Maps

 Maps.

1. General Location

 Cairn and Pit Woods.

2.Cairn Wood.

3. Pit Wood. Compartments

4. Pit Wood. Rectangular sub Compartments. 

1.

O.S Map of North Nottinghamshire, showing the positions of Cairn and Pit Woods.
Tuxford is in the top left corner, the A1 on the left, and the Trent on the right.
The map predates their planting.   

2.

Forestry Commission map of Cairn Wood. The narrow strip of land between the A1 embankment and a mill stream.

The map shows two tracks that align with the A1 and terminate at the wood field. There is now a track joining the two, that is used as access to a Biodigester plant off the map to the North West. 

3.

The RPA map for The fields that form Pit Wood. The green areas were planted with trees when acquired. The reference numbers are related to the grid reference of the centre of the area. The red stars indicate there is no discernible boundary. 

The areas are referred to in the blog as:-

3046 .....Triangular.    Planted spring 2011

3843 .....Rectangular. Planted winter 2012/13

3343 .....Wind Break.  1970's Common Alder with a few conifers at the ends.

4153 .....Mixed.             1970's Mainly Scots Pine with a few Spruce and Sweet                                                       Chestnut.

                                         Largely Felled 2015/16 replanted with conifers and cherry.   

4064 ....Plantation       1970's Sycamore with Alder, and Red and Native Oaks.

               Tulip Wood.   Largely Felled 2015/16 replanted with conifers, Oak and                                                   Tulip trees.

4.

The sub areas of rectangular compartment. The the unspecifies area was originally planted spring 2013 with rows of Robinia, Sweet Chestnut, and Sycamore and Red Oak. The later were instead of Ash which not to be planted following the discovery of Ash Die Back. 

Chipped

 Chipped.

Well it has happened. The piles of Aspen and Alder brash have gone. There is still plenty around the site, but there is now room to move it about. The main stems are likely to go, for the most part they can currently be dragged about. Those that need cutting up to load onto a trailer can be sectioned. They can also start being moved out of the planting area.

My only previous experience with a chipper taught me what to expect. Then the chipper wouldn't start, having arrived an hour late, the battery of the towing Land Rover had to be removed to get it off the trailer and started. I also found two people feeding it from organised piles can get through a huge amount of material.  It actually took a lot less time than I had expected. The chip was going on the ground in mounds, which I then used  as a mulch. 

This time the idea was to fill a trailer, the chipper arrived late and the trailer even later. We did not use everything as efficiently as hoped and still finished everything that had to go by mid afternoon. Not that it really mattered to me the amount of chip produced did seem disappointingly small! It will probably join other chip and go off to a power station. With the current concern about energy or the lack of it I think it justifiable.

About 4 cubic meters of chip in the trailer.

The chip will hopefully pay for the chipper. Not the reason for sending it off site. Most trees and wild flowers evolved to grow on what farmers would regard as nutrient poor soils. This field although free draining, unless the Trent is very high, was an "improved" meadow and fairly nutrient rich. I think this because the trees grow fast, as do the weeds none of which are typical woodland flowers. Stinging and dead nettle dominate much of the wood. Alder had been planted partly because it adds nitrogen to the soil, but this is not needed, another reason to remove it. By removing the chip the nutrients it contains are removed. The open space will be replanted, with timber trees and some wild flower seeds will be scattered in the hope that some will take.
 

Preparing for chipping at Pit Wood

Preparing for chipping at Pit Wood 

Walking around the rectangular field at Pit Wood has always been relatively easy. A hedge cutter and mower can get around two sides. Getting a tractor and trailer round the other two sides, would have been problematic.  If it could be done then brash from the felling could be dragged to the nearest edge of the wood, and long trunks piled up ready for loading on a trailer more efficiently. Over hanging branches and a couple of corner trees have been cut away, and lined up to make loading a chipper as easy as possible.

Typical mess, the only tidying up that has been done is to enable the next tree to be felled.

The brash is piled so the thick end of the branch faces the chipper. If the end of the branch is clean, with no thick side shoots the chipper should be able to draw the branch through the machine bending or breaking any small side shoots as it goes. The Aspen tends to be long and straight so should go through easily with little handling. There are some Scots Pine branches from a wind break by the ditch. These are contorted and complexly branched, and will take more manual effort as they are shorter and may need more cutting up to go through the 6" chipper.  They had to be removed to get a tractor under them.

