Episode 4 Tales from the Wild Wood

Britain was once an island of trees.

For 10,000 years, they have shaped our landscapes.

And we were once a woodland people.

We managed our forests carefully - cutting and coppicing -

and they thrived under our care.

But forestry has changed.

In the last century, plantations have replaced many of our woods.

Others have been deemed unprofitable and abandoned.

Can they survive in the 21st century?

Writer and woodsman Rob Penn believes so.

Here we go!

And for the next year,

he is taking over part of Strawberry Cottage Wood -

50 acres of unmanaged woodland in South Wales.

Oh, my God. I feel like I'm going into the jungle.

Can he bring this forgotten forest back to life again?

Spring has arrived in Wales,

providing new challenges to Rob's work.

He must decide which trees he wants to plant.

A tray of young oak trees and the future of this woodland.

And find a way of keeping them alive.

I don't believe it. Two squirrels. Two out of two.

He gets a surprise visit from a conservation expert.

To be perfectly honest, I'm nervous about showing it to you in case I've done something terribly wrong.

And can he make enough money to keep the whole show on the road?

You couldn't put that on the market as a commercial product.

-The world is full of that.

-OK.

The seasons are turning in South Wales.

The days are getting longer and new life is starting to stir.

With the leaves opening, Rob has made camp in the wood

to see what species have returned after winter.

Dawn...on my first morning camping in the wood.

It's spring. And the birds are in full song.

Rob is now halfway through his management of the wood.

Throughout the year, he has had experts come in to advise him.

One of them - biodiversity officer Gareth Ellis -

has returned to check up on his work.

So, Gareth, this is the area that I've extensively cleared,

it's where I've been coppicing the hazel through the winter,

it's where I've done most of the work.

I am, to be perfectly honest, a little nervous about showing it to you

just in case I've done something terribly wrong.

Really don't be. You've done a tremendous amount of work here

and this is exactly what I'd want to see

in this type of old coppice woodland.

Throughout the winter,

Rob has cleared a large number of hazel trees

in the top part of the wood.

Clearing these trees allows sunlight back onto the woodland floor

and enables new plants and seeds to germinate.

There's young ash trees coming through here.

These have been triggered into germination

by having the warmth and having the sunlight.

This wouldn't have happened if we still had that heavy shade from all this dense coppice around us.

So these have got a really good chance now.

Big open space above us, loads of light coming in,

they don't have to fight for the light or grow out,

and it's a tree that can last hundreds and hundreds of years -

-all beginning now.

-Great!

The changing seasons from winter to spring,

that's probably the most exciting time to be in the wood

because there's so much change going on.

And at the heart of all of that change

is the fact that the sap is rising.

And that manifests itself in an explosion of greenery,

which is just wonderful.

I suspect that, as humans, we're irresistibly attracted to

places where nature is still a force,

places where it's not passive,

and that is most obvious in the woodlands in spring.

This is great to see, Rob. All the ground flora are coming out.

You've got the bluebells there -

I'm sure you're very familiar with those. You've got wood anemones,

you've got celandines - all coming out early before the canopy

closes over the woodland, before all the leaves come out on the trees.

The flowers are here to advertise their presence to insects -

they can't do that unless the insects can find them.

That's why all of our spring flowers come out early in the woodlands -

they want to get their flowering done, attract those early insects

and do it before the canopy closes over us

in the next month or six weeks.

Having a well-developed flora like this across the woodland

tells me that this is a long-established woodland

and also that it's in quite a healthy condition.

This is what you want to see on the ground flora in a woodland at this time of year.

Gareth is able to read the history of the wood through its flowers.

And in the area of bracken and brambles that the pigs cleared,

he can also help Rob shape the future of Strawberry Cottage Wood

with a new planting scheme.

This was the patch last year where we were up to our necks in bracken.

-Exactly.

-Well, the pigs have made a massive difference.

They've cleaned all that bracken out.

They've turned all the ground over.

They've grubbed out all the root system

of the bracken and the brambles.

What we can see now is all these new seedlings and shoots

and plants are coming through.

So what can I be doing with this area now?

You've got a great opportunity here now to put some new plantings in of your own.

You've cleared all that rubbish out of the way,

you've got a nice, soft nutriful soil all turned over,

great for planting in, easy to dig in.

If you put some trees in an area like this, they've got plenty of sunlight,

but they're a bit sheltered from the trees that remain around them.

I reckon some new plantings would go really well here.

Having Gareth here in the wood for the day has been really great.

It's been a bit like having a school report in one sense,

and it's very gratifying to know that largely I am on the right track.

