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WORD FROM THE
WOOD
The Steward Community Woodland Newsletter
Issue
5- Winter 2001/2002
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Our second
winter in the woods has
been very different from our first. This is
mostly thanks to the dry weather, our
large store of coppiced firewood and
improvements to our infrastructure and
personal dwellings.
The exceptionally dry autumn left us with
little power. It wasn’t until November that
our hydro system produced any
electricity and the stream dried up again
soon after. It’s back now, but barely.
Talking of the weather ,we were invited to
climate change conferences at both
Plymouth University and Torquay
museum, where we provided cycle power
displays and information.
In
November we joined the fun in
Moretonhampstead’s cabaret where
we performed our energetic Eco-Village
People medley. Somewhat reworded
from the Village People originals, the act
was a hit, especially with something
completely different as a finale.
We enjoyed performing so much that we
jumped at the chance to do it all again for the ToGG cabaret
in Totnes. If feel you missed out, fear not, we may strut our
stuff again at our 2nd anniversary party which will be held
at the woods on April 27th.
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On
the subject of repeat performances,
we are currently appealing against the
DNPA’s enforcement notice after the
failure of our appeal against the refusal of
permission. This appeal is proceeding by
written submissions rather than public
inquiry, mainly to keep costs down. We
are still looking for help covering the
£6,000 costs from the last one!
Could anything be more unpleasant than
planning? We found ourselves spending
loads of time and money sorting out the
end of year accounts for the workers
co-op. Not a pleasant experience. Advice
on making the process less costly next
year would be most welcome.
But what better way to shake off any
winter blues than a good party. We
celebrated the winter solstice and the
new year with friends, hydro powered
cinema and our new woodland hot tub.
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Winter
Work Update
Weekends at the woods have been
buzzing with activity and new faces as our
winter schedule unfolds. Thanks to all our
willing helpers, your assistance and
company has been most welcome.
The glade has a new soakaway and a
culvert below the waterfall. Various
bumps and hollows have also been filled
in, random boulders and half buried logs
removed, and yet more laurel cleared to
reveal more of the stone walls.
The area below the glade has been
prepared for the forest garden, where we
hope to start planting this winter. We have
felled some larch and cut back the ever
encoaching laurel to create space and
light for fruit trees and bushes.
The kitchen is undergoing yet another
metamorphosis with more windows,
improved seating area and an indoor
‘open’ fire. The next phase will include the
construction of a sleeping platform for
overnight visitors, a haybox cooker and a
hot water storage tank.
Our application under the Woodland
Grant Scheme is in so we should soon
have an agreement with the Forestry
Commission for felling and thinning.
Get
Involved...
There’s still plently to get involved with this
winter if you want to come along, help and
share skills. Please make sure you phone
first by the Wednesday evening prior to
the weekend to confirm arrangements.
Febuary 9th -10th Coppicing
Febuary 23rd - 24th Gardening
March 16th - 17th Tree planting
April 6th - 7th Gardening
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Imbolc
- February 1st or 2nd
This festival marks the lengthening days
and the returning months of Spring. Also
known as Candlemas, it originated in
Ireland as a holy day for Brigid, the
Great Mother Goddess.
It is a celebration of fire to symbolize the
return of life and the replenished powers
of the Sun. It is traditional for every
candle or lamp in the house to be lit to
welcome the return of the Sun.
Imbolc is an initiatory period for many
where the ‘seeds’ of hopes and dreams
for the coming summer are planted. |
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Rest
In Peace ...
Harry Pryke visited us twice with his dog
last November and came to watch us
perform at Moreton’s Cabaret.
We were all shocked and saddened to
hear that he had died on new years day.
We must have made an impression on
him because his friends and family have
sent donations to us in his name.
The money will be used to buy fruit trees
for the forest garden and a native tree
will be planted in his memory.
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Naming
Ceremony
A naming ceremony was held in the woods
following the birth in December, of a son to Kat, one of our
original members. A holly and a rowan tree were planted at Kat’s
former bender site, together with the placenta and umbilical
cord to name baby Kieran. Both parents spoke movingly about
his birth and their choice of names with Kat reading Kahlil
Gibran’s thoughts on children from ‘The Prophet’.
Other members made their own contributions and we are all now
looking forward to the birth of Beccy and Merlin’s baby
in March.
Your children
are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot
visit,
not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like
you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bow from which your children as living arrows are
sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might that His arrow may go swift
and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also
the bow that is stable.
from’The
Prophet’ by Kahlil Gibran
Double
Focus on Trees
Holly & Rowan
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Holly
was chosen to represent long life. Just
above Steward Wood stands a giant holly tree which is estimated
to be several hundred years old. Commonly associated with winter
festivities, holly is one of our few broadleaf evergreens. In
June it produces clusters of small white flowers and bright
red berries in the autumn. Most holly plants are single sex
and therefore lone bushes rarely produce berries.
