I'm following a tree!

Last night I found out about an amazing project set up by a lady called Lucy down in Dorset who runs the Loose and Leafy blog

Basically she's trying to encourage people to 'follow' a tree in their local area, so that they can get to really know their chosen tree; when the buds break into leaves, when it flowers, whether certain insects associate with the tree, whether certain lichens prefer the chosen tree over others etc.

So in the spirit of things, I've decided to join in and follow my own tree. As this is a blog mainly focused on coppicing I thought that it was only natural to choose one of our most widely coppiced species in the UK; the European hazel (Corylus avellana).

My chosen hazel tree that I will be following throughout the year. 

The 2014 tree following project began in March, so I'm a little late to join, but from now on you can expect an update on my chosen hazel tree on the 7th of every month for about a year.

To start, I thought I'd do a little research into the ecology and history of the European hazel.

Fossilized pollen records preserved in peat suggest that hazel was predominant over much of the British Isles soon after the last Ice Age, appearing at roughly the same time as other wind pollinated trees such as willow, birch and alder (1). It's also likely that early Stone Age hunters and gatherers relied at least partly on hazelnuts for food. (1)

Onto it's ecology, the first thing that grabs my attention whenever I see a hazel tree is how it grows as a multi-stemmed tree even before it's been coppiced. Very rarely do you see a European hazel tree that's grown as a single stemmed example.

Though this is not the hazel that I've chosen to follow it's a great example of how a hazel tree that's never been coppiced can grow as a multi-stemmed tree. 

The hazel is monoecious, meaning that both the female and male flowers are found on the same tree (2), though the species is naturally self-sterile (i.e the tree cannot fertilize itself) (1).

This is the female flower of the hazel tree, a bud like structure with 5mm long red/pink styles. 

After a bit of research online it seems as though the hazel is extremely valuable to our native wildlife; Hazel leaves provide food for numerous moth species including the barred umber, nut tree tussock and large emerald moths. The flowers also provide an important early nectar source for a number of bumble-bee species. (2)

Widely known is that hazelnuts provide an important food source for the dormouse, perhaps less well known is that hazel trees also support a number of insect species (particularly caterpillars) that are also an important food source for dormice. (2)

Looking at the buds that are yet to burst into leaf show that the buds and leaves are arranged alternately. 

I'm really looking forward to keeping a close eye on this tree and watching it's development throughout the year. It'll be nice to really get to know the characteristics and the species interactions of a tree which I spend so much time working with.

Why not follow your own tree!? Check out the blog I mentioned earlier (Loose and Leafy) for more information about the project.

References:

1. 'The ever changing woodlands - the living countryside', Readers Digest, 1995, p63

2. http://www.rfs.org.uk/learning/Hazel, accessed on 09/04/2014

Sensitive timber extraction from pingos

Over the past few months I've been learning about the use of horses for the extraction of timber. Last week I had a chance to actually witness it first hand and learn about the type of situations when horse powered timber extraction may be the most appropriate.

In Norfolk we're fortunate to have a relatively rare type of habitat known as a 'Pingo'. Essentially, a pingo is a large pond or lake that is fed by an aquifer located below the pingo, a spring at the base of the pingo feeds it with water from the aquifer.

Unlike regular ponds and lakes that are fed by rainfall either directly into the pond or from the surrounding rainfall catchment, the water level of pingos can be high even during periods of low rainfall. However, pingos can also periodically dry up at times when the water level within the aquifer is low.

This ephemeral persistence of a pingo creates some very interesting species assemblages within the ponds. For example, the young larval stage of great crested newts are often predated by fish (such as sticklebacks). The drying up of a pingo will kill off any species that are unable to disperse into surrounding water bodies, such as fish. Therefore, predation of great crested newts is reduced.

One of the sites in Norfolk where a number of these pingos are present is the Forestry Commision owned Frost's Common, near to Thetford Forest. A recent project was set up to clear a number of the trees surrounding the pingos present on Frosts Common, in the hope that this will allow more sunlight to reach the pingos which will in turn increase the pingos value for biodiversity.

A pingo that has become overgrown with vegetation. There is a danger that left in this state, the pingo will completely silt up with leaf litter and be lost. 

Because of the inherant sensitivity of this site, it was decided by the forestry commission that horses should be used to extract the majority of timber from Frosts Common. This is where Mark Tasker of Wildwood comes in, as his horses have been trained to pull logs through the woods for timber extraction.

His horses are a cross between a Suffolk punch mare and a Cob stallion. The brown and white horse is just 2.5 years old and is still learning from the all brown, 5 year old horse. Because Mark is using the slightly less experienced, younger horse he explained that he is unable work the horses for as long in a day as he would like to. Though he also explained that his younger horse has to learn how to do the job at some point!

Interestingly the majority of the trees being felled are located to the southern side of the pingos being opened up to the light. This is because the Forestry Commision have a limit to the number of trees that they are able to fell in one season; felling to the south of an area will allow the most light into an area, therefore making the most efficient use of the felling quota.