In my last entry I described how I was working out how much timber we had on the estate to put toward the new woodchip boilers at Castle Drogo. Well now with the onset of autumn the time has come to begin the felling programme.
Contractors with their specialist machinery have moved into the woods and felling has begun. In many forestry plantation situations large machinery is used where possible as the speed they work at cannot be matched by men with chainsaws. First the harvester fells, de-limbs and cuts the trunk into log lengths, and then the forwarder comes along and picks up the logs and stacks them. It important to lift and carry the logs rather than drag them as the wood needs to be as clean as possible or dirt and stones can get into the woodchip and damage the boiler when it is burnt.
Once the timber is staked it will be covered and left for up to a year to dry. When it reaches between 25 to 35% moisture content it is ready for chipping. If the wood is wetter it will use up valuable heat to drive off the excess moisture and wont burn efficiently. If the wood is too dry it will not chip properly and will just smash into bits so the moisture levels will need to have a close eye kept on them.
This first stand of Douglas fir is being felled prematurely from a forestry point of view. As it was only planted 15 years ago. If it was being managed for timber it would now be thinned for the first time to allow the better trees to develop. This process would then be repeated about every 5 years until the final crop of well developed timber was clear felled to produce timber.
As our priority is to produce woodchip all the conifer stands around this young stand will be felled over the next 15 years and replaced with broad leafed trees which will be managed as coppice to provide a sustainable supply of wood for chipping. This stand is however so much younger than all the stands around it by the time the other conifers had been replaced it would still be in the thinning stages. As the wood is visible from all around it would look awkward in the landscape to have one small block of conifers trees surrounded by broad leafed trees. So the decision was made to fell it early to benefit the landscape in years to come.
Once the timber has been removed the next job is to prepare the area for planting. This will involve clearing the site of ‘brash’, all the branches and bits of wood that were not big enough to chip. Then control the bracken which if left would grow up and choke the young trees and finally this time next year begin planting young trees on the prepared site.
Contractors with their specialist machinery have moved into the woods and felling has begun. In many forestry plantation situations large machinery is used where possible as the speed they work at cannot be matched by men with chainsaws. First the harvester fells, de-limbs and cuts the trunk into log lengths, and then the forwarder comes along and picks up the logs and stacks them. It important to lift and carry the logs rather than drag them as the wood needs to be as clean as possible or dirt and stones can get into the woodchip and damage the boiler when it is burnt.
Once the timber is staked it will be covered and left for up to a year to dry. When it reaches between 25 to 35% moisture content it is ready for chipping. If the wood is wetter it will use up valuable heat to drive off the excess moisture and wont burn efficiently. If the wood is too dry it will not chip properly and will just smash into bits so the moisture levels will need to have a close eye kept on them.
This first stand of Douglas fir is being felled prematurely from a forestry point of view. As it was only planted 15 years ago. If it was being managed for timber it would now be thinned for the first time to allow the better trees to develop. This process would then be repeated about every 5 years until the final crop of well developed timber was clear felled to produce timber.
As our priority is to produce woodchip all the conifer stands around this young stand will be felled over the next 15 years and replaced with broad leafed trees which will be managed as coppice to provide a sustainable supply of wood for chipping. This stand is however so much younger than all the stands around it by the time the other conifers had been replaced it would still be in the thinning stages. As the wood is visible from all around it would look awkward in the landscape to have one small block of conifers trees surrounded by broad leafed trees. So the decision was made to fell it early to benefit the landscape in years to come.
Once the timber has been removed the next job is to prepare the area for planting. This will involve clearing the site of ‘brash’, all the branches and bits of wood that were not big enough to chip. Then control the bracken which if left would grow up and choke the young trees and finally this time next year begin planting young trees on the prepared site.
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