River Revetment

[FLaKK]

Black Willow is what I know of as the plant the English call Bay Willow........the one with the very dark, shiny leaves ? Salix Pentandra. What's the black willow you have then ?

cheers,
Toddy

To be honest i don't really know, there are many varieties of Willow here, i know we have predominantly black willow and bay willow in the park, also some crack willow, i'm not an expert on trees as such but we do avoid using it as firewood because the head ranger insists it is not a hard wood and so makes for poor burning, If we cut any and don't use it straight away for revetment work then we chip it and use it as wood chip for the wood chip burner that fuels the parks visitor centre. Alder we use for making charcoal.

 

[FLaKK]

That is a really cool idea. Anyone have any pictures of what it looks like after it has 'grown in'?

I'm going to post one here next time i'm up there (will remember to take my camera), the revetment we did a few years ago further along the river. It's amaizing how successful it's been. One of the problems we have from a safety point is when the level of bank erosion begins to approach dangerously close to a path and that's when we have to put a revetment in place. Then there's the Himalayan Balsam which also grows in compact monocultures along the bank in many places. When this stuff dies in Autumn, nothing is left except bare soil which further accelerates the level of erosion.

 

[John Fenna]

To be honest i don't really know, there are many varieties of Willow here, i know we have predominantly black willow and bay willow in the park, also some crack willow, i'm not an expert on trees as such but we do avoid using it as firewood because the head ranger insists it is not a hard wood and so makes for poor burning, If we cut any and don't use it straight away for revetment work then we chip it and use it as wood chip for the wood chip burner that fuels the parks visitor centre. Alder we use for making charcoal.

I can see why you do not burn it to get rid of it - when fresh willow has a huge water content and burns poorly and needs to be stored for ages to dry out ... it would give the park a real storage headache!
The best quality artists charcoal is made from willow using rounds of twigs - it makes natural "pencils" of charcoal. BBqs need bigger bits
Fresh Alder is a great carving wood so snaffle some if you can and fancy a bit of carving.
I make my charcoal from trimmings in a sweetie tin on an open fire - just like I do with my charcloth but with a bigger tin

 

[palace]

I find Crack Willow a realy good firewood once it is realy well seasoned - just dont store it where it can root!
I grow willow in my garden for basketry, firewood and charcoal - it grows fast and furious so I can always get some to cut

Great to hear that some are still using sustainable wood as our grand parents did. I can remember in the 60s when I was going out with a Cornish farmers daughter pollarding was still wide spread along with hedges laid and twisted not chainsawed.

Revetment construction using Willow not only looks good I suspect it wont be undermined like concrete...

 

[John Fenna]

Great to hear that some are still using sustainable wood as our grand parents did.

Well -it is only Willow 3 trees.... but I have Ash, Hazel, Apples (3), a bit of Horse Chestnut, Sycamore, Holly, Birch and Hawthorn as well.
No bad for a garden 40' x 20' ish and all except 2 of the 3 Hawthorns planted by myself or the wind
Using natural materials is becoming very important to me these days so I am very glad to see projects like the river revettment

 

[FLaKK]

Well -it is only Willow 3 trees.... but I have Ash, Hazel, Apples (3), a bit of Horse Chestnut, Sycamore, Holly, Birch and Hawthorn as well.
No bad for a garden 40' x 20' ish and all except 2 of the 3 Hawthorns planted by myself or the wind
Using natural materials is becoming very important to me these days so I am very glad to see projects like the river revettment

Thanks John,

I did manage to find some pics i took of the harvesting of the Willow for our revetment project. The Willow we selected was growing along the edges of a feeder channel that runs from the river into a well established pond but which has no clay bottom. Without the feeder channel the pond quickly dries up, so we always know when the channel is blocked when the pond empties, (not good as this pond harbours a wide range of Dragonfly nymphs). It often means someone having to get in there with waders on and a shovel to get the water moving again.

It took a full day and an army of Conservation Volunteer workers to collect enough for the job. We bundled it into managable sizes to carry over to the trailor. At this point the cut steaks from older more mature trees were already in place.

I think that's more than a full load.. certainly enough for the job, great when you have an army of volunteers!

 

[John Fenna]

That looks fun!

 

[Big T]

Thanks for putting those pictures up.

 

[spandit]

I've got some willow growing in my garden - is it too late to cut off & replant the shoots elsewhere?

 

[FLaKK]

Hi again, hope everyone is ok. I was rostered on at Cuerden Valley Park today and remembered to get a couple of shots of the old Willow revetment we did back in 2007/8. With this one as i recall, we never used thin willow bundles as an inter weave, but much thicker individual wips. All the original Willow steaks coppiced back up very well. The woven Willow lying much lower down in the revetment appears to be dead now due to regular and long periods of submersion as the river swells during heavy periods of rain. The upper weave in part has re-rooted into the earth backfil and is alive as most of it for the year is high and dry. Overall it has been a success and there has still been no further erosion in this area, it's all really well rooted.

I also had time to go back and visit the last revetment we did, the photo as per my original post on this thread to see how it looks today and here it is....

 

[sandbender]

I'm enjoying these, thanks again.