MROA Woodland Sub-committee

NOTES OF MEETING WITH ALAN MITCHELL, WOODLAND TRUST 3 FEBRUARY 2012

Alan Mitchell is the Site Manager, Central Scotland for the Woodland Trust. Alan spent an hour with Malcolm Alford walking through the shelter belt at the west side of the estate and inspecting all the big trees and the stumps of previously removed trees, with copies of Mike Stark report from 2010 and 2011. There was only time to inspect the big (>15m) trees in the attached map.

GENERAL
Overall he thought the previous forestry actions taken were harsh and aggressive. He thought painting numbers on trees was vandalism (Steve Milne of Edinburgh Council had made the same comment). Inspected the tree stumps and could see evidence of disease on a few stumps of trees already removed but thought some of those were not serious and saw no evidence of disease on others. He was critical of removing trees (such as 666) because they had dropped branches. He said that this was a feature of trees in extreme weather and they would recover from it. He thought that the gaps opened in the belt would put increased wind stress on the remaining trees. He was critical of lopping lower branches from many smaller trees. He said this was a commercial forestry practice that had the effect of moving the wind pressure to the top of the tree making it more likely to snap, and it spoiled the woodland cover at mid-height. He said that the risk from most of our trees was extremely low since they had no extra risk factor of impact on roads or property. Said it was acceptable to leave trees to drop branches or fall over in such circumstances. He said he could see no reason for some of the recommendations to remove. He said Woodland Trust practice was to inspect their own trees every two years for risk trees and every four years for non-risk trees. He recommended that overall we should inspect every three years, particularly ones with extra risk factor. He said it is bad practice to leave mounds of wood chippings because it suppresses ground cover: better practice to leave piles of branches/twigs for wildlife. He said if we were felling trees then we should keep some cut down trunks for wildlife habitat and leave monument stumps for wildlife. He recommended replanting small trees of 1m to 1.5m in height is better than taller saplings because they establish faster and will outgrow the saplings within 10 years. He recommended planting more oak and ash with some beech to get a better balance of trees. We have a lot of beech and sycamore already and he reckoned they self regenerate more readily in any case.

MROA Woodland Sub-committee

SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS
He made his own recommendations on the big trees that Mike Stark had recommended for removal or severe lopping. Tree No 568 Mike Stark Recommendation Remove Woodland Trust Recommendation Leave. Risk factor - if falls could reach road. Should recover from dropped branch. Leave Leave Remove but non-urgent. Evidence of ustilina fungus Leave Lop if want more light to cherry trees underneath; otherwise leave. Lop and leave monument pole. Evidence of ustilina fungus Consider lop. Risk factor could hit property Consider lop. Risk factor could hit property Consider lop. Risk factor could hit property Leave Leave

579 583 584 590 591 604 620 621 624 633 659

Remove Remove Remove Remove Remove Lop Lop Lop Lop Lop Remove

THE LONE SCOTS PINE - 700

He thought it was not as bad as looks, the damaged bark was recovering. Biggest risk was possible sub-surface damage by builders working around it. He would keep the tree but there is an extra risk factor because it is near the road. He recommends an inspection every three years.

Malcolm Alford malcolmalford@fastmail.fm