Working Woods

Woodland work after storms: make things safe, nurture regeneration, and aim for absolute zero carbon emissions.

We are part of a collective managing a 50 acre mixed woodland near our workshop. ‘Managing’ includes; thinning trees, dealing with invasive non-native species, nurturing natural re-generation to encourage resilience and bio-diversity, and spending time camping together.

Three Lawson Cypress were planted as a trio about 35 years ago (by the previous owner under planning rules) to provide a dense, evergreen and fast growing screen for the tractor shed. Each tree has a few strong anchor roots developed to deal with the prevailing westerly winds. However Storm Arwen had strong gusting wind from the north and the northern-most tree blew down. This left the two remaining trees even more vulnerable to future storms. In the image below the asymmetrical growth of the last tree can be seen. The side in the centre of the group has tiny branches but the outermost side has large heavy branches. The tree leant towards the tractor shed.

Asymmetrical cypress needs to be felled.

Felling this tree in exactly the right place, between surrounding trees (and away from the direction it would naturally like to fall) is a highly skilled job. Fortunately we have three foresters in our group. First the lower branches are removed. Second a rope is wrapped around the trunk about 10 metres from the ground to attach it to an anchor tree (a large old oak).

In the image below a strong metal wire (running through a winch) can be seen connecting the two trees. A wedge, called the mouth, has been cut from the trunk of the spruce and dictates the direction of fall. The wire is tightened with the winch to tension the spruce towards the desired direction. Next the chain-saw will be run round the opposite side of the trunk, like running a knife through the soft metal cover on the top of a wine bottle, but deeper, just enough to leave a narrow central section called the hinge. The trunk drops at the mouth and literally folds over the hinge.

There is a lot of clearing up to do. We can’t use this soft wood for furniture making. The resinous wood isn’t brilliant for chimneys either but we will gradually distribute it among us to mix with other firewood. The branches are cut into rounds and the soft needles are left in piles to rot down.

The open ground created will naturally regenerate with birch and hazel first (the pioneer species here) and after decades larger trees such as oak and ash would normally dominate, but both are threatened with new diseases. After much discussion, we will probably also plant some native trees. There will be debate about the merits of flowers, food and future timber. So perhaps wild apple, gean (wild cherry), hazel, blackthorn, holly and possibly a walnut who may like the warmer temperatures of coming decades.

In another part of the wood a birch tree has fallen over a path (below). As this is an inaccessible damp place, bounded by the river and a steep escarpment, this is natural native woodland with a dense scrub of birch, hazel, alder and hawthorn with an incredible under-storey of wild flowers, including marsh marigolds and orchids.

The brush wood is cut off and left in small piles to rot down. The trunk is left to create an archway for now.

Nearby two birch had their tops blown off. These fallen tree-tops provide food and a fantastic habit for numerous insects and a ready-meal for beaver who eat the bark. The carbon in the tree will be eaten by insects, micro-organisms, fungi, birds and mammals, and some will become soil, and some will be released back into the atmosphere.

The tree-tops blowing off punches a hole in the canopy and provides an opportunity for seedlings below to take off and establish. The standing deadwood will be left and will become invaded with insects providing food, and nesting places for birds and bats. Deadwood supports more life than a living tree.

Watching the sustainable and regenerative cycles in a woodland like this helps us glimpse the complex systems involved with air, soil and water. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air through their leaves, in the process of photosynthesis, and the trees store carbon in their wood. There is now agreement that burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) releases CO2 (carbon) and is causing climate change that threatens people, wildlife and ecosystems.

Urgent action is required to drastically reduce carbon emissions and there is currently great interest in using trees for ‘carbon-capture’ and ‘off-setting’ to achieve ‘net carbon-neutral’. However the thinking behind this is sometimes deliberately misleading. Rather than genuinely reducing the amount of carbon generated, a company may continue to pollute as before but say they are ‘off-setting’ through tree planting (as the future trees will store carbon), or purchase an existing forest (to say these trees cancel out the carbon they are generating), or even just buy the rights to claim that the carbon that will be sequestered (used) by an existing or future forest, is off-setting their carbon. These schemes may be a smoke and mirrors, greenwashing exercise. Many questions should be asked of anyone claiming to ‘off-set’ or to be ‘carbon neutral’. For schemes involving trees and forestry we need to ask who is planting or managing the forest? What trees? Where is it? What is the priority - carbon capture or well-being of local people and habitats? What is the land currently used for? Do we need it food production? Is the land a complex existing forest being cleared for damaging mono-silviculture? What land? There isn’t enough land on the planet to plant enough trees to off-set carbon pollution. What timescale? Trees take decades to sequester significant amounts of carbon and that carbon will be released if it is burnt or dies. It seems fraudulent, to claim the CO2 reduction, caused by trees growing without any support from that company. However schemes to support local people protecting forests under threat from illegal logging, would feel legitimate. We also need to compare the amount of carbon locked in by trees (over decades) to the actual amount of carbon being generated through burning fossil fuels or manufacturing processes over the same timescale.

Huge amounts of money are flooding into measuring tools, into land for tree planting, and into forestry to use for off-setting. This may distract us from the bigger and urgent questions; how to stop using fossil fuels now, how to reduce our demand for energy, and how to establish alternative sources of energy for heating, manufacture, transport, and living in the digital realm.

The UN Climate report published on 28 February 2022, concluded that climate change is impacting the world far faster than scientists had anticipated and that countries have failed to rein in their carbon emissions.

We can take personal responsibility to lower carbon emissions generated by our own life. We can look for genuinely lower carbon options for: building our home, insulating our home, heating our home; how we travel and the amount we travel; the food we eat; the materials and manufacturing processes in the stuff we buy; reducing the stuff we buy; and how our money is invested by banks and pensions.

We must aim for absolute zero carbon emissions, not net zero.