New Woodland from scratch

[lescygnes]

I am in the process of planning a new piece of woodland to offset our carbon footprint and would like to plant around 100 trees. Apart from The True Service tree which I am going to plant do to it's rarity I need advice as what trees and spacing etc. I do not want to plant rows of tree instead I want it to look as natural as possible.

Help please

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

What size is the area and what is the soil like?

[JennyS]

Hi lescygnes,
Can you give some clues about soil, drainage and exposure on the land you're intending to plant, as this will influence what to plant.....
One tip to make your woodland look more natural - plant trees of different heights as that'll give a more natural profile.

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by lescygnes

I am in the process of planning a new piece of woodland to offset our carbon footprint and would like to plant around 100 trees. Apart from The True Service tree which I am going to plant do to it's rarity I need advice as what trees and spacing etc. I do not want to plant rows of tree instead I want it to look as natural as possible. Help please

I would add to the very pertinent questions already asked -

What resources will be available for long term management of the wood ?

Also "looking as natural as possible" is very subjective - in what context is the 'naturalness' to be set ? Planting in rows has certain advantages - primarily it allows optimal planting which maximises both the survivability of each plant and the overall use of space. sub Optimal planting either entails poor space usage (which may very well be acceptable) or it reduces the survivability of some of the plants which will inevitably be outcompeted by those most favourable positioned.

I would recommend reading some background material - the Forestry Commission is actually a very useful source of information - Forestry Commission GB and also the Woodland Trust - The Woodland Trust

plus for a grounding the history of woodlands, a book - "Trees and Woodlands in The British Landscape" by Oliver Rackham ISBN 1-84212-469-2

CM

[Bushcraft]

Good luck with your plans!

Kris

[svenrufus]

In one of my previous roles, I had to hold people back from well intentioned tree planting proposals which were actually set to do more damage to the environment than they hoped to repair. I'm sure you have thought about these issues, but I just wanted to raise them here for info and reference for anyone else thinking about this way of doing things - and also, if it gets some reaction, help me learn a bit too maybe.

Basically, the problems I was having was people coming up with plans to plant woodland on species rich grassland - some which had been pasture for around 400 years at least. The possibility of losing that sort of habitat to a new plantation, no matter how well designed was not acceptable to me. I don't know if you already have a piece of land to do this on, or if you have no more than a plan waiting for somewhere to put it into operation, but my advice to anyone thinking of doing this, is to find out what is already important on the site, and work with that. If it is a blank canvass (ex arable for example) then look at the context of the local neighbourhood, and try to complement/link habitats that are already there. You may be able to do more good by preserving or supporting a local population of some species or other than you can do by carbon off-setting plans.

Also, and I don't know much about this, so maybe someone can fill me in a bit - there was a recent report that said that woodland above a certain latitude which takes in the whole of the UK - can have a negative impact on reducing climate change. ie it makes things worse. I think the thinking was that the trees are bare for such a long time of the year that they are not capturing CO2 all year round, and the darkness of the cover provided acts as a heat sink, thus warming the earth through their reflective properties rather than the CO2 action we are more familiar with. there was also something about woodlands releasing methane, but I can't remember the details. anyone got any clue about this?

My view is that whatever merits there is in CO2 offsetting is best done in the developing world. For example, there is some scheme being run by the Co-op where they give more efficient wood-burning stoves to villages in Uganda(?) which reduces the amount of fuel needed for cooking, thereby stopping virin forest being cleared in the first place. It also has the add on benefits of giving cleaner living conditions as inhaled woodsmoke is a major contributor to premature deaths. Also, people with these stoves don't have to travel such distances for fuel, so can spend more time on caring for crops or on community work such as teaching etc. That's the sort of CO2 offsetting I like.

Don't want to sound too negative about your plans, but felt I should raise the issues to be sure they are on the radar.

Cheers
Sven

[lescygnes]

Thanks for all your replies I will try to answer your questions as well as poss!

I have about 1 hectare available that I want to use as a mix of woodland, pasture and allotment. The land was until 2003 agricultural land and the last crop was maize, since then it was seeded to grass and used for cattle a few weeks a year and also for baling as fodder. The farmer we dealt with has since retired and his successor seems reluctant to work on a handshake(says he wants a contract)

The soil is well drained and is fertile has a reddish tinge which I suspect is high levels of iron oxide. The field is open apart from on the south side a large and tall (up to 15m high) hedge made up of oak, sycamore and beech trees.

I was think of planting a mix of indigenous trees such as the above, and possibly some smaller bushes interspersed. Locally trees seem to thrive and are a mix of oak, ash, sycamore, beech, chestnut (sweet and horse), walnut, ash and some planted copses of acacia. I have looked at the pros and cons of wide and short spaced planting, but since this will not in the large part be cropped I feel a more natural or haphazard planting technique may be more to our needs. As to the question of management of the area I am here all the time as I work from home and have large amounts of available time, and am eager and willing to learn.

