Calls are made to protect ancient woodland in Hadleigh (From Echo)
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Calls are made to protect ancient woodland in Hadleigh
8:20am Monday 25th February 2013 in Local News
Councillor Norman Ladzrie is campaigning to protect Hadleigh Great Wood
SWATHES of trees have been chopped down at a prescious Hadleigh wood, leaving locals in tears.
Coppicing is being carried out at Hadleigh Great Wood by Southend Council, who own it, in an effort to manage the Site of Special Scentific Interest.
However, Norman Ladzrie, a Castle Point councillor, claims five to ten acres of trees have been cut down as a result of aggressive coppicing.
He tabled a motion at a special Castle Point council meeting on Wednesday, February 20 calling for talks with colleagues in Southend about what was being done to the wood.
Mr Ladzrie said: “I walk these woods every day with my dogs and meet many people over there. I have seen people in tears at what is happening and they constantly ask ‘what can we do about this?’
“The reason for this motion is quite simply so this council, which is the planning authority, get in conversation with Southend Council, Natural England and Essex Wildlife Trust to discuss this matter and come to some arrangement where coppicing is sympathetic with the woodland.”
He claimed tractors, brush cutters and chainsaws were being used to complete the works in “one fell swoop” rather than in stages.
However, Paul Jenkinson, Southend Council’s park’s technical officer, said the wood was re-coppiced on a 20 to 25 year cycle to encourage new woodland wildlife.
Mr Jenkinson said: “The stumps created by the coppicing will produce new shoots and re-grow. These stumps themselves can live for hundreds of years.
“Coppicing is highly beneficial to woodland wildlife. It enables flora and fauna to colonise new areas of the woodland by allowing light to reach the woodland floor.”
John Hall, CEO of the Essex Wildlife Trust, added: “Coppicing does look drastic when the trees and shrubs are actually cut at this time of year.
“The coppice quickly re-grows and this is partly what maintains the interest of these woodlands. Coppicing does need to be carefully planned and there is an approved plan at Hadleigh Great Wood.
“It does, in our experience, help to reduce the impact if coppicing is moved around the woodland compartments so that the coppiced areas are not adjacent and do not look so large.”
Comments(29)
Nebs
says...
9:03am Mon 25 Feb 13
saddo99
says...
9:38am Mon 25 Feb 13
Nebs wrote:And it doesn't grow on trees!
The council must have earned a fortune from this. Wood is a valuable commodity.
go get em
says...
10:04am Mon 25 Feb 13
Shoebury_Cyclist
says...
11:04am Mon 25 Feb 13
I See It All
says...
11:20am Mon 25 Feb 13
If the area is as large as he says it must have taken some days to do.
I still await the cinema in the old pub in Hadleigh that Norm promised last year, so don't expect much out of this.
John T Pharro
says...
11:27am Mon 25 Feb 13
A Dermot
says...
11:46am Mon 25 Feb 13
Ian P
says...
12:22pm Mon 25 Feb 13
John T Pharro wrote:Just the same way as the land in North Benfleet owned by Nottingham Council but Basildon Council are the Planning Authority.
The wood is owned by Southend, maintained by Southend at their cost, but Castle Point Council are the planning authority. How does that work?
John T Pharro
says...
1:26pm Mon 25 Feb 13
Ian P wrote:Thanks for that. Looks to me Castle Point have a better deal than you do. Just the mention of the word "land" conjurs up possible building. At least, having looked at the map most of Belfairs Golf course is in Southend and a bit and the wood west is in Castle Point and is a nature reserve which should afford it some protection from development. Why on earth would Nottigham Council want to own land in North Benfleet? Property like shopping centres yes because there is a return on an investment. What return is there on land other than speculation it would increase in value due to development?
John T Pharro wrote:Just the same way as the land in North Benfleet owned by Nottingham Council but Basildon Council are the Planning Authority.
The wood is owned by Southend, maintained by Southend at their cost, but Castle Point Council are the planning authority. How does that work?
AndyBSG
says...
2:05pm Mon 25 Feb 13
Storming1
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3:01pm Mon 25 Feb 13
AndyBSG wrote:There's a difference between "Coppicing" and "Coppicing with Standards" which is what Southend is doing. (See Natrual England SSSi) "Coppicing with Standards" is an industrial form of woodland management that is used to encourage growth in Hazel, Sweet Chestnut, Hornbeam, Birch for the use in various woodland industries; Hurdles, Bodging, Fencing, Charcoal with the Standards used for timber.
It seems the people complaining and 'in tears' don't understand what coppicing is and how it's in fact beneficial and an example of actually caring for woodland correctly...
All Southend does is cut down the trees and use industrial shredders to reduce the above trees into mulch. A complete waste of resources.
If you want examples of "Coppicing" go to Westwood or North Benfleet Hall woods where you can see excellent examples of "sympathetic coppicing" that encourages wildlife whilst retaining most of the hardwood standards.
Castle Point Wildlife Group, originally set up by Cllr David Blackwell, runs both these woods.
Storming1
says...
3:04pm Mon 25 Feb 13
http://www.castlepoi
ntwildlifegroup.co.u
k/page_1294761.html
Sim0n
says...
4:48pm Mon 25 Feb 13
Storming1 wrote:Coppicing is not done for the benefit of Wildlife it is originally done to produce a certain type of timber for manufacture of wooden structures or production of Charcoal. Now it is done to supply wood burners in peoples homes which is fine if the coppicing is done in a controlled manor and is thinned out again in a few years to stop a density of branches that will stop all light reaching the floor of the woods. The issue Norman is making is and was accepted by SOS Council that the contractor was to keen while under taking its work, in my opinion they had a contract and a time scale but did not want to keep moving his equipment so they forgot any management plans .
