By the Session Leader:
“The sun’s going to come out today too,”
forecast our resident weather-prophet.
He had been right the previous week, so that was one reason for high hopes at
the session today.
The other reason was that the site warden’s briefing
began by saying that basically today we were going to “attack” willow. Some willow is good to have, but so much
willow that it will not let other plants get a look-in is not so great. Neither is so much of the stuff that it
blocks the sight-lines which make Mowbray Fields LNR a nice place to be for
local residents. These were the ‘views’
from the ‘hexag’ at the centre of the site at the start of play today:
‘Coppicing’ is the fancy technical term for the kind of
‘attacking’ we were doing today: cutting back young willow down to the level of
the stool, from which shoots regularly regenerate. It was easier work than the second time we
had cleared willow from these compartments (some years ago), just as it was
easier work the second time than it was the first time (many years ago). That first time was bowsaw work on mature
trees; this time it was taking out young growth, mostly with loppers.
Would the sun break through the early-morning cloud? For some time, it seemed uncertain. Eventually, however, there could be no doubt: there were definite shadows on the ground. And if volunteers experienced any difficulties
with the work (other than the fact that it was hard work), they seemed to be
mainly concerned with being sure of taking out the right kind of treelet:
“Is this really willow?”– “It looks more like eucalyptus to me.” [I don’t even know what a eucalyptus tree is. – Ed.]– “Well there are 15 different species of willow in this country, eg Goat Willow and Crack Willow. And they all have their different uses. Including cricket bats.” [The correct use of which can apparently be forgotten in adult life. – Ed.]– “But none of that kind of willow here?”– “No, though there are several different species just on this site. And, I don’t know, is willow the largest tree-family in the world? I wouldn’t be surprised if it were.”
Ed: sadly, I cannot supply a certain answer
to that last question for the blog.
Apparently there are hundreds of species of the genus Salix, but there appears to be no
consensus about what constitutes the family ‘willow’, and which members are
separate species. Most Salix is called ‘willow’; but some
narrow-leaved species go by the name ‘osier’, and some broad-leaved species
are called ‘sallow’.
Whatever the status of willow/osier/sallow in the world-wide league of tree-families, by session-end we had cleared
rather a lot of it from this small corner of South Oxfordshire:
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| Before |
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| Now you can see the park bench from the hexag |
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| Before |
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| A better view of the mature trees on site |
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| Before |
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| A good start to clearing a compartment for bio-diversity on site |
According to Wiki there are around 400 types of willow, mainly found in cool-climate regions of the northern hemisphere. Willows that were brought to Australia by European settlers, whether for purely sentimental reasons or with an eye to future cricket bats, are now regarded as a pest for their propensity to spread along waterways.
ReplyDeleteThe eucalypt family numbers over 700 varieties, encompassing huge differences in size and appearance. Most are native to Australia, except for a few that are indigenous to Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. One that I planted in our garden in Goring (for sentimental reasons, for Jean) "won't grow very big in this climate", said the nurseryman. Four years later we had to get an arborist in to remove it before it could begin to damage our house foundations.
Here endeth my antipodean intervention! Greetings to all and keep up the good work. Robert