base there is a significant turning moment created as the winch takes on the load of the carrier and logs. This tries to turn the front of the carrier anticlockwise and so creates a huge strain on the front welds. Thankfully these only gave out once I had reached the top of the hill and was able to man handle the logs the last few yards.

So I was very pleased that the design worked well and am now encouraged to repair the frame, reinforcing the parts that I now know to be weak areas and try again. I am not a welder so my efforts won’t be as a slick as the original but they will be made with chunkier bits of angle iron and bolted together.  

I guess it wasn’t all down to the design. In fairness I loaded three fairly heavy logs on the carrier and then pulled it through a very rough route. Still always good to test thing properly so as to learn what to do differently on Mark II.

More next time…………