woodland ownership

[greyman]

Our owning a wood was nothing to do with socialism - I'd worked in local woods running my own business and not owning the land I worked on. I came to a position and time in my life where I could do something I thought would never happen. Mrs Greyman and me enjoy our woods - even with the annoyance of people who think they have the right to do as they see fit - Mrs enjoys mooching about exploring, I like flailing about in the undergrowth. If we can maintain and improve the woods under our stewardship so much the better but my wood is for me and mine just at the moment. My social responsibilities are:

Not to do long term damage to the flora and fauna.

assist its growth and development.

leave it in as good or better condition as it came into my stewardship.

If others feel different I have no issues with that - they may do as they see fit with thier land as long as any fall out does not impinge on the environment and others enjoyment or ownership.

Greyman

[docsquid]

We own our woods as husband and wife, although it is actually owned through our company which means we can claim VAT back on purchases, and it seems to be easier to tap into official pots of money that way. We both have the same vision for the woods, although we like doing slightly different tasks when we are there: I do most of the photography, wildlife surveys, BTO Birdtrack monitoring for bird counts. I also do most of the planning for what will have most benefit for the wildlife and trees - e.g. selecting which species to plant or coppice, where to do it, and so on. I also make a range of products to sell to raise money.

Stephen likes doing most of the actual work, particularly the engineering to keep the site healthy e.g. putting in land drains to replace the broken ones and hopefully preserve the mature oak trees (two had already died due to waterlogging). Between us we get the jobs done and our aims are very much like those of Greyman - to preserve exisiting habitats, to improve the range of habitats, to increase biodiversity on the site, to improve the management of trees and in particular regeneration of oaks, and to develop the site for community use (although not open public access).

I'd say you need to have very closely matching aims to be able to manage the site without conflict - I was very dubious about the need for a vehicle-capable bridge over our ditch but was eventually won over by an assurance that it didn't mean the tractor would be rampaging around our lovely oak glade!

[jillybean]

Is it big enough to cut in half? that way you can do what you like or work together. simples!