But, of course, spring brings new life back to the woods

and new life means new responsibilities -

more tasks, more work.

For the next three weeks,

Rob must work hard to keep up with the changes of spring.

Gareth has left him four bird boxes

to encourage more songbirds into the wood.

Going to tie this up without falling out of the tree.

There we go.

The bird box is up.

If Rob is to plant new trees, he needs to generate money to buy them.

His woodland must pay for itself.

Over the winter, he cut down a large ash tree.

Now it's time to take the logs to the sawmill

and find out whether it has any value at all.

It's been a huge effort and a significant cost

to get the ash that we felled here to the saw mill.

And really this is a focal point.

Now is the time when we're going to cut the timber up

and see whether or not it's really got any value.

Three buyers expressed an interest in the wood before it was cut up.

But the quality of timber lies beneath the bark.

It could all still be worthless.

Sawmill owners like Will Bullough

spend years learning how to separate good timber from firewood.

Right, Rob, so what I've done here is

I've divided these logs into two stacks.

These are the ones which we hope to put on the saw,

we think are worth it.

These are the ones we don't think are worth it at all.

-So, OK, what's that for?

-That's firewood.

-That's firewood?

In my book, that's firewood. They're mostly crooked, small,

they've got lots of little branches and knots

that were growing out of them.

You couldn't put that on the market as a commercial product.

The world is full of that.

This we'll put on the saw for you and mill it

and we'll see basically what we get.

But I'll have to say that we may find it a bit limiting.

-Really?

-Here's a sort of scar

which is a remnant of the healing of where there used to be a branch.

Here you can see what remains of the knot

which is where the tree was when that branch died.

That limits like mad the long, clean, straight grain timber

we were hoping to get out of this.

OK, yeah, yeah.

Decades of neglect in Rob's wood

has left the timber in exceptionally poor health.

Limbs that should have been pruned were left hanging,

and trunks that could have grown straight were allowed to branch.

So at least 50% of the timber that I had several nightmares

getting down and out of the woods and over here

is basically no good for anything but firewood.

That's a major disappointment. I mean, I should have left the bloody stuff in the wood

and just chopped it up and taken it home and burnt it on the burner, you know.

An investment of energy, time

and to some extent money which was all wasted. Great.

Until it's cut,

Rob won't know whether the timber has any use at all.

David Colwell, who three weeks ago bought some of the tree

to make into ash furniture,

has arrived to check on the quality of his purchase.

Will has decided he's going to cut David's timber first

and then this is obviously fairly important now

because the rest of it is not much good for anything.

So I'm praying that David's timber is going to meet his requirements,

he's going to be happy with it.

If you remember, what I was after was this fast grown stuff

and clean white. And it's definitely clean. When we look at it,

you'll see it's actually a little less fast grown than would be ideal.

-OK.

-But it's nice and clean.

-We'll have a quick look, shall we, and see?

-Great.

This is lovely and straight and clean.

There's a little bit of knots in the middle here,

but that's from when it was a much younger tree.

Despite that, you're happy?

This is going to be prototype chairs, this is going to be, and tables.

-Great.

-Yep, it's absolutely fine.

-So you'll take it away with you?

-I shall take it away with me.

-Fantastic.

-I shall definitely do that, yep.

With David satisfied, the other logs can get loaded.

The sawing process starts to reveal new secrets about Rob's trees.

OK, look, Rob. Here's a bit of something quite interesting.

This is the characteristic scar that's made by shotgun pellets

when they hit a tree,

rather than whatever it was they were aimed at.

-How extraordinary.

-And you can see there's a very straight line.

And just in there, which you can't really see very easily,

is a sort of corroded flattened little pellet.

And that took place, judging by the counting of the rings,

around about something like 25 years ago

-when the tree was about 20 years old.

-How extraordinary.

Isn't that lovely? A bit of history buried in...

Yeah, it's a little bit of interest.

Will's sawmill is different from most.

For over 20 years,

he's been promoting the use of British hardwoods

- sycamore, poplar and chestnut - as competition to foreign imports.

Trying to do this job out of native timber,

we are kind of up against it

because we have got to measure up against standards of

the same species that come in from the continent, often very cheaply,

beautifully grown.

Sometimes benefiting from exchange rates, sometimes not.

Both Will and Rob are on the same mission -

to try and find a way for our woods

to become a sustainable economic resource.

What might one do to revive interest in local wood for local people

and local timber markets?

I think the biggest challenge is going to be finding the people

with the knowledge to produce the end product.

There's a lot to know, needless to say.

