Above: Violet and Ground Ivy
Below: Cuckoo Flower and Wood Sorrel
Click on photos to enlarge.
Above: Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock
March is a month that marks both a beginning and an ending in the cycle of life and work in the woods. With birds starting to nest it is the month to wind down the coppicing and tree clearance until next autumn. So, on the one hand the coming of spring brings great pleasure, at the same time it sees the end of my favourite work.
It is with this in mind that we set to making the most of the last days of clearance and replanting. Banstead Woods is ancient woodland (woodland that has existed continuously since at least 1600) in which sycamores, especially in the densely packed number in which they appear, don't belong.
Some of the trees are quite large (12ins – 14ins diameter and 60ft tall) and, unlike the many smaller one, require teamwork to bring down and dispose of. The crosscut saw (‘The Beast’) is a reminder of how gangs of woodsmen worked before the invention of chainsaws and is a wonderful tool for both felling and cutting up the fallen trunk. The addition of a rope around some trees add to the team and ensures that they fall exactly where required or are safely pulled free if they get hung up – it’s amazing how the slenderest of branches can catch in an adjacent tree and prevent the cut tree from falling. Then there is the teamwork involved in using lifting straps to move the sectioned trunk around.
An amazing combination of sounds accompanies one of these large trees coming down - the rasp and metallic hum of the 2-man crosscut saw, the initial crack as the hinge splits and the loud elongated creak as gravity starts to take over, followed by the whip of the topmost branches as they catch up with falling trunk and finally the crash and splintering as it hits the ground, ending with a pattering of detached branches that follow - impressive and highly satisfying.
With the larger sycamore trees cleared, the Tree Popper is employed to remove some of the smaller trees, roots and all. Clamping the base of the tree and levering it out gives a great deal of satisfaction, although some put up a far greater fight than others, while others refuse to give in and we have to revert to the saw once again.
Clearing this brings back good memories of the annual Rhody Bash that used to take place just the other side of the path, when 120+ people (from various conservation groups, scouts, army cadets and locals) would gather on the first Sunday in February each year to clear approx. an acre at a time.
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.”
Maybe that’s the problem with our society, not only do we not plant enough trees, but too many old men, instead of planting, sit in administrative buildings passing sentence upon the removal of far too many trees and signing the death warrants on great swathes of our precious woodland.