Woodland Custodianship

[Broch]

That age-old topic again - Insurance!

I haven't been a member of BASC for quite a while; the membership fee seemed high for my level of activity TBH and I don't entirely agree with all their conservation views (however, recent correspondence from them has shown a more balanced viewpoint).

Anyway, I was considering re-joining to get cover for my shooting activities. My shooting is restricted to rabbit, pheasant and grey squirrel but having some kind of insurance cover seems the responsible thing to do. Reading through the cover offered for standard membership I realised it included £10million of employer's liability and the covered activities included 'conservation'. I enquired to clarify, and it would indeed cover me for all my conservation work and any volunteers or paid-for labour (you require employer's liability cover even for volunteers). At £74 the year, inclusive of all membership services, that's excellent value!

I'm going over the small print of the policies at the moment but, unless I find any exclusions that limit its application, I'll be joining back up

 

[Ystranc]

Gun plan by Ripe insurance which is a subsidiary of Aviva will give you the same cover as BASC and better cover than the Game Keepers Assoc as there are no occupational caveats. I think it‘s about £26 per year for the basic ten million public liability.

 

[Broch]

Gun plan by Ripe insurance which is a subsidiary of Aviva will give you the same cover as BASC and better cover than the Game Keepers Assoc as there are no occupational caveats. I think it‘s about £26 per year for the basic ten million public liability.

Thanks, I did look at Gun Plan (in fact there's a special offer on at the moment £17.54!), but, unless I missed something, it didn't give me employer's liability insurance which is what I need.

 

[Ystranc]

Thanks, I did look at Gun Plan (in fact there's a special offer on at the moment £17.54!), but, unless I missed something, it didn't give me employer's liability insurance which is what I need.

That would be an extra, there are small incremental rises for employers insurance (for beaters, loaders, gamekeepers, estate workers etc) insuring guns is also extra but it still works out much cheaper.
I tend to use contractors with their own insurance and as my land is adjunct to the house it could be included on my home insurance at no extra cost.

 

[Broch]

That would be an extra, there are small incremental rises for employers insurance (for beaters, loaders, gamekeepers, estate workers etc) insuring guns is also extra but it still works out much cheaper.
I tend to use contractors with their own insurance and as my land is adjunct to the house it could be included on my home insurance at no extra cost.

Yep, the general insurance for the land and woods (public liability) is included in my house insurance (NFU), but anyone that comes in to help me, paid or not, is not covered - and that includes my son.

The Gunplan insurance does not offer an employer's liability extension as far as I have been able to ascertain. The BASC breadth of cover is the best value for money that I have been able to find. By the time I'd submitted the options I wanted to bring the Gunplan policy in line with BASC, it was near £60 (without the current discount admittedly) and that was without employer's liability. On top of that, there is no mention of cover for 'conservation' work in their policy or options which is the vital part. Gunplan would not cover anyone getting injured wielding a billhook

It is also worth noting that Gunplan is a 'last resort' cover - they will not act until/unless you prove you have no other cover for that claim; BASC is 'first resort' cover. However, like all purchases, if you define what you need, then go out and compare prices, and a reputable product suits your need at a lower price, that's the product to go for.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting BASC is the right solution for everyone, it's just by far the lowest price option that I've found to tick all the boxes that I need.

 

[slowworm]

Well, todays job is to start to plant out another patch of woodland. I've grown some hazel from the best nuts I could collect and from some discounted supermarket Kentish cobs. I've also grown a couple of dozen silver birch from seed. All planted out on the edge of one of our fields that doesn't have much in the way of wild flowers due to nitrogen rich run off.

The area is fenced off to stop deer browsing and I'll add some goat willow cuttings around the edge to add some quick shelter. I've already sown some acorns so well see what comes up.

 

[Broch]

Coming to the end of the main work season now; birds have already started nesting so much more cutting and trapesing through the undergrowth risks disturbing them.

One last job is to build some brash/log piles. These are great at increasing the breadth of habitat in woodland, especially if the under-storey is a bit sparse, and they attract invertebrates, reptiles, mammals and birds. I have had a range of birds nesting in them in the same year as they have been built in the past . There is no consensus on what makes the 'best' brash pile as far as I have been able to ascertain so I start with larger stuff at the bottom and then gradually build up to smaller stuff. I want it to look as natural as possible so I'm not too careful about the construction to be honest.

Just one word of warning, in the enthusiasm of building one, make sure you're not damaging a habitat that is already developed as you may do if you disturb dead wood that has been down for a while.

Before:



After

 

[Broch]

Nest boxes

Sorry, a bit of an essay! (and a soapbox )

The few of you that have walked the woods with me will know that I dislike nest boxes! So, you may be surprised to find that I do use them. I have two pieces of woodland, the smaller one, despite being ancient semi natural woodland, has very few dead or decaying trees with natural nest holes, so I have nest boxes up. The larger one has a lot of suitable nest sites, so I don’t use them. However, see below for a new experiment in artificial nest sites.

