Interesting day with the BTCV

[Melonfish]

I've done courses before with the British Trust Conservation Volunteers, and today was woodland Coppicing.
usually i end up half way across cheshire, however i only had to walk 5 minutes up the road today so all the better

we spent the day taking some very very overgrown hazel out of some woodland trust land, and looking at how to coppice, the rhyme and reason behind it and how to manage a coppice.
really neat course actually, was only an introduction course but was well planned and i have tonnes of material (not to mention an NCFE accreditation)
we had a WT chap pop over as there was some funky boundary issues between them and Warr borough council its a real hodge podge of little woods with footpaths winding through.

when we stopped for lunch i managed to fire up my new honey stove for the first time and had hot pea and ham soup (LWIF)
the honey sure eats wood mind, tis a hungry thing but didn't half heat the food quick.
no pics as i was pretty hard at it, but i'll grab the ones the organiser took and pop them up when i can. tiring work even for one day.

once cleared we had to process the hazel, we made a ton of 5 ft hedging posts (actually it may have been about half a ton in the end) and some very nice long whips for weaving. we also made some firewood bundles, pea sticks and the refuse/twigs and bits we've recycled into animal habitats.
productive day, i even managed to get 3 lovely straight bits for staffs.
Pete

 

[Toddy]

Days like that are very satisfying
Better yet, it sounds as though it's close enough for you to see how the woods develop after the work that's been done

cheers,
M

 

[addo]

Good stuff. I was doing some coppicing yesterday. Great working in the woods away from urban tree surgery for a change.

 

[PaulSanderson]

Nothing more satisfying than a good days work out in the fresh air. After reading your post, I felt inspired to email my local BTCV office and volunteer my services...keep up the good work

 

[Shewie]

Sounds like a busy day Pete

 

[Melonfish]

Days like that are very satisfying
Better yet, it sounds as though it's close enough for you to see how the woods develop after the work that's been done

cheers,
M

You know it was wonderful to be able to do this in my local woodland, i got the same satisfaction i get whilst helping out at my local SSSI Risley moss. the great thing is as you say i can watch this coppice area grow and there's plans for the main mid-week volunteer groups to come back and do much much more as it was a cracking source of material for the BTCV guys, there's loads of local hazel dotted around.
i could even point out area's where as a child i built dens which was pretty neat.

actually here's an interesting thing we noticed, all the hazel has started to bud early, catkins are already appearing on the tree's has anyone else noticed this?
also the general coating of ash sprouts all had their black buds out and were going for broke.

@paul: great to hear you've signed on m8, BTCV are a good bunch and they'll get you mucking in wherever possible, keep an eye on the website too as they run regular training courses, many of which can be free for local residents. sadly my full time job precludes me from volunteering as my local group only meet wednesdays and fridays (D'oh) still it doesn't stop me helping out when i can on other dates