my little forest

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my little forest
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dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 21 1:37 pm Post subject: my little forest

since about 1970 i have been creating a mixed woodland of about 7 acres of soil but about 3 on a map if seen from above on the north east side of a steep pennine clough

i have not done footfall for a couple of years although i have eyeballed it from vantage points

a late spring hammock and camera mission beckons, i want to find out what lives in it as well as which of the 30 or so strains of oak are thriving and how the other 50 or so tree species are getting on

i might take a subtle saw to open up a few bits and to precull some stuff that is too tight(i wont be around in 50 years when it is too late)

there are a couple of larches of almost commercial size which need to go and a few random rhododendrons are often invasive(there are a few big uns in good places but littles that will grow need attending to)

from bracken burnt off most years, patches of jap knot weed and plenty of erosion to forest, with a hidden cherry orchard, views, retained bilberry bushes and a wide mix of trees is fun

if i record it now, it might get properly looked after later, tis land with a permanent covenant on it but no management apart from me so far

i know the locals have noticed the 50 yrs of tree increase but most have no idea it was done rather than just happened.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16006

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 21 5:30 pm Post subject:
Sounds interesting. Can you let us know which oaks and other species are doing well please?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45676
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 21 6:12 pm Post subject:
Excellent, we've left quite a few areas to regenerate naturally. Oaks pop up everywhere, hornbeams less so

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Wed Mar 17, 21 7:42 am Post subject:
That sounds lovely DPack and how exciting as to what you might discover after not being there for a couple of years. Looking forward to you reporting back and with pictures please?

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16006

Posted: Wed Mar 17, 21 8:00 am Post subject:
Tahir, oak will grow well from grassland if the acorns are there from surrounding trees. I don't know much about hornbeam as we only have one planted one, but with us beech, hazel, oak, whitebeam, hawthorn and others seem to come up in any clear area of woods.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 22 12:10 pm Post subject:

i went planting yesterday, 50 yrs ago that was sand, ashes and bracken

the fern in a temperate rain forest is rather nice

i could have taken loads of pretty, big camera, snaps of autumnal woodland, the mission was planting another few acres, it is done
snaps later if i am spared

thinking of specimen trees there are a 3 huge conifers which have a rather "interesting" look, did i plant sequoia? tis possible

big thanks to tahir for a splendid amount of oak and other tree seeds and for providing lots of sea buckthorn for a very sandy rocky bit that has resisted greening over many plantings

knowing the landscape helps, it is a challenging landscape, the safe paths are pretty moody, off the path can be excellent training
a mix of steep, environmentally degraded, hillsides and historical quarrying(pre 1870)
a few bits have been "claimed" i had already planted them and they are mostly near vertical:lol: so they will be ok (and if you want to go climbing getting in is a doddle

)

it looks a bit different to the last time i was in it, and different to the summer before last google earthpro aerial snaps, which were very useful in the planning for this stage

the different areas were packed in different containers and delivered in 3 hrs of heavy rain

the less sunny side is turning into temperate rain forest

mosses, lichens, ferns. the start of a forest soil with a very diverse young (there are some older than the current PM) trees, a few are splendid specimens, many little ones are naturals from ones i planted

the sunnier side has some from 20/30 yrs ago plantings, it now has another couple of acres of oak and conifer pioneer seeds as well as a "challenging environment" mix for 2 streaks(both had "grassed over" so i recon they have a small amount of stability and less toxic top layer than they had)

i could ramble about details but i won't
i am a happy bunny, the rain forest thing is ace and i got the grits out of my eye

it has changed a lot over 60 yrs

i did hearts and minds with a few folk as well, dog walkers in heavy rain usually like the place they are, they do and now some know why and how it has changed

as the flora is very diverse as a starting point and the landscape is as it is there is a fair chance that this patch will continue to evolve

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 22 12:31 pm Post subject:

ps there are a few struggling bits of bracken among the trees and a few isolated patches for a bit of variety and scope for naturals

i have left a couple of places for rhododendron in fire breaks

there are a few others in the wrong place that might get a spring visit from the poison king
drill and full strength biocide into the main stems is effective, and a lot less fuss than slash and burn
slither in, 5 mins, slither out is fine by me

this could not be done with permits and clipboards and "that needs to go to blah...."

