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Is this normally what happens in a logging area? Take a couple of trees and utterly **** up the woods. The destruction for so little gain doesn't seem acceptable.
Will this area be all lovely again in a year?
It's certainly a mess up there and it's the first time I've seen logging in that particular area in over 30 years of riding around there.
That said, the youth hostel side and further to the west have all been regularly worked so it shouldn't come as a surprise.
Yes, nature will restore the balance and the pixies will restore the trails
Aye, sadly, thats the norm, the ****s leave a hell of a mess, it's vandalism.
The only positive I can ever take from it is that it's easier to see the lie of the land to build trails on, and none of the holier than though will be anywhere near you when you're clearing trails.
Modern machine based forestry work is a looming nightmare for sneaky trials I believe.
It leaves such a massive mess with all the brash intertwined and compacted that it'll take more than a couple of pixies to find the trails that used to be under it all.
We've lost a few trails of late at my local and I honestly can't see how I'd go about starting to revive the trails..
Makes me sad.
Makes me even sadder that they don't even make money on what they sell.
Brash is left to rot down for nutrients in the soil and to provide habitat for beasties
The trail pixies are already re-routing the sneaky trails (WITB etc) on Ranmore. It’s just part of riding in the woods
Picture is of the top of WITB which we eventually found.
Brash is left to rot down for nutrients in the soil and to provide habitat for beasties
Aye, commercial foresting operations are well known for their love of beasties, that'll be what it is.
Just like the open cast mining operations leaving vast holes in the ground for the newts.
Depends on the contract and payment. If the trails are recognised then there may be a piece in the contract to make sure they do as little damage as possible and reinstate once done. Most contracts though don't and the contractor won't as it costs them time and money.
Industrial forestry makes a mess. I enquired about a scavenger licence for some local stuff and was refused because the brash will encourage biodiversity. I laughed and pointed out that Sitka plantations are probably one of the least biodiverse places in the Scottish landscape.
We must remember that what we see as visual mess doesn’t really matter ecologically or commercially. Working (and non- intervention ) forests aren’t gardens and although they look “untidy “ the modern machine led approach (barring compaction but that shouldn’t be such an issue if the site is planned properly) where significant brash and shattered stems are left can be significantly better for biodiversity than the 1960s approach where every last stump end, branch, snag and twig was raked up and burnt to prevent insects harbouring in wood left behind. It looked tidier and I guess would have been easy to build trails through but gave little back ecologically.
We all need wood - see all the shed threads on here! We all like to play in our nations woodlands. Most modern woodland management companies are bound by the uk forestry std or ukwas etc to take account of ecology, people, communities, watercourses, archaeology etc when managing Woodlands. It’s not all slash and burn even if at first it looks like it.
If you’ve lost cheeky trails, try go chat to the forest managers. They might not even realise they are there!
The photo up there doesn't look much like commercial logging. Seems it is mostly broadleaved trees, not conifer. And looks like just a few small trees removed, while larger ones are left standing.
Looks like thinning to me. Maybe also selectively removing conifer & holly to restore to predominantly deciduous. Looks a mess but it'll recover as will the trails
Aye, commercial foresting operations are well known for their love of beasties, that’ll be what it is. Just like the open cast mining operations leaving vast holes in the ground for the newts.
In reality, I believe the areas being felled belong to The National Trust (in the photo) and Surrey County Council (about a mile further west on Ranmore). They both actively engage in careful management of the woodland to maximise a wide range of wildlife - including both newts and beasties. As the Surrey Wildlife Trust says about the logging: "There may be some silver linings for wildlife. Opening rides and glades will bring more light to the forest floor, so we may see more butterflies, orchids and other species benefitting."
We also need to remember that Ash dieback is a significant problem in this area, so the NT and Surrey Council are actively felling affected trees only a couple of miles away - although I don't know if that's a factor near WITB.
When we had previous felling on Ranmore the trail pixies (an important part of any singletrack ecosystem) soon resumed their work and trails quickly re-emerged from the mess. Only 18 months ago Petrol Pump (above Gomshall) looked a lost cause after logging, but now it's back to it's full glory, or even better.
But the bottom line is that the woodlands belong to their landowners and in most cases their purpose is periodic logging and wildlife management. We should be thankful that many of them are so tolerant of the excellent network of cheeky trails, rather than irritating them with unjustified complaints when a cheeky trail disappears for a few months.
For more info see: Surrey Wildlife - Ash Dieback
But the bottom line is that the woodlands belong to their landowners and in most cases their purpose is periodic logging and wildlife management. We should be thankful that many of them are so tolerant of the excellent network of cheeky trails, rather than irritating them with unjustified complaints when a cheeky trail disappears for a few months
Aye, I agree with some of that, I don't expect the stuff I ride in managed woodlands to last forever, however I do have an issue with the whole idea of land ownership and us thinking we're some sort of subservients (Though I accept you lot down south exist in a different way of thinking).
I use to have a vague feeling of guilt riding single track at Woburn as the trails are certainly a cause of errosion. Then I went through an area of beech that has been cleared. What's was I worrying about. It was like worrying about fingers prints on your windscreen then getting back to your car and finding some on has torched it.
Yup, what really grates is when they half rip out the native species on the clamour for the money crop, and just leave them like that.
Whenever we have had trees chopped at home I've always been struck by how professional they were.
My picture looks like a bunch of cowboys have hired the biggest digger possible and done doughnuts in the woods.
As a member of the National Trust I really can't consider any trail sneaky. .
My picture looks like a bunch of cowboys have hired the biggest digger possible and done doughnuts in the woods.
Surrey Wildlife: "Work will be carried out using a forest harvester as the trust said it is too dangerous to use chainsaw operators due to the possibility of loose tree material to falling on workers."
. We should be thankful that many of them are so tolerant of the excellent network of cheeky trails, rather than irritating them with unjustified complaints when a
Nope.