Snigger snigger

Last week I took on a week of forestry work with my friend Barbara Hadrill of Carnog Working Horses http://carnog.co.uk/


 
 
Barbara works 2 Welsh cobs, Billy & Tyler and undertakes a wide range of land management tasks from woodland/forestry management to harrowing, bracken & bramble control with a strong commitment to sustainability and ecological sensitivity.

The work was for Barlings Barn, a holiday business near Machynlleth, and largely consisted of thinning work within their conifer plantation on a steep hillside, the timber being extracted by the horses (known as snigging).

The trees are Western Hemlocks of between 15" & 20" diameter at the butt, planted on an aincient woodland site probably around 60-70 years ago. The end-use will be fire wood for the holiday business' woodfuel boiler, but one of the main drivers for the work was to allow more light to reach the woodland floor, thus promoting the natural regeneration of native tree species such as oak, ash and hazel. Eventually, through successive thinings & harvesting of woodfuel, this plantation monoculture will be returned to native broadleaved woodland, which will support many times the number of species of plants and animals.

Western Hemlock is native of the Pacific West coast of America. It has a much higher water content than many other tree species when it is felled. The timber is is prone to checking (splitting through shrinkage) as it dries due to the large volume of water that needs to be displaced, but is valued as it is quite stable with little tendancy to warp or twist. Grown in ideal conditions it can produce some valuable timber for interior cladding and detailed trim for windows & staircases etc. Here in the mountains of Mid-Wales however they have less value as timber trees. Actually, they have almost zero value ecologically either, save perhaps a couple of pairs of goldcrest that would happily also nest & feed elswhere. In my humble opinion, they are just taking up space that would be better occupied by a polyculture of native species that actually support our native ecological systems, and therefore I have no qualms about knocking them over. Plus it gives me chance to try out my brand shiny new professional forestry saw!

... AND have a go at horse logging / snigging my self, under Barbara's watchful eye. I'm very greatful for that experience.

Some of the trees were wider than the bar of the saw and fluted into wide buttresses which had to be removed before felling. I'm about to fell this tree to the left.

 

The purple strop is attached to a winch, which is essential to have in a dense plantations such as this. The tree was held vertical by the canopy of the others around it even after the feling cuts were made and my hi-lift wedges driven in.

Safely down, the next step is to "sned" the tree - to take the branches off. This needs to be done extremely thoroughly as any pegs left can plough into the ground making it hard for the horses to pull, and any missed branches will whip Barbara as she runs along side!

A well snedded log ready for extraction

The larger diameter trees weigh somewhere around 1.5 tons. They were cut into 15ft lengths to reduce their weight so that they could be dragged up hill to the track. This is one of the most dangerous tasks as the trees are on a 25 degree slope and are apt to roll or slide over the other logs at alarming speed. They're also under a lot of tension and compression which can make them behave quite violently when cut - you really don't want to be stood on the wrong side when they go!

The drive out was spectacular as ever. I really miss living in Wales.

ll