woodland owner in Wales

[Green Phoenix]

Hi all, am managing a small woodland in Ceredigion, converting what is mostly a Spruce plantation into mixed woodland. Have put in a pool and access track and are now thinning out thousands of spruce to liberate existing broadleaves and allow space for natural regeneration.

Looking to plant a few species to start coppice cycles this year, so much to do and its been a huge learning curve!

We have a work party every Summer, lots of space for camping and a good way of us meeting others interested in wildlife monitoring and various practical woodland work...

heres the website for our company and project;

www.thegreenphoenix.co.uk

Cheers

Scott

Green Phoenix

[tracy]

Hi Scott

Thanks, your site looks really interesting.

What are you doing with the thinned trees? Are you able to find a market for them and extract them? Do you have a PAWS (plantation on ancient woodland sites)officer in your area? I am looking for one at the moment, as I am sure there are many in Wales with similar woods to yours- be good to see if there are grants to help with these projects

Tracy

[Green Phoenix]

Hi Tracey, about 30% of thinnings are staying put for habitats and most of the rest will be firewood or for making various structures and so on...of course spruce isnt the best firewood but used as mix in a good stove we find it to be ok...

The thinnings at the moment are very small, infact most of the work is actually removing self seeded young Spruce (between 7-10 years old). We will be thinning some slightly older stuff next winter (about 20 years old). We plan to use some of these for teepee poles, but not sure about the other several hundred yet!

Afraid don't know about local PAWS officer, would be good to find out though...

Thanks for the reply and speak later

Scott

Green Phoenix

[Darren]

Hi Green phoenix

It's like you have a simliar project as me. Unfortunatly my spruce have never been thinned and have grown tall and have small root plates. Tried to thin,but the trees left just get wind blown into the gaps so we have clear felling. Lucky for us there is plenty of broadleaf growing amongst them. We use the spruce as firewood, it dries quick, burns hot, but a little too quick.

[Green Phoenix]

HI Darren, thats a pain , luckily ours are quite young so not too bad re the thinning...yeah its not bad as firefood as long as the gunk doesnt build up in the flue, its supposed to be one of the worst woods for flue/chimney fires! Where abouts is your woodland?

Cheers

Scott

www.thegreenphoenix.co.uk

[Darren]

Our woods are near Horsham West Sussex.