And there are very few places where you can now learn that

because the milling business and so much of the British timber business

has faded away. But there are all sorts of different aspects

of British timbers which can be as good

and in some respects more interesting.

And we've got to try and get our trees up to the standard

where they compete with the imported trees for quality of management.

It can be done and hopefully it will be done.

It'd be a great shame if it wasn't because so much relies on it.

Britain has the second lowest woodland cover

of any country in the EU.

Only 12% of our island is forested.

Germany and France have around 30% cover.

Finland has 73%.

Today, we import nine-tenths of our timber,

a staggering 40 million tonnes each year.

We're never going to be able to supply

all of Britain's demand for timber with native timber.

We are the third largest importer of timber in the world.

We've been importing timber in vast quantities for at least 500 years.

Now that's a simple matter of geography.

We just don't have the land mass available to grow enough trees,

but we still need to find a market for British timber.

We need to find a place for that market alongside imported timber.

And, really, a British timber industry is fundamental

to the life and the health of our woodlands.

Back at the mill,

the quality of the timber has limited how much Will can cut.

Only nine logs make the grade.

Rob has earned £100 from his entire tree.

It's the end of the day. They've finished milling.

David has gone away happy with his timber,

but what's left is, to be honest, rather disappointing.

And that's because this ash tree wasn't well managed,

and that means that there's a certain amount of wood in here

which is just dead and useless.

And I was rather hoping there would be a lot more.

To rejuvenate Strawberry Cottage Wood,

Rob must do more than just clear out the old timber.

A new generation of trees can be planted,

helping create a diverse canopy.

This is the area where I've decided to plant.

And planting trees is something that

I'm going to think very carefully about

because what I plant could fundamentally change the nature of the wood.

When you're planting trees, you have to take a long view.

And like most of the human race,

it's something I'm not particularly good at.

More broadleaf trees are being planted now

than at any time this century.

People are beginning to realise their importance

for the British landscape and native wildlife.

In the last five years,

we have planted enough trees to cover the whole of London.

But how do we know which species are right for the woodlands of tomorrow?

To find this out, Rob is off to Oxfordshire

to get a tour around one of Britain's most guarded woodlands.

Normally, the public aren't allowed in here, Rob,

but come on in and welcome to Paradise Wood.

Jo Clark is senior researcher at Paradise Wood.

For 25 years, scientists here have been exploring

how our trees cope with the dramatic changes

that are predicted in our climate.

You're stood in the middle of an oak trial here, Rob.

Climate scientists have got a range of predictions that they use

that our climate is likely to be in the future.

So, by 2080, they're saying that our climate here is going to be

like that of Bordeaux in the south of France.

-And that's quite different.

-Yup.

But, for the trees, the biggest problem there

is going to be lack of water.

So, if by 2080, we're not getting that rainfall, we have to think,

"How are our trees actually going to cope with that different climate?"

What the work here has shown

is that trees currently found in southern and central Europe

are better adapted to our future climate.

French ash will grow much stronger than ash from Yorkshire.

But climate change could also provide an opportunity

for new species to thrive.

So, what we've got here is a walnut.

And we like walnuts because it grows quite quickly.

You can get a veneer butt of walnut in 50 years,

as opposed to oak, which is 150 years.

And, if you grow it well, it's worth three times that of your oak butt.

So the markets are there for the walnut,

but at present nearly all our walnut does come from overseas

because it's a very picky tree, it likes deep fertile soils,

and actually the British climate is a bit too cold to grow quality walnut.

So, I think maybe in 50 years' time

when the climate's that little bit warmer

we're going to be seeing much more walnut being planted successfully

to give a quality product.

But to have profitable timber in Strawberry Cottage Wood

will require Rob to think about more than just climate change.

What you don't know when you're planting your woodland

is what are your markets going to be in 50 years' time.

And forestry is like anything else. There are fashions.

What sells today may not sell in 50 years' time.

Dramatic swings in the timber market

have created some of our most iconic woodlands.

The great oaks in the Forest of Dean were planted for ship building,

but remained standing

when steel became the shipyard's material of choice.

In the 1950s, a thriving matchstick industry

led to vast areas of Norfolk being planted with poplar.

But this market disappeared almost overnight

when timber from Canada flooded our ports.

Our remaining poplar woods show how demand can shift

much faster than trees can grow.

The day after seeing Jo,

Rob picks up his trees from a local garden centre.

The choices he has made will determine the health

and productivity of the wood for the next generation.

It's planting day.

Really, this is a job for winter,

but I've spent a lot of time taking advice on what to plant

and I've got a wide variety of trees -

some which I hope will make for good timber in the future

and others which are just personal preferences.