The idea is to create a small wood in an area that at one time was a wooded are (a 15c map of the area shows me this) at the same time helping offset our own carbon output, I have read the report about planting in Europe and the altitude at which trees are planted, but I don't think our little patch will adversely affect things, and we do donate to charities involved in planting trees in Africa and Asia when we take flights to anywhere.

Again thanks and if this helps clear things please comment and pass on any advice.

[Paul mabbott]

I take your point about planting trees on other semi-natural habitats (we've had problems with well-intentioned people planting on heath ....) but this is former farmland so will have no ecological value at present.

The piece of USAmerican research about trees releasing more carbon dioxide than they mop up was really quite inconclusive, short-term and, I suspect, rather influenced by their methodology. In the right circumstances, tree-planting will be very useful.

I wonder, though, why one should be confined to making pseudo-natural woodland. Native trees may well be on the wane so perhaps planting exotics, including eucalypts and conifers would be worth trying? You'll never be able to create real woodland in one or several human lifetimes ....

Originally Posted by svenrufus

In one of my previous roles, I had to hold people back from well intentioned tree planting proposals which were actually set to do more damage to the environment than they hoped to repair. I'm sure you have thought about these issues, but I just wanted to raise them here for info and reference for anyone else thinking about this way of doing things - and also, if it gets some reaction, help me learn a bit too maybe.

Basically, the problems I was having was people coming up with plans to plant woodland on species rich grassland - some which had been pasture for around 400 years at least. The possibility of losing that sort of habitat to a new plantation, no matter how well designed was not acceptable to me. I don't know if you already have a piece of land to do this on, or if you have no more than a plan waiting for somewhere to put it into operation, but my advice to anyone thinking of doing this, is to find out what is already important on the site, and work with that. If it is a blank canvass (ex arable for example) then look at the context of the local neighbourhood, and try to complement/link habitats that are already there. You may be able to do more good by preserving or supporting a local population of some species or other than you can do by carbon off-setting plans.

Also, and I don't know much about this, so maybe someone can fill me in a bit - there was a recent report that said that woodland above a certain latitude which takes in the whole of the UK - can have a negative impact on reducing climate change. ie it makes things worse. I think the thinking was that the trees are bare for such a long time of the year that they are not capturing CO2 all year round, and the darkness of the cover provided acts as a heat sink, thus warming the earth through their reflective properties rather than the CO2 action we are more familiar with. there was also something about woodlands releasing methane, but I can't remember the details. anyone got any clue about this?

My view is that whatever merits there is in CO2 offsetting is best done in the developing world. For example, there is some scheme being run by the Co-op where they give more efficient wood-burning stoves to villages in Uganda(?) which reduces the amount of fuel needed for cooking, thereby stopping virin forest being cleared in the first place. It also has the add on benefits of giving cleaner living conditions as inhaled woodsmoke is a major contributor to premature deaths. Also, people with these stoves don't have to travel such distances for fuel, so can spend more time on caring for crops or on community work such as teaching etc. That's the sort of CO2 offsetting I like.

Don't want to sound too negative about your plans, but felt I should raise the issues to be sure they are on the radar.

Cheers
Sven

[Cotham Marble]

I would recommend you do a lot more research specific to your local area, particularly I would suggest you contact your local Wildlife Trust, also your local authority may have a 'Woodlands' Officer who may be a source of advice.

Like svenrufus I'm sceptical about what can actually be achieved in terms of CO2 offset and I think that to put this as a priority in your project overly complicates what is otherwise a useful, and potentially very beneficial environmental action.

Do remember, woodland management is a long term issue - so you need to consider what shape you want this wood to be in 20, 50 and 100 years, because that actually impacts upon the decisions you need to take about planting and early management. For instance are you going to manage an 'understorey' and are you going to use copicing or pollarding ? Are you intending to start with a dense planting, and if so at what stage in the wood's develoment will you be looking at thinning ?

Planting 100 trees on half a hectare gives you a spread of one tree per 5square metres - quite a low density for a young wood. And while just 30 mature Oaks could fill half a hectare, it will take a hundred years for the canopy to reach that kind of spread.

So I really think you need to get a very clear idea of what your expectations are and how you can meet those, before you actually commence planting.

CM

[JennyS]

I have about 1 hectare available that I want to use as a mix of woodland, pasture and allotment. The land was until 2003 agricultural land and the last crop was maize, since then it was seeded to grass and used for cattle a few weeks a year and also for baling as fodder. The farmer we dealt with has since retired and his successor seems reluctant to work on a handshake(says he wants a contract)

Hi again - is this rented land that you're hoping to plant on, and if it is will the owner give you a long enough contract to let your woodland come to maturity?

Do remember, woodland management is a long term issue - so you need to consider what shape you want this wood to be in 20, 50 and 100 years, because that actually impacts upon the decisions you need to take about planting and early management.