First, why do I dislike them? To start with, they are ugly, they spoil the look of any natural wood. But, of course, that in itself is not a reason to not use them if there’s a need. It’s that last bit that makes me urge people to think carefully; is there actually a need? what species need them? and if there is a need, what negative outcomes are there and can we mitigate the downside? Every action we take in conservation will have a negative knock-on effect; how well we mitigate against them will determine the value of our intervention.

We’ve just spent the winter feeding the birds and making sure there’s an unnatural number of blue tits and great tits around. They will now be starting to nest and using up all the nesting sites they can find and will be devouring and feeding their young on vast amounts of invertebrate larva that will consequently never reach adulthood. In April and May our severely depleted migrants, such as redstarts and pied flycatchers, will be arriving and there will be very few good nest sites and reduced numbers of invertebrate food sources. Basically, we have stacked the cards against the already stressed migrants.

If we want to enjoy birds at the feeder over winter (let’s be totally honest here, that’s for our pleasure, not for conservation) we need to find ways to mitigate against the inflated numbers of resident birds. As far as food is concerned the only way to do that is to continue feeding throughout the nesting season. Even that has a negative outcome in as much as it means even more blue tit and great tit young survive!

When it comes to nest boxes the easiest way to make sure there are still sites available for the migrants is to block the entrance holes until the migrants arrive. I block about 50% with a short piece of hazel branch then remove that in early April.

Now, my experiment: although there are a lot of good natural nesting sites in the larger wood, it is unlikely to be at a natural ‘ancient wood’ level and I would like to make it easier for migrants such as pied flycatchers to find sites when they arrive. I don’t want obviously visible nest boxes in a very natural wood so I’m trying out a new nesting site method. In standing dead wood I have bored a 90mm hole to a depth of about 200mm. I have then fastened a metal and thin ply cover with a hole over the top. In a year or so the ply will fade to grey and the nest site will be far less visible. I’ll report on how well it’s worked later in the season!

Plugged Nest Box




Bored Hole




Cover Plates




Experimental Nest Site

 

[slowworm]

I was just looking at one of the brash piles that I made after the utility guys had clear out power lines. It was a large pile and in the first couple of years I watch a family of young storage playing hide and seek in it. 5 years later and it's almost all gone, rotted down, so time to build some more.

As for next boxes the few I've put up haven't been used as I'm glad to say there's plenty of nesting sites around here. Doesn't stop the wagtails using our log piles or the swallows using the shed, but they are more than welcome.

 

[Robson Valley]

Are there any places where the climax seral stage has been allowed to remain?

Wood rots here at varying speeds, depending upon the species. Birch is a sweet wood, it's punky in 18 months while western red cedar might last outdoors for 50 or more years.

 

[Broch]

Are there any places where the climax seral stage has been allowed to remain?

Wood rots here at varying speeds, depending upon the species. Birch is a sweet wood, it's punky in 18 months while western red cedar might last outdoors for 50 or more years.

There is a whole conservation debate going on that will probably never reach agreement about climax vegetation and mosaic landscapes

What is natural - especially in a highly modified landscape like Britain? If we don't manage landscapes to represent all stages, including the seral stages, it will all turn to climax vegetation which is far from natural. We don't have mega fauna or their prey to maintain the variety of habitats that would have existed before man started farming this land so we have to manage it.

So, to answer your question, yes, large areas of seral stages are being kept as just that. I, personally, have areas of rank grassland, leading to scrub, to low density young woodland and then high canopy. There is a great deal of deadwood in the air and on the floor and, wherever possible, that's left. To maintain that variety, I have to manage it.

 

[Laurentius]

Caught someone red handed cutting down a sapling on my patch the other day. I had noticed that somebody had been cutting down small trees. He said he was taking them for firewood for his wood burner. I made it clear that they were not his trees, and he was in a conservation area. That is the problem, some people just think they can just go onto any bit of wild land and help themselves. Collecting wood is one thing, cutting down trees to get it another.

 

[Broch]

I'm seething just hearing about it; how did you keep your cool?

 

[Wander]

Yeah, that's quite dumbfounding.
How on earth do you make a level-headed response to that? I mean, if you have to explain to them how that's unacceptable I just don't see how they could possibly understand.
Maybe it's just a case of having been caught red-handed there's no way they can bluff their way out of it so they may as well come clean. Did they seem ashamed when caught? Or did they think it was perfectly OK to do what they were doing? I can't believe they did.
Did you record the conversation?
Must say, if I saw that going on I would start my phone recording as I approached them, as potential evidence if nothing else. If I was feeling particularly vindictive (and depending on whether they were contrite or not, or if I believed their excuse or not) I may well have taken pictures of them to print out and post around the area, or at least at the entry points to my land, with warnings.

 

[Laurentius]

I think he knew he was in the wrong which was why he didn't make a big fuss about it. He said he wouldn't be back, and I guess he won't knowing I will be keeping an eye on things. The land borders an allotment and that is where he had come from. I had a word with the chair of the allotments about it today.

 

[Broch]

Autumn/Winter Work Plan!

