wannabe_keeper Posted February 4, 2014 Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 In a couple of weeks i want to start some work on improving our woodland drives on my little shoot. I am going to begin with some coppicing of the shaws and opening up flushing points. If i do some selective clearing am i likely to see much bramble growth naturally this year? If not then i am going to have to look and bringing in plants to provide extra cover in the shaws. If this is the case what is the best (or should i say the cheapest) plant to bring in the add cover to woodland for the benefit of holding and flushing birds. Any advice greatly appreciated. Harry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felly100 Posted February 4, 2014 Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 Is there any bramble at the moment?If so,it will romp away with more light. On our shoot(that I beat on)larch were thinned and left on the ground. It's a right palaver tapping through it,but with the brambles as well, it is excellent holding. Holly would be good,not a quick fix though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guss109 Posted February 4, 2014 Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 On a side note it would be worth seeing if you need a felling licence if your taking trees down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r1steele Posted February 4, 2014 Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 When you're thinning the trees out try and clear the brash into lines leading into your flushing points and try and raise it off the ground a bit with some stakes or heavy branches. Doing this makes it easier for beaters to work the brash and any thing that grows through it and it makes a type of roadway for the birds to follow into the flushing points. I would be a bit wary planting anything in your new flushing points to start with as you don't know if they are exactly as you want them until you have used them. Pheasants may have flushed good from them last season but changing the woodland can change how your birds will hold and fly from them. If you can, or are able to, try and find somewhere such as the forestry commission that are felling and ask if you can take some of the brashings and set them in your new flushing points in small cone shapes where you had considered planting and see how it goes before spending too much on planting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul223 Posted February 4, 2014 Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 We have a wood part of which was clear felled 5 or 6 years back, in places the bramble is deeper than I am tall ! I'd be more worried about long term keeping it in check Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 We have a wood part of which was clear felled 5 or 6 years back, in places the bramble is deeper than I am tall ! I'd be more worried about long term keeping it in check Brambles are a nightmare. There are a couple of drives on our walked up syndicate that we can't do as the brambles are so thick. If you took a dog through it, the dog would be in bits by the other side. We have a job this off season to clear some of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul223 Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 Ours has the best part of 110 acres that needs something doing to it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannabe_keeper Posted February 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 In the main wood I want to improve there is some good bracken and bramble growth in the centre which is the flushing point. This has come up over the last 3 years when a glade was cleared of tree's for horses to ride through the middle of the shaw. Now that doesnt happen it has left me with a lovely open and thick flushing point. However the rest of the wood is very very bare of undergrowth and mainly hazel, chestnut, silver birch and some larger Oaks. I have been advised from a tree surgeon to do some selective thinning of some of the hazel and chestnut to let light onto the ground and dig up some of the bramble from the centre (or elsewhere on the shoot) and heel them in throughout the wood to spread. I may do this and add some laurels here and there. I will also leave all the brash from what I do cut on the deck in rows leading to the flushing point as advised above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul223 Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 I'd be more inclined to promote the bracken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 I'd be more inclined to promote the bracken Totally agree. Bracken makes great cover for the birds during the summer time and it doesn't wreck beaters & dogs when it comes to shoot day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannabe_keeper Posted February 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 (edited) Do you think I can move some of the bracken as we have loads around the farm or will it just die if dug up and planted in patches throughout the wood? Edited February 5, 2014 by wannabe_keeper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 I honestly don't know, but if Bracken is already in place in the wood then it should spread. I think the spores can be spread by wind from time to time, but when the wood is opened up and more light enters it then bracken should spread if it is already in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rimfire4969 Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 Ours has the best part of 110 acres that needs something doing to it! I have a man and tractor who flails back our hedges around our fields, it also cuts brambles like butter. Rent someone like him for a few hours and get them to cut some paths through, they would be about 4ft wide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul223 Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 I have a man and tractor who flails back our hedges around our fields, it also cuts brambles like butter. Rent someone like him for a few hours and get them to cut some paths through, they would be about 4ft wide. Yeh were thinking something similar, we have 3 shoot members who own there own mini diggers, most of the wood is standing so I doubt a