Deadwood

One thing that bugs me is clean and tidy woodlands where every piece of deadwood is cleared up and windblown trees are cut up. Wherever possible and safe to do so I try to leave deadwood either standing or on the ground (unless it has a ridiculously good grain worth using). For many organisations the term deadwood is used to include all types of dead and dying trees of 10 cm or more in diameter. This can range from whole or wind-snapped standing trees, fallen wood and stumps, through to decaying wood habitats on living trees.

Back during storm Doris, I think it was, I heard a hell of a thud and found an old lime had come down, across a public right of way. If only it had gone the other way it would have saved me a lot of work but instead the entire canopy had to be removed!

I could have planked this up (and it would have been fantastic wood for spoon carvers and box makers) but the tree was still attached to the root system and is still alive and producing new shoots along the stem as a “pheonix tree”.

Eventually, as the trunk rots away the old stump will remain as coppice and new trees will root along the trunk. You can even pleach the new growth and create a whole coppice coupe from this one tree!

It just goes to show that a fallen tree isn't always just 'deadwood'.

P.S. If anyone is having any problems clicking through to reading these blogs, or the images are coming up as pixelated, I'd really appreciate it if you could let me know. Everything seems to be working on most devices but there seem to be some where it isn't working too well, so it would be great to have any feedback from you on this. Thank you!