And I'm very excited about getting them in the ground.

Rob is trying to future-proof Strawberry Cottage Wood.

Ensuring that it can provide useful timber and a thriving ecosystem,

despite the inevitable shifts in the market and climate.

So we've got 50 oaks, we've got some ash which we're transplanting

just from the wood next door, we've got some lovely grey alder

and some walnut which are trees which I happen to love,

and something a little bit different. And we've got some sweet chestnut.

Hopefully, it'll all be a very beautiful woodland in 50 years.

First tree planted.

Very exciting.

Rob has chosen to plant oaks as his main timber tree.

Ash will provide a ready supply of firewood,

and he has planted grey alder, walnut and sweet chestnut

for each of his three children.

So, following Jo Clark's advice,

we've got trees from diverse locations.

These oaks are from Somerset and Yorkshire.

The alder and the sweet chestnut are from the West Country.

The walnut trees are from South East Asia,

and so what that means is that

we are making at least an attempt to future-proof the wood.

By choosing trees from different locations,

Rob hopes to make this wood more resistant to disease and pests.

But he is unlikely to be around when they finally reach maturity.

It strikes me, planting trees here

that maybe someone will walk through this wood in 100 years

and think well of me,

even though they have no idea who I am.

And there aren't many things in this life

that offer such a prospect, which is...really nice.

So, I'm done for the day.

I've planted 75 trees.

Probably the most satisfying day in this wood so far this year.

And I just have to hope

they will survive.

Not all of Rob's trees will grow to their full height.

He will have to thin some out as part of his management.

But they will also be vulnerable to natural predators.

And in this part of the country one animal is the sworn enemy

of all woodsmen - the grey squirrel.

Jo Binns, who owns the wood Rob is working in,

has been battling grey squirrels for the last decade.

-Grey squirrels will decimate the trees.

-Really? What will they do?

They'll take half, three quarters of them out. They do serious damage.

I've seen oak stands where, you know, half the trees are dead,

totally destroyed. And without controlling the squirrels,

you're going to have a lot of damage.

I mean, I've been trapping for nearly four years now.

289, I think I've had. I caught 13 this week.

They just keep coming in as you trap them,

come in from surrounding woodland.

Over half of Jo's farm has been planted with native British species.

They have become a magnet for the local squirrel population.

OK, here's a classic example, Rob, of squirrel damage.

This is a birch tree, it's 14 years old.

Here we can see how the squirrel's taken the bark off

all the way around the tree,

and in doing so has cut off the supply of nutrients and water

to the rest of the tree, and it's died.

They take the bark off, get at the sap underneath it.

It's just food for them?

It's just food and it's very sweet - whether that's something to do with it.

And by taking the bark off, that tree is now dead.

Nearly every single birch has been damaged by squirrels.

I can see it here, here, here.

I reckon more than 95% of the birch got damaged.

Grey squirrels were introduced by the Victorians as a curiosity.

Originally from America, they have no natural predators in Britain.

Populations have exploded.

There are now over 2.5 million in our woodlands.

OK, Rob, this is the best way

of controlling squirrels in your woodland.

Live trapping of them in these cage traps.

Bait it with maize. That's set at the moment, so squirrel goes in,

treads on that plate and the door shuts, and the squirrel is in there.

There's a hint of the marmite effect about the grey squirrel.

I suspect for the majority of the population of Britain,

the grey squirrel is a garden or parkland animal,

an approachable part of wildlife.

But, for Jo and for, really, anybody who works close to woods,

the grey squirrel is public enemy number one,

which is why we're going to do this.

That's it. Two traps set.

Now we just have to wait.

Squirrels are most active at dawn,

and Rob rises early the next day.

It's the day after we set the traps, and I've got my air rifle,

I've come to see if we've caught anything.

We've caught a squirrel.

We've got TWO squirrels.

I don't believe it. Two squirrels - two out of two.

Leave it. Sit down.

I'm not an instinctive killer

and this is not something that comes naturally to me,

but I'm certain from what I've read that it's the right course of action.

Squirrel dead.

For the next four weeks,

Jo and Rob lay traps on a daily basis.

Squirrel number 25.

But spring is marching quickly into summer.

The new season brings its own responsibilities.

I'm making headway, but there's no doubt about it, it's very hard work.

Next time at Strawberry Cottage Wood,

it's time for Rob to make profit

from the timber he coppiced in the winter.

Strawberry Wood charcoal!

He explores other ways to bring people into his woodland.

-Awesome.

-Love it, love it, love it.

It's good, man. Good effort.

And even gets the family involved in some hard work.

Oh, no! Oh, stop it.

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