Attingham Park Warden's Blog: Tree Felling

This post was written by Jess Darwin, our Academy Ranger, who has been putting in a lot of hours on the chainsaw for the tree felling project:

As some of you may have noticed some tree felling work has been going on near the Walled Garden along the Mile Walk and we can now report that the felling part of the project is now complete! The work has been carried out by our contractor tree surgeon, staff and lots of fantastic volunteers who are still clearing the site ready for the next stage of moving the timber. Though the work may seem drastic this felling was essential work and necessary for numerous reasons.

Firstly, proving that restoration is not just for objects indoors, this landscaping and tree felling is an exciting and important part of a long-term project to restore the walk to its original design as the first Lord Berwick’s Pleasure Grounds.

Alongside the restoration project for this area the trees were also causing the south facing wall of Walled Garden fruit trees to be shaded during the day, which isn’t good for the apricots, plums and other trees which need plenty of warmth and sunlight to produce their fruits in summer.

Carefully counted tree rings place the trees at an age of 72, so they were probably planted as coppice stools during WWII to supply the Walled Garden with bean poles and hurdle material. However, unfortunately the trees weren’t subsequently managed for coppicing purposes or allowed to grow properly for a timber crop and consequently grew tall and thin in a close group.

The trees that have been felled are all Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) but we’d like to stress that the felling was not due to the recent Ash dieback disease (Chalara fraxinea) as this work has been planned for several years and the disease is not present on the Attingham Estate.

The next big step in this project is clearing the timber off the site for processing into usable materials which will be put to good use by Attingham Estate. All the wood is used to help to support our sustainable woodland management through self sufficiency and firewood sales.