A pleasant morning and eleven of us turned out to help Steve Joul thin out the trees in the hospice woodland.
If you are wondering why this is necessary, it is because they have been planted too close together. Mature trees need to have up to ten metres of space on either side. Many of the trees in the hospice woodland are planted no more than two metres from their neighbours and are growing into each other. Left unmanaged, the trees will not prosper.
On the other hand, the good news is that the hospice wood contains a fine range of native trees and hopefully the trees which are left in place will grow into fine specimens.
Steve demonstrated how to safely fell a tree using a bow saw (the bird’s beak method) and then we set to in teams – felling trees which Steve had marked, and then cutting the fallen timber up into smaller pieces which will rot down, providing habitat for beetles and insects.
At the end of our morning’s work, the area where we were working looked far better as there was clearly room for the remaining trees to grow and spread unhindered.
Friends of Adel Woods 