tractor will get in there, only the very dense areas are bramble free Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 If brambles are cut to leave an initial path 4' wide the annual incremental growth of the brambles will cover the path in one season. Better to cut it 12' to start with which in many cases is only two passes with a jungle buster. Referring to your post no. 8, hazel (Corylus avellana) can be cut down to 1' in height and in one season it can grow back 4' or 5'. Arrange to do separate areas each year thus promoting different levels of the understorey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r1steele Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 Yeh were thinking something similar, we have 3 shoot members who own there own mini diggers, most of the wood is standing so I doubt a tractor will get in there, only the very dense areas are bramble free Would it work if you could get the use of a mower to go on a quad? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r1steele Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 (edited) If you have lots of hazel I would be inclined to take some out but also try and 'lay' it roughly along the lines the beaters would be using. I wouldn't go crazy and try and get it neat like a good hedge but just lay some of it in lengths of a metre or so long from the edges of your flushing points back into the main wooded areas. As JDog has suggested you would be best off working it into promoting differing levels of cover each year as once you get it roughly where you need it it's just a matter of tidying it up each year. Edited February 5, 2014 by r1steele Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferretboy111 Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 My advice would be to draw out a plan on paper first- work out roughly where and what you have got and what you want. Work out whether you want it as a roosting wood or a drive- work out which trees are good for roosting and where you need flushing/feeding points. It takes years to get it all how you want it but definately plan with pheasants on the mind! I carry out months of woodland/habitat management on my place and things are beginning to take shape! Planted 15,000 trees/shrubs and all need maintance! Ps- Brambles are the BEST cover- just maintain them! They are free, hardy, allow for small flushes and pheasants love them! Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r1steele Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 My advice would be to draw out a plan on paper first- work out roughly where and what you have got and what you want. Work out whether you want it as a roosting wood or a drive- work out which trees are good for roosting and where you need flushing/feeding points. It takes years to get it all how you want it but definately plan with pheasants on the mind! I carry out months of woodland/habitat management on my place and things are beginning to take shape! Planted 15,000 trees/shrubs and all need maintance! Ps- Brambles are the BEST cover- just maintain them! They are free, hardy, allow for small flushes and pheasants love them! Cheers! +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotslad Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 Mibbee different further south but bracken doesn't tend to stand to well further north esp after first frost, even with the mild year we have had this year braken has been as flat as a pancake for a while now and offers little holding/flushing cover unless fell ontop of something (brash piles). The quad cutters i have used i would imaging would struggle with big brambles, migt be better with some roundup to spray some tracks? Otherwise ur into chainsaws or clearing saws but a lot of hard work when doing it by hand U sould be laughing in 5 or 6 years time for walking/beating sticks if u coppice all the hazel, like others have said in an ideal plan u would cut each area every 15 or so years (depending on product) for hazel reating a mixtuer of canopy. Just a case of trial and error and learning wot suits ur woods best. Just be careful when using a chain saw and do wear the correct ppe, they can be dangerous tools even when only cutting small trees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannabe_keeper Posted February 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2014 The Bracken stands really well on my little farm. We have a bank covered in the stuff about 200 yards long x 30 yards wide and we make that into its own little drive. Shot the bag record off it season just gone with 22 pheasants in the bag (must have been upwards of 60 in there on that day!) Not really hard enough frosts down here this year to have killed it off but of course it does die back in the winter but still provides ample cover. Maybe I will try moving small clumps into the barer shaws and see if it establishes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lordripon Posted February 6, 2014 Report Share Posted February 6, 2014 our favoured planting is a mix of snowberry / privet /laurels/ lonicera / cotoneaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
figgy Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 Try to keep braes to smaller clumps as its hard on dogs and beaters. Nothing worse than bramble briars snaking through undergrowth for tripping you up, it gets a right grip of your ankle and its a struggle to get free sometimes. Far better cover available. Figgy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alycidon Posted February 12, 2014 Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 Plant Laurels, at about 4 years old lay them over as you would a hedge, then you get low level cover. they do need light though so edges of woods, clearings or to a lesser degree under mature hardwoods. A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Mongrel- Posted February 12, 2014 Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 (edited) If you start coppicing the hazel, I'll be after you for an armful of straight-ish ones for stick making.......just warning you. If you want a hand for a work party, just shout. Edited February 12, 2014 by -Mongrel- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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