Forester's Blog - Ben Philipps
July 2006
Summer is supposed to a quiet time of year for foresters – not at the Northmoor Trust!
The tree-planting season, extended by the long winter, gave way to several weeks of weed control. This was followed by a period of tree felling and extraction work.
In June we hired a firewood processor for a fortnight. The processor sucks in low quality round timber at one end, and spits out cut and split logs of firewood at the other - what a great piece of kit! The firewood should be on sale in the shop at the end of the year, so if you’ve got an open fire or wood burner, watch this space!
I’m busy in the office too, with a couple of key projects taking up a lot of my time. Firstly, we hope to build a living willow ship in Neptune Wood this winter, so that is taking considerable planning.
The second project is the opening of an arboretum, planted in 1998. Owned by the Trust, the arboretum showcases all of the UK’s native trees and shrubs. We want to open the woodland to the public, with new signage, access routes and improvements to the pond.
Right, I’d better sign off for now. I have to go and extract timber from Little Wittenham Wood – one of my favourite jobs! We are in a bit of a hurry at the moment because the newts are migrating out of the woodland ponds and into the woodland. We have to remove the timber from the wood before the newts decide the stacks make a good place to shelter. Don’t worry though, we leave some behind for them!
Regular volunteer Mike Tighe loads up another grabful of Norway spruce thinnings in Little Wittenham Wood
Ben Philipps is Forestry Assistant for the Northmoor Trust
