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Thinning out small woods


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Hi to all on the land I have permission on there is a small wood section right in the middle which is very dense and some trees have started to fall. The canopy is very thick all year round and my thoughts were if I thin some of the woods in the middle would it provide me some better shooting and better wildlife aswell.

The tree work is not a problem as my best friend is a tree surgeon

 

Your thoughts please

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You don't say what sort of shooting you will be doing. Either way I would thin it out. If it's for a few pheasants, they like bit of sunshine and also means they have a take off area to get above the canopy. If it's for pigeon then it gives you somewhere to stand and have a fairly clear shot when roost shooting. A clear section will benefit lots of other species, I think you find more varieties of birds and animals near the edge of a wood.

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I cleared a lot here, it gave a lot of other plants chance which in turn meant more feeding. You just need to have a definite plan as to what and how much and why and agree it fully with the landowner (which I should do in written form).

 

Some stuff I hit hard and allow it to grow back in a more useful format without all the thick stuff at the base that provides nothing to any living thing

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Usually its a great idea anything to get more light down to the ground level and get more vegetation/shrub layer growing will warm the wood up and benefit holding/flushinng cover for pheasants and most other woodland species.

 

It may depend lightly wot type age of trees they are as well as will any thinning make it more likely to be windblown (depending where u are, soil and exposure) Possibly not such a good idea in mature soft woods but it will depend on ur site

 

Ask ur mates advice so when u go to the landowner u sound like u know wot ur talking about when u mention coppicing etc and make sure he's ok with it

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Hi to all thanks for your responses it's mainly for pigeon and wild pheasants and the majority of trees are firs

Oh I don't no if it makes any difference but there's a couple of bee hives just at the start of the woods appeared and I haven't had chance to ask if they are perminant feature now if so is it going to be a problem

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  • 3 weeks later...

" the majority of trees are firs "

 

If this is the case beware of opening the wood up to 'wind throw' (this is where the trees go down like dominoes in extreme weather). If they have grown up together protecting each other from prevailing winds the creation of holes or gaps can cause large scale losses. Dont want to panic you out of improving your shoot but also dont want you to cause problems. A lot depends on the geography, local weather patterns, age structure of the woodland, soil type and the amount of trees to be removed.

Im an Aborist and treesurgeon (with forestry backround) Has your tree surgeon friend seen the wood yet? If not it would be a good idea.

Creating clearings is generally beneficial to a wood but proceed with caution, keep us posted. MM

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