Getting the professionals in. February 2020

As part of it's history on the Helmingham estate, the woodland has been planted with ash trees. These are quite close together, to produce good straight timber, but they have got to a height now where they are really blocking out the light.

As we are now managing the wood for wildlife and amenity value, rather than timber, we made the decision to have some felled. In need of some expertise, and to comply with our insurance, we asked  David Churchyard to advise and then carry out the work in early February.

Most of the work has been in the area along the road boundary on the North side. Several ash have been felled and hawthorn cut at higher level. When it regrows  it will give another habitat layer in the woodland.

You can certainly see through the trees now although hopefully it will fill in a bit once spring finally arrives. David also took the weight off our old heritage Baldwin apple tree, cutting back the 2 big limbs, which will help it last a bit longer, and cleared a couple of trees along the regenerated water course in the middle of the wood.

Many thanks to David for these photos, he was lucky to get a sunny day for the work.

The other bit of advice that David gave, was to make safe a large ash tree next to the path. It has a 'chicken of the woods fungus' which will eventually rot the heartwood. See picture here http://framsdenwoodlandgroup.blogspot.com/2019/09/work-party-sunday-1st-september-2019.html?m=1

Joe Westrup, of Westrup Contracting, and his team of arborists expertly reduced the height, taking it down safely bit by bit and then processing the branches once on the ground. They have left a 10ft standing trunk as a habitat for wood boring insects. From this...

Going going..

Getting smaller..

Finished!

Tidying up on the ground.

The logs and the brash will be relocated at the next work party.  Thanks to Neil for some of the photos. 

Sunday 2nd February 2020 - Work Party

The pools forming in the central stream.

Rain was in the forecast but we managed to keep dry nearly until the end. This month's work was mostly about water management as we have had a lot more rainfall than average this winter.

The high volume of water in the main ditch had swept a lot of debris with it, despite being cleared earlier in the season. This was removed and the pipes left clear again.

The path at the  bottom has become waterlogged, just a bit!, where the  central stream currently overflows and crosses it. The engineers of the group have suggested that we tackle this problem once it dries out as it would be impossible to dig at the moment.

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So what we did do was clear a bit of a sump area, this is the team pulling out a bedstead, and dig out the channel a bit to move the water more quickly on it's way to the ditch at the road end.

At the top end of the woodland the gap into the field was tidied up. With time to spare, we began our initiative to help out with the churchyard management and did some nettle pulling.

The bedstead pulled out of the mud.

Snowdrops planted in the green a few years ago.