Let the woods be wild woods

by Michael Smith (Veshengro), RFA, RFS, EcoFor

Time and again this call is heard from misguided and misinformed self-styled experts on the environment and other individuals when woodland management programs are instigated.

They will state that the woods should be left wild and that woodlands do not need to be managed which is, obviously, entirely wrong as there are no wild woods, where Nature “manages” the affairs anywhere in Britain and most of Europe. All our woods have been managed before at some time and thus, in order to thrive, require continuous careful management to benefit wildlife, the community and also the local economy.

The woods in Britain have been managed for thousands of years and until just after World War Two we did manage them well on a proper basis. However, ever since that time the management of our woods, small and large, has gone into serious decline and the woods have seriously suffered from this neglect in management.

If left to its own devices a woodland will become useless, not only on an economical term but also and especially on an environmental term. Brambles and bracken will take over, cut out all light to the woodland floor and thus there will be, in the end, no diversity. All that will be left is a tangle of brambles and other such plants and bracken.

Trees growing too close together will damage each other, create a dark forest floor with no life and, in the end, will destroy each other and die.

For trees to grow properly and thus being beneficial to all they need to be thinned out and good growth encouraged. This is a laborious task but one that benefits the woods and can also be of benefit to the local economy as the wood that has to be removed can be used by a variety of woodland- and wood workers.

Trees, and this is something that many of people also do not wish to understand, who all the time protest against the cutting of any trees, have a limited lifespan and some trees one that is shorter than that of others.

When a tree goes over the peak and begins the slow march towards death it stops becoming a carbon sequester and actually becomes a net producer of carbon dioxide. In addition to that the process of decay that also starts at about this time, rotting the heart wood, which the tree no longer requires, also releases methane; the latter being a greenhouse gas forty times more dangerous to the environment than carbon dioxide, and thus itself contributes to climate change.

Well managed and maintained woods, on the other hand, where there trees that need to are “culled”, if we may call it thus, are beneficial on all levels, and especially in regard to biodiversity.

Allowing, for instance, the once coppiced woods of Britain to return to “Nature”, as it is often demanded, will result, in a very short time, in the coppice stools breaking apart, for lack of management, and the woods turning into a wilderness that has is of no benefit, not even to wildlife.

That is why woods are managed, lending Nature a helping hand. Not by fighting Nature but by working with Her, and thus keeping and even creating a healthy balance to benefit all.

For thousands of years we have managed the woods in Britain (and in other parts of Europe) and we have managed them well. Only in the last half to three-quarters of a century have they been allowed to fall into serious neglect and disrepair and we must manage them once again, including those of our parks and open spaces, as our forefathers did if we do not want to lose them and the habitat that they provide.

The very biodiversity of the British woodlands is a result not of Nature alone but of people working with Nature to maintain a healthy balance to benefit all; wildlife and the community. Left alone those woods will become an impenetrable wilderness that even animals will shy away from.

When there still were wild boar and other animals now no longer in the British woods in our woods and forests brambles and bracken, and other such invasive vegetation, was kept in check. Today this is no longer the case and any woods, as can be seen so very often, allowed to return to “wilderness” turns into nothing but a wilderness devoid of almost anything bar those species.

A wood the trees of which form a closed canopy also does not allow for natural regeneration as the young saplings, if the seeds at all germinate, do not get enough light to thrive and without it they will simply die. In most cases the seeds do not even germinate for lack of sunlight and thus the floor will be devoid of anything, almost.

Only a well managed wood is a productive wood in all senses of the word and that is the reason that our woods everywhere must come back into proper management, a management that woks with Nature and not against Her and a good forester ensure just that.

For the good of the environment and the community all our woods need to managed again and managed well.