The wood is a white heavy hard wood, good for turning and inlay
work. Holly ranges in size from small bushes to trees of up
to 60 foot.
Holly has been used as a folk remedy for a variety of illnesses
for centuries. Holly roots contain three saponins which have
been linked both to cancer resistance and improved immunological
effects for vaccines.
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Rowan
represents the rapid growth of
childhood and traditionally symbolizes beauty, privacy, peace,
sanctuary and determination. Its leaves are similar to ash leaves,
but despite the folk name ‘Mountain Ash’ it does not
belong to the ash family. It has also been named Witchbane,
partly because the berry carries a pentagram shape and was thought
to offer protection from evil.
The berries have been used as a laxative, a
gargle for sore throats, inflamed tonsils, and
are a source of vitamins A and C. However the seeds may be poisonous
to children. The bark provides an astringent for loose bowels
and vaginal irritations.
The wood is good for fence posts, boat building and walking
sticks.
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Steward
Wood - a description
Steward Wood stretches along the eastern
side of the Wray Valley. The southern part
is owned by the National Park Authority
and is semi-natural ancient oak woodland.
Our 32 acres contains only a small corner
of ancient woodland and very few oaks. It
is predominantly mixed conifer, planted by
the Elmhursts (of Dartington) in the 1920's
as an experimental conifer plantation.
The wood is now fairly varied. On a walk
you can move from solemn grey spruce
through western red cedar, into bushy
Scots pine, hanging fronds of hazel,
dappled ash and finally out into tall, widely
spaced craggy larch.
The majority of the wood is well thinned
Japanese larch, through which much
sunlight falls, bringing up new saplings
and stool regrowth. There is also a fair scattering of sappy and
spiky sitka spruce.
At the centre of the wood, where the
streams gush over granite boulders, the
ash stand casts its rainforest shade and
here can be found a few veteran, towering
Douglas fir trees, possibly from the original
1920's plantings.
On the other side of the ash stand is the
Scots pine region. The close, tufty
branches fill the sky with dark green
shapes and hazel and elder writhe on the
woodland floor.
Down hill, an army of close Norway spruce
hold a silent vigil, overlooking the growing
area and the old railway track. The track
itself is host to many rare wildflowers, and
our highest concentration of oak trees.
The side of the growing area is also edged
with young 'christmas tree' Douglas firs.
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Our
woodland management plan
Last summer we published our first
Management and Biodiversity Action Plan,
which is an evolving document and can be
viewed in full on our website.
The overall plan is to remove most of the
conifers and encourage natural
regeneration to mixed broadleaved
woodland. We will start by concentrating
felling on the Japanese larch and
processing it on site. In the areas that are
opened up by the felling, young
broadleaved saplings - especially oak -will
be encouraged and protected. There
are already some semi mature ash trees
among the larch, so the canopy will not
disappear altogether.
We will also start to thin out the Scots pine
stand, particularly alongside paths and
around existing mature broadleaved trees.
The Norway spruce will also be thinned
out. The ash stand will be cleared of
competing sycamore and the ash trees
thinned out for craft materials, firewood
and timber. We will also be bringing the
hazel stools around the wood back into
coppice rotation. We hope to set up some
willow coppice near the back gate and will
be continuing to coppice ash for firewood.
It is not all work, work, work -at least not in
the low intervention zone - this area of
ancient woodland and its adjoining area is
part of a valuable wildlife corridor, so we
aim to minimise operations up there.
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What
is Coppicing?
Coppicing is a traditional form of woodland management that
has shaped much of the
UK’s remaining semi natural woodland. A coppiced wood is
cut periodically, and the
trees allowed to regrow from the cut stumps (stools). Numerous
shoots are produced
rather than one main stem and regrowth can be very fast, as
much as two metres in a year.
The practice dates back to Neolithic times. Evidence suggests
the Romans coppiced
large areas to fuel their iron works. By the Middle Ages coppice
was the most common
form of woodland management.
Traditionally woods were divided into compartments and cut in
rotation. Each would
contain an ‘underwood’ which was coppiced, and scattered
‘standards’ or timber trees.
Building and fencing materials and firewood were the most common
uses of coppice.
In recent years there has been something of a revival of interest
in coppicing. As well as
providing an environmentally sustainable source of wood and
creating a rich mosaic of
habitats, it also has the potential to bring some of our neglected
woodlands back under
management and to enable sustainable livelihoods, regenerating
the rural economy.
