What is your wood like?

[woodbodger]

more important than size of wood I think it would be nice to know what other peoples woods are like and what they are doing in them.

Mine is forty two acres consisting of thee steep sided valleys in a clover leaf shape some of it had obviously been farmed about fifty years ago so there the big trees are just on the ditch lines, some of the rest is wild with some sign of sporadic planting, the remainder original woodland. I have a huge amount of hazel some thorn trees and mountain ash and then everything else. I have a problem with squirrels debarking young Oak trees which is frustrating and deadly for them if I catch them. I like Ash trees and am planting them in select areas, As a Windsor chair maker I have a certain affinity with Ash. There is also a large area down by the river that was largely scrub and goats willow which I have cleared and have planted a couple of hundred willows of various sorts that will hopefully keep me occupied in the winter months making baskets. There are some very old Ash trees that are coming to the end of their days, two are down and by the look of the fungus at the foot of another there is at least one more to go and each one will heat this house for a year so no fuel bills for a while.

[John H]

Having 42 acres only 200 yards from your house sounds idyllic, our Welsh woods are 200 miles away. I am booked to travel down to them next weekend.

Here in Essex we have a small plantation of about an acre that we planted in 1990,mainly oak and ash. Despite regular visits from a herd of deer the trees are growing well with the largest being about 6inch dbh. It has been really good to see them grow ,I have pruned of low branches and it will soon be neccessary to thin them out. As I work from home I walk the dogs around "the estate" at least twice a day, there are 12 acres in all.

[Exeldama]

Ours is fairly mixed. regenerating mixed deciduous with some older scots pine and a few spruce. we have a little hill, and now a clean water wildlife pond which should develop a lot this year. we have planted wildlife hedges and built brash pile.

There are now two camps. a bigger one for ME. and a smaller one on the hill for my kids with a fire pit and the like.

Im debating putting in a second pond this year and grading the rides a bit, clearing round the mature oaks and possibly more wildlife hedging. Gradually going to introduce more anative food tress...cherry,wild pear, crab etc all in a select area.

We now have two rope swings for the kids and a death slide might just appear..... a mix of biodiversity and ensuring my children enjoy being outside whilst having somehwere for me and my mates to just chill.

[jillybean]

Mines in a mess. You cant walk round without climbing over fallen trees. thats what I love about it. There are no paths, still I have my tidy days when I wish it was all cleared and upright. I had the first acre coppiced in probably 50 years this winter, so ill watch that with interest. its lowland mixed broardleaved with Bluebell (NVC w10)

[docsquid]

Ours is 11 acres of ancient semi-natural woodland. It has a chequered history, having been woodland at least since Domesday, but was probably clear-felled about 200 years ago, judging by the age of trees, and then left to regenerate. While regenerating it had various generations of animals grazing on it - sheep, pigs, horses and goats. It was fenced with different generations of stock fencing into different compartments. As a consequence, different areas have a different "feel". There is an open area of wet grassland and what was probably wood-pasture, as there is virtually no under-storey, although 20 years of unchecked bramble growth meant it wasn't very open when we bought the wood.

There is another area of mature oak canopy with elder, hawthorn, holly and crab-apple under-storey. There is a further area which seems to have been clear-felled/coppiced about 20+ years ago, and is now over-mature and crowded with young oak, and dense re-growth - this we are coppicing anew. Then there are areas that were grazed by pigs and goats, which have dense bramble, elder and nettle undergrowth - again, we are clearing some of this to allow us to plant new coppice which we have done this year - new hazel coppice for the future.

There is a bit that was fenced-off and has young 50 year oak trees growing much too close together, that need to be carefully thinned as they are tall and spindly.

Finally there is a semi-domestic area near a derelict bulding that was a house, then a stable, and now is falling down. This has some feral plants including roses and naturalised daffodils, and here we have a small vegetable garden, greenhouse and new orchard, which will have a permaculture forest garden structure in due course.

We have put in 6 ponds, and a new roadside hedge, access paths and tracks and so forth. We camp there, and so do the scouts, but mainly the wood is for wildlife. We are trying to increase the habitat available, so we get more species of butterfly, birds and other insects. We think it is very lovely!