© 2013

Forest restoration and thinning operations

Forest restoration initiatives reduce wildfire risk and produces responsible timber

by Michael Smith (Veshengro), RFS, RFA, EcoFor

Forests that are overcrowded with small diameter trees are more susceptible to devastating wildfires, as smaller trees act as kindling to fuel the blaze and as veritable ladders that allow flames to reach the forest canopy. In addition to that the misguided practice of leaving tree crowns and branches as “habitat piles” (for the wildlife, as the greenies keep crying) creates even more fire ladders and thus danger of such fires. Furthermore those “habitat piles” also are a source of tree diseases.

Since 2010, high-intensity fires have burned more than 5 million acres of forest lands across the western and central United States. But prevention of forest fires spreading is only one issue that is being dealt with by thinning and other proper forest and woodland management measures. The other is to allow light in and also stop trees damaging each other.

What is forest thinning?

Thinning of woods and forests has nothing to do with clear-cutting, as some people think, and it is also not harmful to the woods and forests. The opposite rather. But often it is very difficult to get misguided greenies to understand and comprehend this because they have read and read books and such that claim that cutting down any tree of any size and age is bad for the environment.

Nobody wants to clear-cut the forests, as that would be rather counterproductive. But there is a way to thin the forest that is healthy for the habitat, healthy for the forest and protects the forest from catastrophic fires and also to create valuable habitat for wildlife.

A woodland or forest whose canopy is too dense does not allow enough light to penetrate for other things to grow and the same goes for too much undergrowth. Both are not beneficial for the woods nor the flora and fauna. But this is something that people often do not understand in the same way as they do not understand that paper is not bad either.

So, what good does thinning do?

To put it simply, when a fire moves through an overcrowded forest, in which trees are spaced very close together, small diameter trees act as kindling to fuel the blaze and as veritable ladders that allow the flames to move up into the forest canopy, causing widespread devastation that can decimate thousands of acres at a time.

On another level thinning improves the environment of the woods and forests and thinning out the small trees allows the bigger trees to grow stronger, better and healthier.

The woodcutters of the future are not clearing the forest, they are creating it. They are really the artists of the future forest. Every decision they make about what tree to cut and what to leave is something we'll be living with for the next 50 years.

But this has always been the case in proper woodland and forest management in Europe, including and especially in Britain.

Britain was once an island of forests – despite the fact that some wish to claim that the woodland cover of the British Isles was but a small percentage by the beginning of the year 1000 only – and the foresters and woodsmen have always had the best interest of the forest and the woodland in mind. After all it was also what made them money, but never by clear-cutting.

Reusing all that wood

In America in the '80s and '90s, forests were managed for timber and woodcutters went in, took out all the big trees and what was left was burned. What was once piled up and burned needs to be made into wood products.

There has also been a similar management, as regards to thinning in recent decades in Europe, in that most of the thinned timber was simply burned on site. Not so much, I hasten to add, where coppice workers were doing the work of thinning as to them any wood is being looked at as a source of income and this is the way it should be. Nothing, as far as possible, should be wasted.

Through partnerships with local businesses, small diameter trees like those being thinned must be reused for loads of useful applications, including furniture and housewares, fencing, cabinetry, pallets and even prefabricated homes and bridges. And where all else fails there is always firewood and charcoal.

In the USA thinned trees are also used to create oriented strand board (OSB), a popular building material that is also used for furniture and other applications. Wood pieces that are too damaged to reuse for these purposes are made into mulch, sawdust and pellets for wood-burning stoves.

We all have a stake in the future of our forests and our woodlands, but not everybody recognizes it. So, we help people understand the importance of that, but it's not enough just to create a sense of urgency. We want people to feel an understanding of what needs to be done, and provide them with an opportunity to learn.

Personally I have encountered misguided greenies who do not understand nor wish, it would seem, to understand that woods and forests need to be managed to thrive and this is a shame and with some of them even the best intention of enlightening them are, unfortunately, unsuccessful. But, we must continue this effort in the same way as we must manage our forests and woodlands in the proper manner for the benefit of everything and everyone.

© 2013