After all the hedge-laying of late it has been brilliant to get back into the woods and cut timber again. Three years ago I wrote a management plan for woodlands near Elsted Marsh owned by Lucy Wall-Palmer. Lucy produces charcoal and other woodland products such as pea and bean sticks, and hedging stakes and binders, and I was pleased to be able to get her woodlands into a grant scheme, which helped to pay towards fencing to keep deer from browsing her coppice. It has also helped to pay towards getting her woodlands back into a coppice rotation and to thin out some of the standard trees.

There was quite a lot of ash to come out, mainly to get more light to the woodland floor which in turn will help the hazel understorey to flourish. Some of the ash was showing signs of die-back which unfortunately is quite widespread now. There was also the opportunity to fell several trees that were good enough to be milled including several ash that were clean and straight, and an oak that was free from shake and had hardly any sapwood.

Lucy’s woodland lies adjacent to a disused railway line and so some of the felling was quite tricky, with many adversely leaning trees. We therefore had to employ winches and specialist felling cuts to ensure that everything fell in the direction that we, rather than gravity, wanted.

One particularly tricky ash was not only leaning in the wrong direction, but was also covered in a huge amount of ivy which added a significant amount of weight to the tree itself. However, my associate, John Kennett, was more than equal to the challenge.

A very satisfying job to have completed, although we will be back again next season to cut the next compartment and to continue the cycle.