just do it, they need a clipboard and decent boot soles to stop yah

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 22 2:03 pm Post subject:

scotch eye auger bit, braided copper from co ax cable, poison

silent, light to carry to odd places, effective

make downward hole in main stem, add some braid, add poison, go to the next one

focussed rather than slash and burn or area spray(which slides off the leaves anyway)

i can cull more in a few hours than a national park crew with "helpers" and stuff(including clipboards)can in a season

a dry day might be nice for that game

NorthernMonkeyGirl

Joined: 10 Apr 2011
Posts: 4630
Location: Peeping over your shoulder

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 22 3:48 pm Post subject:
Couldn't possibly comment on chemical use, but I would eradicate all rhododendron. It just spreads, thousands of seeds from one plant, I don't think it's worth the risk keeping any. Unless I've misread your firebreak comment! What does the braided copper do?

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 22 10:52 pm Post subject:

the copper forms salts and further poisons the plant in case it survives the herbicide

considering the forever chemicals in some places and the state of things when i started this, a few grams of herbicide and copper where it is useful seems ethical

i recon it has not been temperate rain forest for at least a millennium, probably longer

there are trees and smaller plants from several continents, the sunny side has lots of garden escapes, for instance the oaks come from everywhere between japan and california the long way

there are so many micro climates and challenging re greenings that some rhododendron scrub might be ok in the places it can cope
it does not do invasive in the tree bits i have planted and has failed to take in many open ones since it first migrated to these islands and settled in a few "big house" gardens

the patch and the triangle where it seems to do ok would make decent firebreaks and thickets of the stuff are rather flameproof
the few that have been engulfed by my rainforest need to go

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 22 8:38 am Post subject:
It is sounding wonderful DPack and it's good to read that you are a happy bunny. Which you should be, all that work and you are now reaping the rewards of it all. Were you aware of climate change back in the 70's when you started your forest and was that the reason you started it?

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16006

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 22 10:40 am Post subject:
Well done. I agree about taking out the rhodi in the areas of trees, and perhaps more as it inhibits other plant growth. The only way I know of getting rid of it is to set Guides and Scouts on it for years; very effective. And it does burn as we used to use it on our camp fires once dead. I wouldn't recommend it though. Is that a Harts Tongue Fern? Hard to see from the picture.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 22 1:09 pm Post subject:

sgt.colon wrote:

It is sounding wonderful DPack and it's good to read that you are a happy bunny. Which you should be, all that work and you are now reaping the rewards of it all.

Were you aware of climate change back in the 70's when you started your forest and was that the reason you started it?

i became aware of pollution and legacy chemicals early 70's , and human climate change by the late 70's

not the reason i started this, i was testing a catapault with acorns, ten years later there were a few oaks, it sort of grew from there

it has got more technical over the decades and over the last 20 yrs i have tried to build in genetic resilience to climate change and diseases

that a few bits are back to temperate rain forest(it rains a lot, it was about 90" a year when i was a kid, it still rains a lot)is wonderful

there are some exotics as well as more local things(no such thing as a uk native plant, they all arrived post ice age) for diversity in a changing world

some have come further and faster than others

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 22 1:31 pm Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

Well done. I agree about taking out the rhodi in the areas of trees, and perhaps more as it inhibits other plant growth. The only way I know of getting rid of it is to set Guides and Scouts on it for years; very effective. And it does burn as we used to use it on our camp fires once dead. I wouldn't recommend it though.

Is that a Harts Tongue Fern? Hard to see from the picture.

it is the option used in some places , iirc it took about 20 volunteers and 3 rangers a day to remove one about the size of the big one that must go, i can murder it in under an hour, i has a few stems big enough to drill, fill and plug, after that it will die and rot(eventually), there are trees around it that will shade out any seedlings it has dropped as they are at the growth spurt stage

i will try ninja first, the suitable poison is in the post and will be filed in the shed until spring, timing matters with assassinations

i cannot decide about the R. in a couple of open areas, it has shown initiative where others feared to root

re the fern i have idea, i can tell ferns from mosses and liverworts and maybe name less than a handful

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 22 2:15 pm Post subject:
definately not harts tongue having looked at snaps i will go seek

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