Forest Mensuration in Upper Mirkwood

Last week I carried out the first of GWI's Forest assessments. These assessments are intended to provide GWI with research based data concerning the suitability of a forest for inclusion in or use by the project.
A key component of the feasibility study concerns the provision of a reliable and sustainable supply of fuelwood for use in the glen. The wood currently standing in coniferous plantations up and down the glen could probably meet our needs for a very long time, if it were to be managed with firewood resource as a key management objective.
It is however one thing looking at a forest and saying; "There lots of timber in them woods, you mark my words"(a finger may be also pointed skywards at this point). It is another matter altogether to measure how much timber there may actually be.

 Lots of timber
This involves having knowledge of the mystic science of Forest Mensuration. Gaining such knowledge was perhaps the most boring bit of all the boring bits of forestry school. However once learnt and equipped (Clinometer, girth tape,distance measures, hard hat with visor etc) one can potentially survey, and then  estimate the volume of any given forest. There are various ways of doing this according to the age, value and previous management of the forest.
In the case of Upper Mirkwood with it being a single species (Sitka spruce), fairly homogeneous looking planting and me just looking for a rough idea of volume, I decided to put in 10 sample plots, randomly scattered through the woods. Each plot will have a radius of 5.64m (0.01ha)and within that radius all trees over 7cm will have their DBH (diameter at breast height) recorded and the top height of the tree with the largest DBH will also be recorded. Sounds fairly easy eh' - One question. Have you ever been in unthinned Sitka Spruce?. I would guess that most people have not and that the few who have, have either left soon going  "This stuffs horrible and spiky and jaggy and its really dark in here and oww I've just been jagged in the eye" or they have gone "Oh well, better get the mensuration done, oww, just been jagged in the eye- this Sitka must be the extra spiky kind etc"

The grim reality behind the green front line of a Sitka wood.
Each tree (in a sample plot) over 7cm mid diameter is measured with a girth tape "hug" that involves embracing the tree. Often the Sitka hugs you back, leaving affectionate little scratches on your hands and arms. In this wood the tress are not growing particularly fast and there are some areas where there has obviously been a problem with deer, as a result the canopy is just closing. In other areas the canopy has closed successfully and the competition for light has begun in earnest. Both for the trees who will fight for it all their lives and for me trying to read the girth tape in the dark.  

I really cannot understand why more people do not enjoy walking in these woods?

For the purposes of the project I am particularly seeking areas adjacent to roadside or on flattish accessible ground. This is mainly because it will  be a lot easier to extract timber from these areas. You have to start somewhere and a thinning going back from the roadside is a good place, not just for access reasons but also because the wind corridor that can be your forest road gains a more windfirm edge to protect the interior with. Mirkwood is an upland plantation and eventually I emerge, blinking in the light like a coalminer. 

Quite often in these plantations you will find the remains of old Sheilings or come across old roads or tracks. I have found little of that in here, but when I come out onto the top of the woods I find a few Sheilings, as always they are near to water.There are Stags on the open hill behind me and the weather looks a little changeable.

 B

Ben MC'kneehurty beckons, but I am working and must decline.

 Looking to the West.

Its downhill from here, with a few more plots along the way.