Over last winter and spring we carried out our first major operation in the woodland – construction of access tracks. We need tracks so that we can get into the wood with a tractor to start gradually removing the Sitka spruce trees. After spending a lot of time on planning, it felt great to start making some actual changes to the wood.
This was the first of three planned sections of access track. I wanted to build the proposed tracks in stages, partly to spread the cost and partly because it means we can use the first section as a sort of trial. It will show up any unforeseen problems with building the track, how well it performs when used and how the planned approach of winching trees to the track works as an extraction method. I will probably then modify the plans for the remaining tracks according to what we learn from this first section. Before starting work I had already worked out a route and had done the necessary paperwork, getting approval from the authorities for our plans (Forestry Commission and Highland Council).
The first job was to make space for the track by felling a corridor of trees along the route. I had tried to route the track in a way that avoided native trees as much as possible, so most of the trees we felled were spruce. These were snedded (side branches removed), cross cut to log length (either 4.9m or 3m depending on the quality of the log) and stacked ready for extraction. Felling these corridors made a big difference to the feel of the wood. We were opening up a dense, dark stand of spruce and letting light in. Instead of being enclosed, suddenly you could see through the wood and get a much better sense of space.
The timber extraction and track construction were done by a local forestry contractor. The steepness of the ground in several places meant that he needed to do some initial work with an excavator in order to get his forwarder in to pick up our logs. He could then extract the timber up to the next steep section before doing some more work on the excavator to give further access for the forwarder. The extracted timber was sold: good quality logs to a sawmill and other logs for woodchip.
Once the logs were all out the tracks could be constructed properly. They are fairly basic tracks just using the material that is available on site. Fortunately we have nice sandy gravel material underground that provides a good track surface. The main difficulties were crossing three wet sections. One of these has a small stream on the surface in winter so we were already aware of it. The other two were less evident on the surface but once the excavator had cut into the slope we realised that a lot of water was seeping through the ground underneath. The wet areas were dealt with by digging out soft material, replacing it with more solid material, creating drains and piping the water under the track. They made the track building take longer and cost more than originally anticipated.
The process of actually building the tracks felt rather destructive and initially the tracks, while neat, looked raw. However, over the summer and autumn the surface has bedded in and there are signs of grass and various woodland plants coming up along the edges. I don’t think it will take too long for the tracks to green up and blend in much better. It is also important to remember that although constructing the tracks has caused disturbance in the concentrated area of the track corridor itself, the benefit is that they allow tractor access into the wood. This means we can extract the spruce using a winch with minimal disturbance to the rest of the ground.
The other benefit of the tracks is to add diversity to the woodland. They break up the dark block of spruce, allowing more light into adjacent areas and more variety in the woodland habitat. There are now places where direct sunlight can reach right down to the woodland floor, creating microclimates and niches for certain types of vegetation and insect. I have seen bats flying forwards and backwards along the track corridors, presumably hunting insects, and I often see birds using these areas. The track edges are spaces where regeneration of a more diverse woodland can now begin and I expect they will very quickly be colonised by plants and trees. As this develops it will add complexity and richness to the woodland structure, which should be very beneficial to wildlife. It will be interesting to see how they develop.
The next stage for us is to start using our new access for timber extraction. Thinning of the spruce is planned for this winter and this will be the first test of the tracks!