Share

Ticket to the future

Snowdrops after rain by Anna Tindall

In this blog, conservation trainee Anna reflects on the forestry season and looks forward to spring...

It is always a joy when the plants start waking up from winter; the first buds and flowers appearing to brighten our days, no matter how grey the skies - and, boy, have there been grey some days!

As February draws to a close, so too does the forestry season. The birds will soon be nesting, the bluebells are already poking up above the humus and the sun is starting to have a little more warmth to it. I’ve loved spending this winter working in the woods, learning and developing my knowledge and skills.

Trainee Anna coppicing

Trainee Anna coppicing

Fellow trainee Charlie and I attended a two day coppice management course before Christmas (more info on this is in Charlie’s blog), which was thoroughly enjoyable and informative despite being -4°C and our only shelter a rather low and smokey canvas hitched up on roundwood poles. Coppicing has a lovely peaceful rhythm to it - cutting the stems, laying them in drifts, picking up each one and dressing it out, making piles of different products and brash around you. After the clearing, cutting and bundling comes the felling of standard trees (as required to keep the canopy cover just right), the layering (to fill any gaps in the coppice) and laying the boundary hedge (if there is one). This is all part of the larger rhythm of the coppice cycle. Each year, you cut the next door coop (coppice plot) and then the next and so on until you are back where you started; this might be anywhere between five and 20 years time.

Similarly, we’ve done some ride management with the roving volunteer groups at several of our woodland nature reserves. This primarily involved widening existing rides by cutting scallops into the woodland edge through coppicing and clearing the understorey. This not only lets in more light but, as the scrub grows back, each stage of regrowth supports different wildlife. The flowering ground flora tends to peak in the second year after cutting, providing an abundance of pollen and nectar. As the coppiced stools and cut scrub grow back, the increasing height and density of the vegetation suit different species for feeding, nesting and travelling within. Our woodlands have management plans that outline work for a 10 year period. Each section of work carried out is like a jigsaw piece; it might seem patchy on its own but when you fit them together over a longer period of time they provide a cyclical flow to the habitats within the woodland, thus supporting diversity and health.

Trainee Anna with a chainsaw

Trainee Anna with a chainsaw

We’ve spent a fair amount of time using chainsaws and I’m chuffed to have gained my NPTC tickets (qualifications) in crosscutting, maintenance and felling trees up to 380mm diameter. This was something I wanted to do prior to applying for the traineeship but, having never used a chainsaw before, I wanted to learn in a safe environment from experienced people and that is exactly what I found here.  Andy, our team leader, Pete our trainer and Steve our assessor, have all imparted lots of knowledge and did an excellent job coaching us through our training and assessments. I had a feeling I would but I’ve been delighted to discover how much I enjoy using a chainsaw: the balance of skill, power and delicacy is thrilling. I also enjoy the look on people’s faces when I tell them about it with a big grin on my face!

It is important to me to have the skills to take care of the world around me. When there is so much devastation in every direction, it is empowering to be able to make a physical difference, however small.

I believe that the more we engage in the natural world beyond ourselves, the more balanced we are within ourselves. World peace is to me an abstract and unrealistic idea (oops, I guess that’s my beauty queen speech out the window) but inner peace is most definitely achievable; spend some time sitting in nature, watching and listening, and I reckon you might just find it.

I’m still not entirely sure what I want to do post-traineeship but I suspect it will involve a combination of practical work and supporting, engaging and encouraging others to find a deeper connection with their land and the other living beings within it. Developing this relationship between the land and people seems to me like a pretty fundamental requirement for a healthy and happy future for us all.

In the meantime, I have six months left of my traineeship to soak up as much information as possible from all the knowledgeable and experienced people around me. As I write this with the rain hammering against the windows, I’m particularly looking forward to spending time in our species-rich meadows, surrounded by the joyous rapture of summer colours and the warm sun shining down on us.

Leaving her previous career as an architect, Anna Tindall joined us as a conservation trainee to gain experience in the sector and to reconnect with the natural world.

Related blog posts