Low impact forestry in a small Scottish woodland
It’s autumn again – season of abundance in the forest. Shiny, colourful berries adorn trees and bushes, while mushrooms of many shapes, colours and sizes have emerged from the forest floor. I try to forage mushrooms when time permits, although it is a challenge to get to the mushrooms before the slugs and maggots do! […]
Spending time in Comar Wood on a warm, sunny May morning shows the abundance of life. Birds’ background twittering, picking out the calls and songs – chaffinch, goldcrest, willow warbler, song thrush, robin. Bluebells flowering in lush green spaces, together with other flowers – bugle, yellow pimpernel, wood anemone, violet. Insects of many kinds. It […]
Being in the woods makes me feel good – and one reason for this is the smells I encounter. To me, smell is an important way of experiencing the woodland environment. Just like the colours and forms of the forest, and the sounds of birdsong, smells change from season to season. Here in Comar Wood, […]
The autumn was a sad time in Comar Wood, as we learned that Steve, a long-term helper, had died. I hope he won’t mind if I write a wee tribute here to him and his contribution to the woodland. Back in 2022, when I returned to working in the woods after having the twins, I […]
While it’s great to have a passion and vision for transforming the spruce plantation in Comar Wood, progress is going to be very slow unless I can make it work financially. Through experiences over the last few years, I am realising the difficulties of making low-impact forestry in a small spruce woodland pay; but also […]
It has been a busy winter of felling spruce. I have spent my days being sprayed with resin and showered with sawdust. It has been hard work, challenging at times, but it has been enjoyable! Every time I come in after a felling session and remove my boots and chainsaw trousers, there is a substantial […]
The concept of Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) has always made a lot of sense to me. Intuitively, forests need trees. The fungi, plants and animals that live in forests need trees. So we should manage our forests to maintain tree cover and not clear fell large areas. Natural processes have evolved over thousands of years […]
While Autumn often appears to be a season of decay, the berries, nuts and seeds that appear on trees (and other plants) in abundance point to regeneration and new life. This year the rowan branches were drooping under the weight of the their berries, until big flocks of redwings and various other birds descended in […]
After what has felt like a very wet and windy winter, a milder and calmer spell of weather in mid-February brought an awakening in the woods. Frogs began their somewhat frenzied activity of spawning and could be heard croaking in the pond and ditch. Birds started to make their voices heard. Song thrush, mistle thrush, […]
And that’s another November been and gone. A beautiful time in Strathglass, where we live. What little sunlight we get in November is amplified greatly by the orange-gold of silver birch and larch trees, against the russet of dying bracken and the orange-brown of the oaks. This time of year the local landscape never fails […]