AndyBSG wrote:There's a difference between "Coppicing" and "Coppicing with Standards" which is what Southend is doing. (See Natrual England SSSi) "Coppicing with Standards" is an industrial form of woodland management that is used to encourage growth in Hazel, Sweet Chestnut, Hornbeam, Birch for the use in various woodland industries; Hurdles, Bodging, Fencing, Charcoal with the Standards used for timber.
It seems the people complaining and 'in tears' don't understand what coppicing is and how it's in fact beneficial and an example of actually caring for woodland correctly...
All Southend does is cut down the trees and use industrial shredders to reduce the above trees into mulch. A complete waste of resources.
If you want examples of "Coppicing" go to Westwood or North Benfleet Hall woods where you can see excellent examples of "sympathetic coppicing" that encourages wildlife whilst retaining most of the hardwood standards.
Castle Point Wildlife Group, originally set up by Cllr David Blackwell, runs both these woods.
Regarding the comment above about being previously coppiced you are mistaken look at the stumps, I walk these woods and these where mature single trunk trees .
Nebs
says...
5:37pm Mon 25 Feb 13
Sim0n wrote:I wonder how much the contractor paid for the rights to fell and remove all those trees.
Storming1 wrote:Coppicing is not done for the benefit of Wildlife it is originally done to produce a certain type of timber for manufacture of wooden structures or production of Charcoal. Now it is done to supply wood burners in peoples homes which is fine if the coppicing is done in a controlled manor and is thinned out again in a few years to stop a density of branches that will stop all light reaching the floor of the woods. The issue Norman is making is and was accepted by SOS Council that the contractor was to keen while under taking its work, in my opinion they had a contract and a time scale but did not want to keep moving his equipment so they forgot any management plans .
AndyBSG wrote:There's a difference between "Coppicing" and "Coppicing with Standards" which is what Southend is doing. (See Natrual England SSSi) "Coppicing with Standards" is an industrial form of woodland management that is used to encourage growth in Hazel, Sweet Chestnut, Hornbeam, Birch for the use in various woodland industries; Hurdles, Bodging, Fencing, Charcoal with the Standards used for timber.
It seems the people complaining and 'in tears' don't understand what coppicing is and how it's in fact beneficial and an example of actually caring for woodland correctly...
All Southend does is cut down the trees and use industrial shredders to reduce the above trees into mulch. A complete waste of resources.
If you want examples of "Coppicing" go to Westwood or North Benfleet Hall woods where you can see excellent examples of "sympathetic coppicing" that encourages wildlife whilst retaining most of the hardwood standards.
Castle Point Wildlife Group, originally set up by Cllr David Blackwell, runs both these woods.
Regarding the comment above about being previously coppiced you are mistaken look at the stumps, I walk these woods and these where mature single trunk trees .
I hate the police
says...
6:04pm Mon 25 Feb 13
everyoneh850
says...
6:30pm Mon 25 Feb 13
Come off it how can people cry over some trees being chopped down? If this is true then these people must be emotional wrecks. Dred to think how upset they get over the rain forest being chopped down. Must be bawling their eyes out if they ever watch the news bless their cotton socks.
Cosmo Spring
says...
7:15pm Mon 25 Feb 13
Soouthchurch59
says...
8:34pm Mon 25 Feb 13
Carnabackable
says...
9:21pm Mon 25 Feb 13
Letmetryagain
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11:04pm Mon 25 Feb 13
That is not coppicing, that is vandalism of the highest order.
Sim0n
says...
8:20am Tue 26 Feb 13
I See It All wrote:No promises have been made for Hadleigh.
If our Norm walks there every day then why didn't he say something while it was being done?
If the area is as large as he says it must have taken some days to do.
I still await the cinema in the old pub in Hadleigh that Norm promised last year, so don't expect much out of this.
Sim0n
says...
8:31am Tue 26 Feb 13
Letmetryagain wrote:Letmetryagain - I have to agree, coppicing has its place, but not in a Public Woodland to that extent currently underway in Hadleigh Great Wood, and by a company who are not being monitored. It seems to me that coppicing is being used as a means of cheaply managing trees within a woodland, by chopping to a stump then remove and sell the wood and then not revisit for 15 to 20 years, while we then lose a single trunk tree and have in its place get 5 to 10 small trunks instead which is not conclusive to a nice woodland.
As said, somebody is on a nice earner.
That is not coppicing, that is vandalism of the highest order.
HadleighBoy
says...
9:36am Tue 26 Feb 13
Cosmo Spring
says...
12:03pm Tue 26 Feb 13
HadleighBoy wrote:dog emptiers like to have something to moan about to justify their existence
I am a bit confused I have lived in Hadleigh all my life and this is no suprise to me. Coppicing has always been done. In Westwood and the Great Wood and Blefairs nature reserve. Why is this different I can remember great swathes of Westwood laid bare but it grows back. It is an ancient method of woodland management. what is the problem?
southchurchroad
says...
1:32pm Tue 26 Feb 13
When it gets done, it gets planned and executed by experts- Mr Ladzrie is clearly just attention seeking for whatever reason, and if he was a long term regular he would have seen the same thing happen multiple times.
Carnabackable
says...
3:06pm Tue 26 Feb 13
Diannah
says...
9:36pm Tue 26 Feb 13
Whatthe*
says...
9:42pm Tue 26 Feb 13
Carnabackable wrote:Deforestation you mean
Too many townie idiots, without a clue of what's good for this woodland, stick to your **** block paved driveways, and let us country folk get on with some forestry preservation.
SARFENDMAN says...
8:43am Mon 25 Feb 13