Today has been chilly but bright and crisp – beautiful conditions for working outside in the wood yard milling large Douglas fir saw logs into boards for log stores. These logs came from trees that were growing close to the edge of a stream. Although the trees looked magnificent and were growing well, their needles fall close to the stream making the water acidic. There is a National programme, particularly in Wales to improve the quality of the water in our rivers and streams. So these stream-side Douglas fir had to come down - even though one was 144 feet high and likely to reach the height of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square within the next five or six years. When we had finished milling, we bagged the saw-dust and delivered it to a nearby farm to be used as bedding for their cattle. These are some of the wide variety of tasks we get involved in when growing the trees long before we even think of manufacturing a log store.
If you look carefully in the first picture, you will see the stumps of three large trees than have been removed. The remaining trees are all broadleaves that are useful on stream edges. The second picture shows the bottom of a number of large Douglas fir trees that are too close to the stream in the bottom of the ravine. We plan to remove these trees later this year.