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Bridging the Gap

The felling of the Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian’s Wall has had a huge amount of media attention, from the discovery of the crime on 28th September 2023, the morning after Storm Agnes, to last week’s conviction of two men for the criminal damage to the tree. It’s not at all a woodland tree, but I think there are some important rural issues that are part of the story but which the media have mostly glossed over.

The Sycamore Gap tree in 2018. Used with permission.
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Gathering firewood

Yesterday I took the tractor and trailer round to gather some piles of firewood I’d felled and cut up in January and February. Some of these were right next to the rides and easy to get to, but a couple were way off any of the rides behind tangles of brambles and fallen branches. Despite this, I was able to get the tractor in by finding a roundabout route since it’s narrow enough to get through gaps and has enough power to get over smaller logs and stumps.

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“Woodlander” by Ben Law

Last year I finally read Ben Law’s book “Woodlander” from 2021. I’d read his “Woodand Way” (published 2001) and “Woodsman” (2013), and he is a prominent advocate for traditional woodland management and crafts. “Woodlander” is billed as “a guide to sustainable woodland management”. It’s a very good introduction to the subject and I think works best in mapping out all the pieces of the woodland management and ecosystems jigsaw, and giving people new to woodlands signposts about the more detailed advice they may need in practice. It’s also a pleasure to be taken on a tour of the subject by the man himself. On the strength of it, I got his “Woodland Workshop” and “Woodland Craft” books over Christmas.

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Taxing death

Since the new Labour government’s Halloween horror show budget last month, the farming sector has been in turmoil. Up to now, farms have mostly escaped inheritance tax on land and equipment, with a mixture of Agricultural Property Relief (ARP) and Business Property Relief (BPR). Suddenly, they are faced with a 20% tax on death after the first million pounds. They’re being told to give their property to their children, make sure they don’t die within seven years (or they will still have to pay inheritance tax), and find some way to fund their remaining years because if they carry on running the farm as before then HMRC won’t accept it has been given away at all. Or set up some complicated and irreversible trust or company structure to avoid it, with consequential and ongoing fees to accountants and solicitors to make sure they don’t fall foul of the ever changing tax rules, and hope the government doesn’t kick the stool away from that too next year.

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Woodlanders Facebook Group

Last week the Woodlanders group on Facebook passed the 10,000 members mark – and they sent us this rather garish image to use! Now is a good time to look back and think about the aims of the group.

It started back in February 2018 with the observation that Facebook had become the main forum where people talked about woodlands and forestry, with web boards and mailing lists dying out, and other big platforms like Reddit not getting a look in. But what was really striking was how people with a stake in woodlands and forestry were in “bubbles” and not talking to each other. Often, not even aware of each other.

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APF Exhibition

This week I went to this year’s APF Exhibition for the first time, held at Ragley Hall south of Birmingham. The APF is the UK’s largest trade show for forestry and woodlands, and has been running every other year since the 1970s, apart from a COVID break in 2020. Hundreds of exhibitors and tens of thousands of visitors. With £80 million of equipment on display last time, the emphasis of the event is naturally on “Big Forestry”. However, there are also areas for traditional woodland crafts including pole lathes, charcoal burning, and horse logging. Several major competitions are hosted by the event: in chainsaw carving, pole climbing, forwarder driving, and fence building. And there are stands for the Forestry Commission, the Royal Forestry Society, the Small Woods Association, and the National Coppice Federation. I managed to talk to quite a few people and also took the photos below.

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“Buying your woodland” video

This is the second of a series of videos for people wanting to own a woodland. It’s aimed at prospective buyers but some of the material will be relevant for existing owners too. In the first video I talked about how to find a woodland you might want to buy, what to look for when you read the description of the woodland and visit it in person, and then make an offer to buy it. Now we come to the legal process of paying the money and getting ownership, and trying to avoid nasty surprises along the way.

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“Finding your woodland” video

This is the first of a series of YouTube videos for people wanting to own a woodland. It’s aimed at prospective buyers but some of the material will be relevant for existing owners too. I bought my own wood, Century Wood, back in 2008 when the idea of individuals and families buying private woodlands was already becoming popular, with articles in national newspapers and on TV. Interest has continued to increase, with a corresponding increase in prices, in tandem with the general increase in rural land values driven by rising food and commodity costs. Subsequent videos will be about buying and owning your own woodland, but this first one is about finding a wood you want to buy. Please subscribe to the channel to be notified when the new videos appear.

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