I haven't posted on here for a while so I thought I'd update the thread with this year's planned woodland management interventions. To be honest, my plans always outstrip my resources (time and energy ) but at least it allows me to prioritise. So, in priority order:

1. Clearing the rides and tracks of scrub growth. It's now been two years since we managed to clear the wood of sheep and the rides, tracks, and edges are becoming overgrown with scrub (mainly course grass, bramble, and bracken). I need to clear this or we soon won't be able to walk through! I'm hiring a small tractor and flail mower to do it.
2. Coppicing - I don't intend to open up much of the wood but it would benefit from a little light coppicing especially on the southern and western edges and along the rides. The hazel is old so it's not a simple job. The brash will be used for more brash piles.
3. Managing scrub growth - scrub is a vital habitat but it has to be managed to keep it at its most valuable stage. I need to clear some areas (leaving others); it will grow back over the next few years.
4. Access creation - I have to put a gate at the end of an old track that has been fenced off (by the farmer) that allows me access to a part of the wood I can't get a vehicle to at the moment
5. Stock fencing dividing the wood - there's a dilapidated fence dividing part of the wood that I want to reinstate to enable me to carry out grazing experiments (winter grazing to control scrub growth) without affecting the whole wood.
6. Thinning - there's an area of self-seeded ash that should be thinned. I'm in two minds; it could generate some nice understory from coppice growth but I may be removing 'the' ash tree that has die-back resistance!

Anyone fancy a bit of woodland camping whilst volunteering with the workload?

Have any of you got a season task list?

 

[TeeDee]

Autumn/Winter Work Plan!

I haven't posted on here for a while so I thought I'd update the thread with this year's planned woodland management interventions. To be honest, my plans always outstrip my resources (time and energy ) but at least it allows me to prioritise. So, in priority order:

1. Clearing the rides and tracks of scrub growth. It's now been two years since we managed to clear the wood of sheep and the rides, tracks, and edges are becoming overgrown with scrub (mainly course grass, bramble, and bracken). I need to clear this or we soon won't be able to walk through! I'm hiring a small tractor and flail mower to do it.
2. Coppicing - I don't intend to open up much of the wood but it would benefit from a little light coppicing especially on the southern and western edges and along the rides. The hazel is old so it's not a simple job. The brash will be used for more brash piles.
3. Managing scrub growth - scrub is a vital habitat but it has to be managed to keep it at its most valuable stage. I need to clear some areas (leaving others); it will grow back over the next few years.
4. Access creation - I have to put a gate at the end of an old track that has been fenced off (by the farmer) that allows me access to a part of the wood I can't get a vehicle to at the moment
5. Stock fencing dividing the wood - there's a dilapidated fence dividing part of the wood that I want to reinstate to enable me to carry out grazing experiments (winter grazing to control scrub growth) without affecting the whole wood.
6. Thinning - there's an area of self-seeded ash that should be thinned. I'm in two minds; it could generate some nice understory from coppice growth but I may be removing 'the' ash tree that has die-back resistance!

Anyone fancy a bit of woodland camping whilst volunteering with the workload?

Have any of you got a season task list?

Er - yes.

 

[TLM]

I have a birch problem, to be more exact a dead or dying tree problem. No sickness or anything like that just that a lot of trees have come to the end of their time, birch is not a very long life tree.

I have a power line going across my lot for about 500m and falling trees could damage that, otherwise only two buildings in the way of potential harm.

So it looks like some hours of chainsaw time and an awful lot of fire wood coming in the next year.

 

[Woody girl]

I'm still peeling the bark off some beech trees that were cut down in June, around the sewerage works that we snaffled , to make some fencing to keep the sheep out of our new permaculture forest garden project, at my friends smallholding. I've done most of them, but its not as easy as when they were nice and fresh now.
We have lots of coppicing up in the woodland and will be redoing the dead hedges along the old leat.
The willow tunnel leading to the tree bog needs some weaving in of this summers growth, and a bit of filling in of gaps.
New Gates to hang, and we need to finish the footpath up to the top of the woods, which presently just ends mid nettles.
Then we have to plant the forest garden.
Our volunteers seem to have dwindled to just my friend and myself, and I'm only worth half a worker, with my mobility problems, so it's gonna be a tall order to do that little lot.
We have managed to put up a huge tarp and build a fireplace, so we can have a space to practice our bushcraft, next to the river...which reminds me, the bridge needs some maintainance, and the tree bog needs more straw..... I think we have enough to be getting on with for now.!
Oh, Yes I forgot the poor old ash , suffering from die back that needs to come down , its on a steep hillside, so should be a bit of a job to sned and log up, then carry down the hill, over the river, and back up the other side up a steep hill.
Praying the mini tractor gets mended soon! Otherwise we might have to try "horse log extraction" with sheep instead!

 

[Broch]

OK, here goes: I have made a start on my autumn task list but it will last well into winter. If anyone fancies a weekend camping, eating, and chin wagging - oh, and doing some conservation work, I have set aside the weekend of 4th/5th November; believe it or not, that is the only full weekend I have till well into December.

PM me if you're interested and we can chat over the details. For clarity, the wood is not easy to work in and you would need a reasonable level of fitness and mobility to participate, sorry. If the weather is bad (heavy rain and/or wind) I will have to cancel as it will be too dangerous.