Tag: felling

April 29th – I made another call on my way home to check out the latest work on the heathland restoration on Brownhills Common between the Chester Road and The Parade, south of the Watling Street. Much local comment had taken of mass tree felling and carnage, so I was wary.

I needn’t have worried: The careful project continues to strip out most of the coniferous trees and saplings here, and standing upon a mound that was once a conifer plantation most of my view was now the varying greens of deciduous growth. Native saplings have been left, and the whole area opened up to the light.

Yes, there are tractor tracks on the main footpath, but other than that easily remedied damage, the work seems to be sensitive and in line with original plans.

You can already see the improvements in biodiversity and birdlife here, and that can only be great for the future of this wonderful heath.

October 9th – Up on Cannock Chase, I noted that tree felling had been underway at Berry Hill, leaving the landscape more open and naked than I’d ever seen it here.

People who know the Chase appreciate that like farmland, this is a factory floor, and that the wood grown here is commercially valuable and the reason the forest exists. So the felling doesn’t concern me.

The cut trunks in neat stacks were fascinating and smelled beautiful, and counting the rings, I was surprised to note some of these trees were over fifty years old.

All part of the cycle of a commercial forest.

February 23rd – I was grey and very, very windy when I headed to Chasewater, but it still felt springlike as it was very warm for the time of year. Chasewater was very choppy and largely deserted, but heading back over a drying-out Brownhills Common I noted the paths and tracks were already beginning to self-heal from the felling activity here a few weeks before. I also noted some great information signs, the most interesting point on which was that the felled wood was being used locally. 

This whole project has been beset by poor communications, and had some of this information been available at the outset, much of the hysterical reaction to the works could have surely been prevented.

Hopping on the cycleway at Engine Lane, I noticed someone has been hard at work there, cutting down the undergrowth and overhanging bushes and opened the whole track out – nice one. 

Wonder who was responsible for that? Whoever it was, I salute them.

January 26th – Reader Jeepboy contacted me this morning, noting that the heathland restoration work had begun on Brownhills Common and things were a bit lumpy. My curiosity piqued, I took a ride over the common west of The Parade to have a look. True enough, the conditions up there are muddy and wet – take wellies if you’re walking. But it’s interesting to see the landscape open out a bit.

Nothing much grows under the conifer plantations, which have spread widely. This threatens the historic and biodiverse heath, and the wildlife that thrives upon it – everything from red deer, who munch on the sedges and lounge in the low cover to the birds that feed from the berries and seeds of the broad-leafed trees here.

Whilst the clearance looks shocking, only selected batches of coniferous woodland are being cleared, and deciduous trees left to thrive. It’s interesting to see the landscape re-emerge here. Come some decent weather, the mud will soon dry out and conditions will improve – however, it may be some time before access from the A5 drains sufficiently… it’s the closest Brownhills has had to a lido for some time.

I know this work has been and will continue to be controversial, but I honestly think it’s for the best. It’s sad that the situation was allowed to get so out of hand that dramatic steps were necessary.