TREES POLLARDING


Land of the Giants P


Professional arborist, Patrick Baldwin discovers extreme pollards


ollarding is a term used to describe the beheading of a maiden tree


traditionally carried out during winter. Inspect the wound the following spring and you'll be able to identify buds starting to form, which evententually burst into long slender shoots. A couple of years later there's a lollipop of thick healthy regrowth. It was used as a form of tree management so cattle could not reach the regrowth, allowing a useful crop of fodder or firewood to be grown unharmed. Nowadays, it is not so common but there is still strong interest in certain areas of the industry. Generally speaking,


pollarding is practised on only a few broadleaf species. Forget it for conifers as stripping the foliage is likely to have killed them. Pollards in the UK are some of the best in the world, and the key broadleaf candidates are willow, oak, ash, beech and hornbeam. Due to durable species, conservation and good ongoing management, the UK hosts a fine array of well-preserved veteran pollards, and Burnham Beeches, the New Forest and Epping Forest, to name a few of many, are top sites for exploring these beautiful old beasts of the forest. But the practice is also


employed elsewhere. In the late summer heat of September 2012, four adults and one toddler packed into a Ford Mondeo estate for a family road trip. We chugged down to Portsmouth for a choppy crossing over to Santander and then spent a week touring the north of Spain. The second week was spent making our way through the south of France and heading north, arriving at Brittany for our return crossing to Plymouth. While driving through


the dusty twisting roads of Galicia, Spain in the pleasant evening heat, the road cuts into shady green woodland. My eyes suddenly widen into saucers and zoom in on dozens of gnarly old sweet chestnut pollards. As we ventured on with growing excitement they kept on popping up everywhere. It came as a huge surprise that we were to be surrounded by groves of fascinating pollards for the next few days. We had hit the pollard jackpot big time! There were more than the


eye could register; enough to make any tree enthusiast dribble and if you're an arborist driving round tight hairpin corners through precarious mountains you're in a bit of bother! I try to keep my eyes on the road but can’t help rubbernecking with goggling


Casteineiro de Pumbarinos (above) is thought to be more than 1000 years old. Chestnut fence posts being pointed in Crisotende with an axe (below)


eyes at every one of these wizened old veterans. Then I'm told off by my wife, quite rightly so, for putting my family at risk as my focus is degrading and I have started swerving like a merry old man driving home from the boozer.


Sweet chestnut foliage Eyes back on track we head for Cristosende, in the Ribeira Sacra. This region of outstanding beauty lies in parts of the provinces Lugo and Ourense. The rivers Mino and Silo run through the region in huge deeply-scooped-out valleys amongst mountainous territory. For the next few days we stay in a beautiful rustic cottage perched on top of a hill-top with emerald lake views, dusty vineyards and groves of pollards peppered across the vista. The dwelling is made largely from skilfully- placed dry stones and authentic sweet chestnut floorboards and beams no doubt sourced from very local pollards living just a few dozen metres away. Over the next few days I have time to explore the


08 Smallwoods New Year 2014


area, by foot this time, thank God! My understanding and knowledge deepens and I learn a lot through observation and curiosity. I also get the opportunity to interview a local. He tells me that quite often when repollarding, three of the straightest stems are left on to grow as timber, presumably for beams. I suspect this also benefits the pollard in that remaining stems acted as 'sap risers', ensuring the tree still has some energy production to put on new growth, and also shade that would help reduce serious water loss on freshly cut wounds. I get a real sense of history and an appreciation of the importance of these pollards to the local folk.


Regrowth The huge rounded barrels of timber stand proudly as long thick shoots of regrowth explode enthusiastically out of head height knuckles. These are hard as nails; veterans sculpted by ferocious storms, heavily laden by winter snow dumps, sun baked by thousands


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of scorching long summer days, torched by forest fires and on top of that, delimbed every couple of decades. Some of the more-withered specimens are knocking on heaven's door. Most of their limbs have died back into sun-cooked stag heads but amazingly enough just one heroic lifesaving limb stubbornly refuses to decease, sucking up enough soil moisture and nutrients through aged wooden straws to allow the show to go on. Magnificent hollow tree trunks covered with lumps and bumps slowly collapse and melt into the ground like candlewax. The dead may have lost the fight for life but show no signs of conceding the fight against gravity. These incredible hulks of weathered and gnarled timber tombstones stick it out in desiccated and acidic soils like gigantic chestnut fence stakes. Decades of Spanish sun has caused shrivelling, twisting up into tight-grained, contorted muscle wood now harder than nails, hulks that would bend nails into horseshoes and break chainsaws into two. Of


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course life goes on and these veteran pollards now offer unique habitat and shelter that younger trees cannot. Opportunist bats, owls, rodents, insects, lichens and fungi now rest comfortably in their specialist homes: cavity holes rot pockets, hollowed trunks and cankers to support huge quantities of life even when they have retired. Over hundreds of years


these working trees have filled thousands of hungry stomachs with their nutritious fruit: sweet chestnuts. Chestnuts were used profusely in Galicia and were eaten for breakfast with milk, roasted on the fire and served with pork and chorizo for lunch and dinner meals. The trees have been re-pollarded dozens of times and their timber has multiple uses depending on size and shape. Small diameter poles support strained vines heavily laden with grapes and ensured locals have been able enjoy delicious wine. The larger diameter straighter stems have provided strength and durability and make up


the skeletal component and flooring of dwellings. Smaller branch wood and odds and sods have kept hands and feet warm through chilly winter nights and provided fuel to cook up nourishing meals.


Low impact There is something that feels very 'right' about this kind of relationship of man and nature. A low-impact, symbiotic relationship that has brought increased biodiversity and vigour to the woodland ecosystem as well as providing vitality to man. I get a feeling of identity and completeness knowing that Carlos and Migeul down the road swung their axes on trees that their ancestors have already worked on for centuries, trees that they have climbed when they were nippers and trees that will support the generations to come. Producing timber that only had to be dragged up the road a few hundred metres by a couple of plodding horses. The sort of connection with natural local resources and nature that sadly most people I know and


have met in my life don’t get to experience and sadly don't really understand. Back in the UK, far too much timber is still imported from overseas on large fuel-guzzling haulage missions when in reality we have thousands of hectares of unmanaged woodlands that could provide a great deal of local economical, ecological and social benefits. The craft of pollarding has been somewhat lost in the UK. By recruiting more pollards as a form of good tree management we can increase biodiversity and prolong the life span of trees. Pollarding is always a consideration for me when advising woodland and tree owners as part of my business and I strongly encourage you to try and to explore this traditional craft and discover its importance in hedgerows, parks, woodlands and gardens.


Details Patrick Baldwin is a woodland enthusiast and owner of Gloucestershire-based Treeation: Tree Surgery & Woodland Management. Visit www. treeation.co.uk for more details.


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