Tree planting

For a long time now we've been wanting to increase the diversity of trees in the wood, and we've finally got round to it. This week we planted 15 assorted native fruit and nut trees (sorry, no chocolate trees to go with them...), scattered through the area we coppiced two years ago. Here's the packages as they arrived, and the wire mesh fence we bought to protect them from marauding rabbits and deer:
Each package had to be opened carefully, although the trees were pretty well packed with straw and shredded paper.
Inside, the roots were individually bagged to keep them moist:
We've chosen sites that get a good amount of sunlight to put them in, and we'll keep the coppice cut frequently near them. For each one we had to dig a hole:
and then get the tree out of its bag and plant it quickly - you mustn't let the roots dry out. Once the tree was in the ground, we spread some of the packaging straw around the base to help keep the soil from drying out, and hopefully slow down the growth of any other plants right near the tree:
While Tracy was doing most of the planting, I got busy with the chainsaw and felled a few trees to make stakes. We needed 60 in total, and although we'd made some a few weeks earlier, we still needed another 30 or so. I felled a few chestnut of an appropriate size, and made lots of piles of four stakes:
We then used the post driver to put the stakes into the ground and fastened the wire fence round them:
This will hopefully keep out rabbits and the worst of the deer. The wood looks slightly odd now with all these little cages in it, and also the adapted milk bottles sheltering self-seeded oak:
Hopefully in a few years we'll be getting some food from them, which we will of course share with the wildlife in the wood - I don't think we get a choice in that!

Autumn is clearly well under way when you look at the trees:
although we haven't had a frost yet - as soon as we do I expect the few remaining leaves will drop off. Autumn has also brought wind and rain, with results like this:
The nearer stool was dead, but as it fell it hit a live one and combined with the force of the wind pushed it over too. We'll fell them both over this winter, and allow the root plate of the live one to settle back into the ground, where it will hopefully recover.

Despite the heavy rain over the past few weeks, the seasonal streams in the wood are still not flowing - this time last year there was a waterfall going into the culvert under our main ride! I guess the ground is so dry from the lack of rain this summer that it is still acting like a sponge...

I'm back to one day a week for my desk job now, and my Dad's coming down to help for a few days next week, so we should be getting a lot done - I just hope the weather isn't too bad!

Mike

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Nov 2009 storm at Camber Sands

As you may know, the south of England and Wales have been hit by stormy weather yesterday and today. I thought I'd take a walk on the beach and get some video and photos of the sand storm that is always a result of a wind day here. So, here's the pics, and a video at the end - all taken with my mobile phone, as there was no way I was taking my camera out with this much airborne sand and salt water. Don't forget you can click on the pictures to get a bigger version.














And now for the videos - I nearly got caught by a wave near the end of the first one!


Mike

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News round-up

With both of us doing our "desk jobs" full time for the past couple of weeks, there hasn't been much to post on the blog. A few things have been happening though, so here's the news...

A few weeks ago we went to a wood near Ashford for a meeting of local coppice workers, organised by Esus Forestry. It was pretty wet, but fortunately this wood has an "indoors"!
It was a good opportunity to catch up with everyone and hear the latest news in the region.

We did actually get up to the woods a couple of times, but didn't get to take many photos, largely because it's been raining so much! My friend Alex came to visit, and we worked on creating a clearing in his wood so that he can bring his family to camp there in future. We even managed to make a couple of benches from the trees that were felled:
We also spent one day in our own wood, mostly tidying up stuff at our shelter and also making stakes ready for some tree planting we'll be doing in a couple of weeks:
At the end of next week we'll be back in Sweep Wood coppicing, and normal service will resume at this blog! ;-)

Mike

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IEA whistle-blower spills the beans on Peak Oil

The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.
...
In particular they question the prediction in the last World Economic Outlook, believed to be repeated again this year, that oil production can be raised from its current level of 83m barrels a day to 105m barrels. External critics have frequently argued that this cannot be substantiated by firm evidence and say the world has already passed its peak in oil production.

Now the "peak oil" theory is gaining support at the heart of the global energy establishment. "The IEA in 2005 was predicting oil supplies could rise as high as 120m barrels a day by 2030 although it was forced to reduce this gradually to 116m and then 105m last year," said the IEA source, who was unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals inside the industry. "The 120m figure always was nonsense but even today's number is much higher than can be justified and the IEA knows this.

"Many inside the organisation believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further. And the Americans fear the end of oil supremacy because it would threaten their power over access to oil resources," he added.

A second senior IEA source, who has now left but was also unwilling to give his name, said a key rule at the organisation was that it was "imperative not to anger the Americans" but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted. "We have [already] entered the 'peak oil' zone. I think that the situation is really bad," he added.

Read the full story in the Guardian

Also reported in the Telegraph...

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Where have the Peplers gone?

Well, nowhere really! We are here, just not been in the wood. Mike is working hard for the Ashden Awards and I am working on the Small Woodland Owners group stuff. Mike is doing trips to London and I am off to Wales and Chester end of next week. We are also eagerly awaiting the arrival of yet another nephew/ niece!! This will make number 8. I think we will never keep track ;-) While some are being born our oldest nephew is preparing for his wedding. Makes me feel ancient. .....

We do hope to get into the wood soon to do some more coppicing soon over the weekend sometime.
Tracy

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