The Native Woods Co-operative (Scotland) Ltd

We are experienced woodland advisors with over 80 years of experience between us, and we combine this with a refreshing and pragmatic approach to helping woodland occupiers to work out what they should do with their woodlands and associated open ground. We all have wider skills than just woodland management and can advise on a wide range of farm, deer, river conservation and wildlife management projects. We are happy to hear from other who might be interested in joining us.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Tree coring

"Tree coring" provides an accurate guide to the age of an individual tree by extracting a small plug of material, allowing the rings to be counted without harming (or felling) the tree.
It's a really useful way of finding out a bit more about the history of a woodland. Dr Coralie Mills is studying the history of woodland on Loch Katrine, and Alan McDonnell & I went along to give her a hand and to brush up our coring techniques. This large open grown oak has grown fast and is, at first estimate, around 200 years old.

Here's Alan starting the core on another oak tree. This one has been coppiced in the past, and it's growth rate is much slower: first estimate is about 150 years old. Coralie is getting a gps fix on the tree location & completing her record for the tree.