Woodland Management
The future of our landscape relies on effective woodland management, just as a garden needs constant maintenance and care to thrive.
Managing Woodland Effectivley
Woodland management is important to maintain the health of your trees. Trees must be thinned to grow well and invasive species like bramble have to be managed so that they don’t dominate other plants causing various issues.
We provide this service across the West Midlands, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, including Birmingham, Dudley and Solihull.
Woodlands that are maintained are more likely to flourish long into the future. By hiring the Tree Doctors to care for your woodland, we can help improve the surrounding nature by producing more ‘edge’ habitats.
What is Involved in Woodland Management?
Regeneration
Regular cycles of regeneration within a woodland play a crucial role in ensuring its long-term health and vitality. Introducing diverse tree species sourced from various geographical areas offers additional advantages; planting species well-suited to your site's future climate can help ensure the woodland's long-term sustainability.
Diversity
A monoculture woodland, lacking species diversity, can be particularly vulnerable to pests and diseases. For example, the devastating ash dieback epidemic highlighted the risks associated with having a single dominant tree species. By cultivating a diverse mix of trees, you can significantly reduce the impact of such outbreaks.
Pest & Disease
The presence of pests and diseases can significantly compromise the health and vitality of your woodland. By proactively addressing these threats, you can take a significant step towards restoring and maintaining a thriving ecosystem.
Woodland Management Types & Techniques
Pollarding
Pollarding is a pruning method where the upper branches of a tree are regularly cut back, promoting a dense regrowth of foliage at the top. The removed branches offer a variety of uses, from firewood and building materials to other coppice products.
Coppicing
Coppicing is a time-honoured woodland management system. It involves regularly cutting trees close to the ground, encouraging them to regrow vigorously from dormant buds at the base of the stump, known as the "stool." This process creates dense stands of multi-stemmed trees. The key benefit of coppicing is that these new stems grow back quickly, providing a sustainable and renewable timber supply, rather than relying on the slower growth and harvesting of more mature, thicker branches.
Tree Pruning
Formative pruning is all about guiding the growth of young trees to achieve a desired shape. The specific techniques and ideal shapes will vary depending on the tree species and your goals. Most native tree species, such as alder, ash, lime, oak, plane, rowan, and willow, benefit most from pruning in early spring. This is just before they leaf out, allowing their wounds to heal quickly. However, there are a few exceptions to this timing.
Felling, Thinning and Re-planting
A small woodland often contains trees all of the same age, so there is a canopy of the same height, casting a shadow that prevents ground flora or re-growth. A management regime consisting of felling, thinning and re-planting creates an edge ecosystem from high canopy right down to grass.
Woodland management can also improve the health of individual trees, via thinning and the digging of drainage ditches again a service our Tree Surgeons can provide. Woodlands that we have today have survived precisely because they have had an economic value to the local community- ‘the wood that pays is the wood that stays’.
There is more biodiversity where two habitats meet, for example, grassland and woodland than in each of those habitats themselves. We offer advice and services for tree mulching too.
The Benefits of Woodland Management
FAQs on Woodland Management
What are the responsibilities of a woodland owner?
Your primary obligation is to ensure that trees near public roads or footpaths do not pose a safety hazard. Regular inspections and timely removal of hazardous trees are essential. The Tree Doctors manage overgrown buses and reduce tree branches to maintain safe environments and promote the ecosystem’s health. Planting trees and shrubs to encourage a diverse ecosystem is also important.
What is involved in woodland management?
- Regeneration and promoting new growth
- Diversity in species of planting
- Pest & Disease Control
Contact Us
Get in Touch with our Chas-accredited tree surgeons today for a free quote!
Our services are tailored towards homeowners & commercial landscapes / public sector companies, offering a range of tree and hedge services, including but not limited to:
- Tree Pruning and Shaping
- Dead Wooding
- Tree Felling and Removal
- Stump Grinding
- Hedge Trimming
- Garden Clearence
Areas We Cover Include:
Belbroughton, Stourbridge, Halesowen, Kidderminster, Kingswinford, Bromsgrove, Harborne, Hagley, and other areas across The West Midlands
Working Hours: Monday-Saturday 6am-6pm
Our Accreditations