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Our
plans for timber processing
As
a group we have committed to avoiding the use of fossil fueled machinery
within the woodland. This means that we do not want to use chainsaws
or use vehicles for timber extraction. We could use horses to move
logs around, which is certainly a far more sustainable technique,
however as a vegan community we also try to avoid the use and exploitation
of animals. Therefore, when we wish to move logs around, we must do
it ourselves.
While this isn’t quite as hard as it sounds, it would not be
an efficient use of our time
and effort to drag logs down to the roadside to sell them as saw logs.
Further more, we would need to get a whole lorry load together by
the roadside within a short space of time for it to be economical
for somebody to come and fetch them.
Due to the scale and type of our management, it makes little sense
to sell logs to commercial saw mills. However, while we can’t
get the wood to a sawmill, we can bring a sawmill to the wood! Small
portable milling equipment that can be set up at the site of a felled
tree is available to buy or hire. They efficiently turn felled trees
into sawn timber, which is much easier to carry than whole logs. The
timber can then be seasoned on site to increase its value. The sawn
and seasoned timber represents a significant added value compared
to the sale of logs.
Of course the sawmill itself needs energy and most are powered by
fossil fuels. Fortunately, there are other ways. The community at
Tinker’s Bubble power their sawmill with a steam engine that
they run using woodland ‘wastes’ and offcuts. We have looked
into how we could power a sawmill using renewable energy. One possibility
would be the use of bio-diesel
(fuel made from vegetable oil) but our preferred choice would be a
modified petrol engine powered by gas produced by wood gasification
(see our website for details). Such a system would be fuelled by the
brashing and offcuts resulting from the felling and processing of
the conifers.
Buying a sawmill will be quite expensive and we are researching the
availability of grants that might assist with the purchase. We hope
to have a small sawmill in operation at the woods for use next year.
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Deforestation
the global perspective...
by Ben
Forests
protect the soil against erosion and
reduce the risks of landslides, avalanches
and flooding. They affect the climate,
create oxygen and contain over half the
world's biodiversity. The list of benefits is as
long as your piece of paper and we also
use trees to provide materials for
stationery, construction, fuel, art etc.
Unfortunately the consumption of trees is at
present not sustainable - ie we will run out,
and choke/starve/freeze/fight ourselves
and alter the climate so that we and other
species cannot survive.
There has been massive deforestation in
industrialised countries and despite many
industrialised nations recently halting or
reversing the trend in their own countries,
their demand for timber, pulp, and land has
remained. The World Resources Institute
reports that over 80% of the planet's natural
forests have already been destroyed!
Conservation measures in countries which
have already lost the vast majority of their
own woodland do nothing to address the
unsustainable consumption of resources.
They simply shift the problem elsewhere.
The majority world have a collective debt in
excess of $1,000 billion. The five countries
with the largest natural forest areas are
also among the world's most heavily
indebted countries and are under
tremendous pressure to cut and clear
forests to finance debt repayments.
Governments and businesses often blame
population pressure as being the major
cause of deforestation and imply that there
is little or nothing that they can do about the
problem. This red herring diverts attention
from the real causes: short sighted greed
exacerbated by globalisation and ‘free trade’.
The driving force behind the logging
industry is not local populations but
international demand. Imports account for
90% of this country’s timber use and are
forecast to double within 60 years. Such
demands could not be met even if the
entire country was planted with conifers!
Sustainable
Solutions?
While reforestation is obviously an essential part of any
possible solutions, simply planting
trees is not enough. Plantations are no substitute for the
rich diverse eco-systems of
natural forests. Likewise, while planting trees might help
to offset human carbon dioxide
emissions, it isn’t a solution to global warming (see
issue 2 of our newsletter). Emissions
of all greenhouse gases resulting from human activity must
be cut at source.
The remaining old growth forests stand no chance unless
global demand for timber and
pulp is drastically cut by modifying wasteful consumption
patterns, recycling more and
using less packaging, newspapers etc; reduced demands could
be met using local
resources sustainably managed with techniques such as coppicing
and selective fell etc.
Further’more, if the world’s remaining forests
are to be saved from becoming yet more
wood pulp, cash crops and cattle crazing, then the exploitative
debts burdening the
majority world must be dropped and the inequalities of land
ownership addressed. |
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The
Beef Connection
Livestock farming is another major cause of deforestation.
In order to meet the demands from industrialised countries
for beef, old growth forests are being cleared for cattle
grazing and for land on which to
grow cereals and soya for export as animal feed.
In the McLibel trial it was proven that McDonald’s
and other companies had purchased cattle from areas cleared
of tropical forests.
(see www.mcspotlight.org
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Why
we need Moor Trees - by Pete
The threat
of climate chaos alone should
give
ample reason for altering our
consumption patterns and for carrying out
broadscale reforestation. The good news is
that there are many networks across the
globe seeking to reforest the planet, and
Dartmoor is the focus of one such group.
