This week we visited Currie Wood with your local friendly neighbourhood ranger Alan. We met at the new tool cupboard and armed ourselves with new axes and freshly rebladed bow saws and Ellie mini-bussed us skillfully to the woods.
We were briefed and tool-talked and began the fun jobs of ring barking and felling conifer trees, with the aim of opening up the canopy to let light in and improve the conditions for birch and oak trees that would otherwise be outcompeted by the greedy conifers.
Have you ever wanted to know how to get that natural pine fresh scent on your clothes, without the need for expensive washing powders? Its easy and effective simply using a sharp axe and enthusiasm you can get great results peeling back the cambium of trees. Ringbarking not only makes you smell great but kills off trees whilst leaving them upright so that you don’t have to deal with the complications of felling.
Complications John and Rosie can attest for, after cutting a huge wedge out of a tree with the Dirties shiny new felling axe and enjoying a smooth cut with the fresh bow saw blade they came into problems when the saw refused to go any further in, or come out the other way. The solution: bigger saws. Alan’s lovely two person saw brought the tree down with saw blade still embedded in the trunk, although not in the intended direction and somewhat caught up in the canopy. Tree felling is hard guys.
As ever the highlight of the day was the great lunch supplied by the foodies sat by the idyllic stream, soup and bread was enjoyed with a dessert of cake donated by Alan.
In all, much destruction was undertaken against the trees and we look forward to future visits where we might see the new green growth that we will have enabled.
James Bamkin
