Introduction to planting in Cairn for winter 24/25.
There will be planting at both Pit and Cairn Woods this season. Pit wood will only require beating up of the recently planted trees lost to the floods. There are a lot of them and I have decided to sow extra Eucs though it is too late for autumn planting and hope the weather is favourable.
I have ordered 200 Oaks and 100 hornbeam for planting streamside at Cairn. I reasoned that the remaining Ash rich areas could be felled and replanted. I hope to transplant regen Birch and Alder from else where in the wood together with some Eucs. The area is certainly big enough for 4 or 500 trees. I have underestimated the amount of time required to clear the areas, and may need to be planting into next year. There is also a lot of fuel logs to come out. This may mean I do not need to cut Eucs for heating the house next year. They are being given away to people prepared to carry them out of the wood.
The stream side area was planted 2008-10. As willow was removed Ash regen from the field was planted 4 deep at the Weston end. This was widened when the stream side area was planted 2010 with two rows of hornbeam and a row of Italian Alder. It was further widened with 2 rows of Ash in 2012 these were removed to make the return track for the construction of the main digester track. This was replanted 2016/7 as part of the Ash replacement programme. These trees remain and form the edge of the proposed planting. Brash is to be piled up between the first two rows of the Ash replacements as a deer barrier.
The rest of the planting is made up of small patches with slightly different histories. The whole area was planted with 4 rows of seed grown Eucs 2008/9. Losses were very high and the whole area beaten up and widened 2009/10 Italian Alder, Hornbeam, Ash and Downey Birch. After the winter of 10/11 all Eucs were dead and were beaten up with Ash. So Ash formed the majority of the planting. Three nearly pure Ash blocks were felled and subsoiled and replanted 16/17. The one at the Weston end has a number of American Walnut which will be retained. The second one has some Oak. The third is beyond the P10 block of Lime which forms the limit of the area that could be planted. As the ash canopy thinned through disease attempts were made to in fill, these are small trees and will remain. They were mainly conifers WRC and Douglas as there was still a lot of Italian alder shade.