Tomorrow the chipper comes, fingers crossed. The chipper man came down this morning and was very complimentary about both the woods and the way I had piled the brash. Which was pleasing, so should be good tomorrow. If I had realised he could have got a trailer down a row I could have saved myself a lot of time, not that it matters. The two photographs are from the track at the side by the Wind Break.  Top photo the scots pine. The one on the left is mainly Aspen.

Most of the brash has been piled at the north end of the rows . It needs moving so that anything can move in or out of them!

The main stems are being left and can be collected later. They will go into piles when the brash has gone and it is possible to move.

The north end of the plot. Stacks of brash at the end of the rows can be seen on the left. 

Felling at Pit Wood

 Felling at Pit Wood. Nov 2021

One of  the problems with growing fast growing trees is that they grow fast! Some trees planted in 2011  and 2013 are now nearly 50ft tall. There are three species which maybe 45' or more, Alder, Aspen and some Eucalypts. Some of the later are scattered through the woods and need to come down as the longer they are left the more difficult it will be to bring them down without damaging other trees that might make timber trees. They will be felled a bit later.

Rows of Aspen, the lighter and straighter trunks, and Alder. 
A few conifers can be seen scattered amongst them. 

The rectangular field at Pit Wood was planted in the spring. Part of  the idea had been to plant a couple of rows of Aspen and Alder nearest to the ditch which separates it from a triangular field. The winter of 2012 saw the triangular field flooded to a depth of a foot and a part of the rectangular field also flooded. A touch of panic set in. It was decided to extend the flooding tolerant species to all the land that had been flooded. More shade tolerant conifers were later planted to replace any that died in subsequent years. There are only a few conifers but they are growing nicely, and could make timber trees.

The Start of felling.

A felled Aspen, the lower part
snedded the top will be 
Chipped on site. 

 To be timber trees they need to put on girth the taller next to them were shading them so needed removing. A few were taken down. There was then a realisation that if all the original trees came down then some more useable trees could be planted. i.e. potential timber trees. Although the area may flood, it is only going to be in the winter when the trees are dormant, and the soil drains quite well.  Oak and Douglas Fir that have bought in will be planted, both species that can cope with a bit of winter waterlogging. 

There are a lot of trees to come down and something  should be done with them. I am not a salesman and trying to sell a poor fire wood is not for me. (There is too much work involved in cutting and splitting logs and then there is all the small branches, or brash to get rid of). I had been felling with the hope that the smaller stuff will get chipped. I now have a man with a chipper coming . Felling will continue and  the brash piled up for chipping on site. Trunks 2-3" and above will be snedded, (their  branches removed) and they can be taken off site for chipping later.  

The Shape of Trees to Come

 The Shape of Trees to Come, Part I

The shape of a tree and it's maximum size are determined by the species and it's  genetics. Most conifers tend to be tall and straight. They have strong apical dominance. The leading shoot grows the most hogging most of the trees resources. They are also negatively geotropic, they grow away from the force of gravity. Some broad leaf trees have strong apical dominance, Ash and  Poplar are good examples. Oak does not, if given the chance it will spread it's canopy as wide as possible growing in all directions, with large heavy branches. Broad leaf trees also tend to be more phototropic, they grow towards the light source.

An open grown Oak,
 a hedgerow tree at Pit Wood.

Trees, particularly in the absence of large herbivores, tend to grow with other trees. This limits the light that reaches the sides of the tree and the lower parts of the tree. If a part of a tree does not grow it will die. The lowest branches die first as they do not receive enough light to grow. How much light a leaf needs to grow depends on the species and how shade tolerant it is. Yew and Holly are shade tolerant and can grow under other trees. Most trees require more light so have to grow up to try and get above their neighbours. 

The edge of a wood where
 the centre of the wood has 
been felled. 

Trees, particularly in the absence of large herbivores, tend to grow with other trees. This limits the light that reaches the sides of the tree and the lower parts of the tree. If a part of a tree does not grow it will die. The lowest branches die first as they do not receive enough light to grow. How much light a leaf needs to grow depends on the species and how shade tolerant it is. Yew and Holly are shade tolerant and can grow under other trees. Most trees require more light so have grow up to try and get above their neighbours.  

The Photo shows Red Oak in the left hand row and English Oak in the Centre. They were on the edge of a wood and have grown straight but have grown most when they got above the outer hedge, and grown towards the light. The middle of the wood which has been felled stopped them growing on their right sides.

 Another open grown Oak. The Major  Oak was grown in Wood pasture, where animals were grazed and kept competing trees away. It is an old tree but not particularly tall, it is however wide and heavily branched. The wide canopy also tends to supress any growth under it.