New Bridge

Collecting Trees at New Bridge

Today; I'm here, at New Bridge, which is a small hamlet on the Dart Vally in Devon, on a swamp tree collecting mission.

I suppose this bridge must have been new at some time, but I couldn't think of a more inappropriate name for it.  Maybe ancient rickety old bridge, might be better.  It is quite amusing watching huge camper vans trying to get over in in the summer.

Here the River Dart cuts into Dartmoor in a deep snaking gorge, which is mostly thick natural forest, that expands every year, as it spreads further onto the moors.

Allot of Canoeists and kayakers use this stretch of river at all times of year, as it is Southern England's fastest flowing large river, it has many small waterfalls and lots of rapids, so it is perfect for that sort of thing, of course; I come here for the plant life, which at this time of the year; means trees.

The view upstream from New Bridge

Willows and Birch

As you can see, from these pictures; there are litterally thousands of baby trees.  This little corner of this vast froest, was a conifer plantation untill a few years ago.  When they removed the conifers; the whole area seeded with millions of baby trees, mostly Willow and Birch, but with sizable quantities of Oak, Hazel and Alder aswell.  There is much thinning out to be done here and a seemingly endless supply of little trees to take away and plant further up stream.

The reason that so many trees have seeded here, it because, when the land was conifers, there was very little light getting down to the forest floor and therefore little to no vegetation, coupled with the fact that the site is surrounded by forest on three sides.  When the conifers were suddenly felled; the bare earth in full sunlight all erupted into tree seedlings, which now, some half a decade later, are just a tangled mass of competing saplings.

Just look how close together the little tree trunks are, to each other, on the caption above.

I just cut paths through this thick mass, which allows these trees to grow better and which gives me many trees to take away and plant.  To the right, I prune off the excess growth, down to strong healthy buds and stick them all in a plastic sack, to prevent the roots from drying out.  Below right; I carefully cut out a root ball around each tree that I take, to give it them highest chance of survival in their new home.

Dog Roses and Hazels

I have enjoyed a great deal of success with Hazels and Dog Roses in my various plantations on Dartmoor.  Both are tough enough to withstand the harsh conditions and both thicken up the edges and the underneath of a woodland beautifully.  In fact I would consider them an essential ingredient.

Dog rose hips are full of itching powder, which you can put down some one's back and it makes them itch.  The hips are there all winter, so they provide food for a wide variety of woodland creatures.  They also spread into a tangled thorny mass, which protects little trees from Sheep and other tree or bark munching herbivores, so I like to plant them with the trees I plant, to protect them, also the branches of the small trees, gives support to the Dog Rose, which is a kind of rambling, climbing plant and this raises it's procumbent branches out of the tall summer grass and into the light.

Dog roses spread vegetatively and, like brambles; the trailing branches root and form a new clump, anywhere they touch the ground.

Collecting Alders

 

Today I collected the first trees for year 11.  As I have mostly swamp left to plant; I have decided to come to this rapidly reforesting valley, on the edge of the moors, near Tavistock, to collect Alders.

You can see just how thickly they have seeded themselves here, from the above caption.  So they defiantly could do with being thinned out.  Very leggy ones, however are not very good and are best left.  The trick is to get them just before they get over shadowed, whilst they are still strong and bushy.  Leggy ones (if I get them at all) are generally planted two or three in a hole and  even then they often don't grow.

The ground here is so wet, that the young trees often just lift out, if gently pulled, with a great soggy root-ball attached, but some need to be cut round with the spade.

 The next thing I do is to trim off any leggy bits, down to nice strong buds.  I want the trees to be vigorous from the first year and not having to support allot of unnecessary branches after having their roots cut and disturbed.  I like to trim the trees back to just taller than the Summer height of the vegetation, where they are going to be planted.  In this case; these are destined for a reed swamp.  The reeds are about 0.7 metres high, so I'm cutting the Alders to about 80cm.

Keeping the roots from getting dry is crucial for success.  A large plastic bag, such as an old compost sack or heavy duty bin bag is best.

 A few bin bags full of young trees will fit nicely on the back of my motor-bike, tied on with bungees, but I will be able to collect loads more, when I have a car.

 Stashing Trees

 It is very important to hide the trees well.  I take them straight from where I collected them, to where they are going to be planted, put them in a quiet part of the site and them cover them in whatever bits of vegetation I can find.  In this case grass.

 Like this; they are unlikely to be seen by anyone and less likely to dry out.  Shown here; they are not immediately obvious.  Usually I would hide them better than this, but no one comes in here, but me and the odd ornithologist.  After all; it's a swamp.