Access to Rhiwbach

[mikem]

Best to check if they have plans for replanting anyway

 

[Cantclimbtom]

Best to check if they have plans for replanting anyway

AFAIK, there are plans to fell non native trees (in country after arbitrary date of 1600, although not consistent as they don't seem to dislike Horse Chestnuts?) if they are located somewhere that in 1600 or before was wooded.

This means large areas of trees and includes big chunks of Gwydir Forest as well as Rhiwbach as already discussed. Again AFAIK... there are no plans to replant and the assumption is that it will naturally reseed with the kind of trees there were at 1600 such as Oak, Rowan, Elm, Ash, etc depending on the soil. This ignores the fact that the climate now and in future may not be the same as 1600 or the presence of diseases like Elm disease, Ash fungus nor changes like grey squirrels and many other significant differences.

I'm all for opening up clearings in monoculture forests and/or clearing scattered areas to plant deciduous, but the policy is fell large areas and hope for a 1600s ancient woodland to appear, possibly with Robin Hood skipping past wearing green tights

It seems a small number of people from the Woodland Trust (previously an organisation that did good for trees) decided this was THE way and despite them not being a statutory body seemingly set this as policy in Wales as well as England.

As an aside, the tallest known (measured by surveyor tape not estimated or guessed) tree in the UK is in the Gwydir but it's height and exact location is kept secret from NRW in case they prioritise felling of those stands. You couldn't make this stuff up!

It may be a few years before there's enough cover to obscure explorers in felled areas

/End obnoxious rant

 

[Stuart France]

Chomp. Burp. Sheep and similar critters just love eating seedlings. It would need fencing too - which costs.

 

[AR]

Deer in particular are a major threat to woodland regeneration - are NRW going to be funding marksmen to go out and cull the local herds enough to allow the saplings to establish themselves? Somehow I doubt it...

 

[Stuart France]

I guess it's a kind of "re-wilding project" and they'll just leave nature alone to compete with itself in the usual survival-of-the-fittest way. Probably lots of new little fir trees will pop up all over the place, considering what's in the ground already! As the top of the present forest is at alt. 400m they'll have a job to get any hardwoods to grow up there unless there is shelter.

But Cwmpenmachno/Rhiwbach is just the tip of the iceberg: there's a vast amount of other blanket fir tree forestry in the same valley and all the way north to Betws-y-Coed and Dolgarrog to shift as well if NRW's aim is to restore Snowdonia's former landscape rather than give up at one particular spot which looks difficult and relatively costly to harvest and not a great size. It might just be down to the economics rather than beautification.

 

[Cantclimbtom]

... ... It might just be down to the economics rather than beautification.

Getting a budget to subsidise the harvest of timber in harder places while cherry picking more economic spots too - all to help the environment - sounds like a nice little earner to me! No wonder various organisations are jumping on the idea.

I think the areas to be felled are ones located where ancient woodland is believed to have been once upon a time. The belief is that even if hundred years ago the sites retain remnants and so should be restored https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/pr...-restoration/how-we-restore-ancient-woodland/
It's kind of ancient tree homeopathy/vibrations

 

[Stuart France]

I've got a few baby trees in pots in my garden. Oak and sycamore mainly, the oaks being from my own acorns. Yes I know sycamore was brought here by the Romans but it looks attractive and passes officialdom's "was it here by 1600" test. My first oak tree from an acorn project is now a ton in size and took ~30 years. Very strong tree. Massive leaves. I can climb up to the top and stick my head out of the canopy to admire the landscape. Produces loads of acorns if anyone wants any to spread its good genes... Woodland Trust and NRW are you listening?