Moor Trees is an active network of people
gathered around the idea of 'restoring
areas of wild, natural forest on Dartmoor'.
They aim to expand the ancient woodlands
by planting and encouraging natural
regrowth, and to create new woodland
consisting of native trees and plants.
They are specifically interested in creating
woodland for its wildlife and conservation
value as part of a wilder landscape and
recognise that some areas on Dartmoor
are not suitable for trees due to already
significant habitat and wildlife values.
Only 5% of Dartmoor National Park is at
present covered by native broadleaved
woodland and only a fraction of that is
ancient woodland, so there is much room
for improvement.
Moor Trees has several tree nurseries,
where future forests are moved in and out
of pots and generally fussed over. Contact
Stephen 01803 868742 to get involved.
There have been seed collecting outings
that met at Moreton allotments during the
autumn. If you would like to help out in the
future, contact Tim on 01752 661805 or
Lesley on 01647 441032 for more details.
Moor Trees also provide advice about
grants for tree planting and organise
networking events and conferences
alongside their more physical work.
If you would like to get involved contact:
Moor Trees - 5 Parkfield Road, Topsham,
Exeter EX3 ODR. Tel or Fax: 01392
876635 Email: moor.trees [at] ukonline [dot] co [dot] uk __________________________________
Reforesting
Scotland is another
interesting UK network. It brings people
together and produces an impressive
quarterly journal amongst other projects.
The magazine covers many areas, from
carbon trading to land reform, forest foods
to timber houses.
To get in touch - 21a Coates Crescent,
Edinburgh EH3 7AF Tel: 0131 224 2496
Email: reforscot [at] gn [dot] apc [dot] org
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Other
Woodland Projects
For nine years Ben Law has lived using
permaculture principles to look after
himself and the abundance of wildlife at
Prickly Nut Wood in Sussex.
His local ecosystem provides food and
shelter, and a variety of other useful
yields. Power from wind generators and
solar panels provides lighting and
electricity for a shower and email/phone
communication with the outside world.
He has had to steer his way through the
planning labyrinth but last summer he
finally won full planning permission for a
permanent woodland dwelling - a sweet
chestnut crook frame construction, with
straw bale walls, lime plastered and
weather-boarded in oak and chestnut.
See the book reviewed below for further
information about his project. |
Carolyn
Church and Hugh Ross
have temporary planning permission to
be resident in Rahaw Wood in
Northamptonshire. To provide a
sustainable income from their 30 acre
coppice woodland, they produce
furniture, charcoal, and other coppice
products, as well as running courses.
Details from Carolyn, 07785 536613 .
Meanwhile, in Scotland, planning
permission has been obtained for a
similar project at a 30 acre woodland at
Dun Beagal in Argyll. They are
processing timber on site with a simple
homebuilt chainsaw sawmill and solar
season the timber in a specially
constructed polytunnel. They run
courses, sell rustic furniture and are
working on mushroom cultivation.
Details from David Blair, 01700 811809
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BOOK REVIEW - ‘THE WOODLAND WAY
a permaculture approach to sustainable woodland management’
by Ben Law
We’ve
been very impressed by this visionary and inspiring new book.
It’s full of handy hints on creating and sustaining diverse and
healthy
environments while obtaining a variety of value added products and
providing secure livelihoods. It’s a pretty diverse book with
stuff
ranging from the creation of ‘natural’ swimming pools to
coppicing
and its products. He also argues the case for a new approach to planning
that
would facilitate the creation of permaculture woodlands for the benefit
of people, the
local and global environment. While rather pricey it is probably essential
reading for
anyone interested in sustainable land stewardship.
The book costs £17 from Permanent Publications
www.permaculture.co.uk Tel. 01730 823311
This
newsletter was brought to you by Affinity Woodland Workers Co-operative,
set up to encourage and enable environmental awareness and solutions
by providing examples of sustainable land use. We manage and live
at Steward
Community Woodland on Dartmoor where we try to practice a low impact
lifestyle,
utilising renewable energy, growing our own food and building our
own homes.
For more
information or to get involved -
Contact us to be added to our mailing list (either email or conventional).
You’ll
receive newsletters and information about upcoming courses, workshops
and work parties etc. Donations to cover costs would be appreciated.
You are welcome to take a walk in the woods at any time. If you would
like to visit the community (for either a short or long stay) please
phone us first.
To contact us......
Tel: 01647 440233 Fax: 07050 674467
Expensive rate mobile: 07050 674464
Email:
Steward
Community Woodland,Moretonhampstead,Newton Abbot,Devon TQ13 8SD
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