paul standley
30-10-2012, 09:11 PM
So, here’s the thing, I looked over my shoulder recently and there it was, the last 12 months…so I thought I’d share with you my year, where I started, where I am now and where I might go next…
Out of my interest in bush craft, tools and woodwork and as a result of being made redundant in mid-2011, I decided to take some time off and learn a new skill, or several new skills to be precise that were aligned with bushcraft and woodcraft and starting with an introduction to woodland management. I’d often walked and camped in woodland without a thought as to how it was managed and decided that I’d like to learn more.
As I live in Wales I was able to secure some training funding under a ‘back to work’ re-training scheme called ReAct and this gave me access to training I could never have hoped to afford otherwise.
My journey started in the early autumn 2011 with an approach to Forestry Commission Wales to see if there was any chance of having access to a piece of local woodland where I might 'play' and practice the skills I was hoping to acquire in the months that would follow.
As many of you probably already know but I was about to learn, the Forestry Commission don’t exactly move quickly and so I had a bit of a wait during which time I was able to refine my thoughts on what I’d do if the FCW did grant me access.
I enrolled on a 3 day Woodland Management course with the Green Wood Centre in Ironbridge near Telford in Shropshire in November which was a real eye opener and from that point I was hooked…!
During several months of book learning, risk assessment forms, talking to others and discussion with the Forestry Commission and armed with what I’d learned on my first course, my early naive approach was honed into a fairly respectable proposal which included taking on the renovation and management of several acres of old redundant Hazel coppice in a 16 acre wood a few miles from my home in return for the right to use the harvested hazel and to work it within the wood in an outdoor workshop area that I would create. The coppicing, I decided, would be done in the old traditional way with hand tools only and this aligned with the FCW’s aim to try and encourage Dormice back into the wood.
There was only one flea in the ointment… I’d never managed a wood or done any coppicing and I’d never used any of the traditional tools…!
So I enrolled onto a 5 day coppicing course to be held in February 2012, again run by the Green Wood Centre in Ironbridge and tutored by the same guy who ran the Introduction to woodland management course I had attended in November. The Tutor was a professional Coppice merchant and Woodsman, well known and respected in Shropshire by the name of Larry (Laz) Jones and for whom who I have since developed the greatest respect.
Towards the end of January 2012 the FWC approved my proposals and I took over the key to the gates of the 16 acre wood on 1st February. I was like a kid in a sweet shop…! And eagerly awaiting the end of February and the start of the coppicing course.
Follow part 2 of my journey soon… Watch this space...
Paul
Out of my interest in bush craft, tools and woodwork and as a result of being made redundant in mid-2011, I decided to take some time off and learn a new skill, or several new skills to be precise that were aligned with bushcraft and woodcraft and starting with an introduction to woodland management. I’d often walked and camped in woodland without a thought as to how it was managed and decided that I’d like to learn more.
As I live in Wales I was able to secure some training funding under a ‘back to work’ re-training scheme called ReAct and this gave me access to training I could never have hoped to afford otherwise.
My journey started in the early autumn 2011 with an approach to Forestry Commission Wales to see if there was any chance of having access to a piece of local woodland where I might 'play' and practice the skills I was hoping to acquire in the months that would follow.
As many of you probably already know but I was about to learn, the Forestry Commission don’t exactly move quickly and so I had a bit of a wait during which time I was able to refine my thoughts on what I’d do if the FCW did grant me access.
I enrolled on a 3 day Woodland Management course with the Green Wood Centre in Ironbridge near Telford in Shropshire in November which was a real eye opener and from that point I was hooked…!
During several months of book learning, risk assessment forms, talking to others and discussion with the Forestry Commission and armed with what I’d learned on my first course, my early naive approach was honed into a fairly respectable proposal which included taking on the renovation and management of several acres of old redundant Hazel coppice in a 16 acre wood a few miles from my home in return for the right to use the harvested hazel and to work it within the wood in an outdoor workshop area that I would create. The coppicing, I decided, would be done in the old traditional way with hand tools only and this aligned with the FCW’s aim to try and encourage Dormice back into the wood.
There was only one flea in the ointment… I’d never managed a wood or done any coppicing and I’d never used any of the traditional tools…!
So I enrolled onto a 5 day coppicing course to be held in February 2012, again run by the Green Wood Centre in Ironbridge and tutored by the same guy who ran the Introduction to woodland management course I had attended in November. The Tutor was a professional Coppice merchant and Woodsman, well known and respected in Shropshire by the name of Larry (Laz) Jones and for whom who I have since developed the greatest respect.
Towards the end of January 2012 the FWC approved my proposals and I took over the key to the gates of the 16 acre wood on 1st February. I was like a kid in a sweet shop…! And eagerly awaiting the end of February and the start of the coppicing course.
Follow part 2 of my journey soon… Watch this space...
Paul