By Jess Bradley, Assistant Woodland Manager Recently, we hosted a tree planting event in one of the woodlands managed by Nicholsons. Dai, Jess, Tom and Kieran from the Nicholsons Forestry team hosted the two day event where 1,000 native trees were planted. The planting day was in collaboration with Arval, a car hire company Read more »
Wood For The Trees is a series created by film-maker and outdoor educator Charly Le Marchant and Tom Barnes, who is the Managing Director of Vastern Timber. The series focus on the future of UK forests, covering topics such as rewilding, woodland creation, agroforestry, and much more. Our Managing Director, Liz Nicholson, recently contributed Read more »
By Katie Stevens Welcome to the sixth blog in the Forest Tree series. This blog will focus on the distinctive Scots Pine (Pinus Sylvestris). It is one of only two native conifer species here in the UK; it is also native across Northern Europe, Asia and Spain. Known as Scotland’s national tree, it was Read more »
By Harry Poole Nicholsons were recently lucky enough to spend a day visiting Burmington Farm of TR Tame and Son, which specialises in the cultivation and production of Walnuts. The farm has been established for over 10 years, with more than 1000 Walnut trees on their land, consisting of over 60 different cultivars. They Read more »
Article prepared by Sam Hargreaves, Arboricultural Services Manager The hottest June weather on record will not have been so welcome to our teams on the tools, in particular the guys and gals suiting up in chainsaw trousers, boots and helmets to undertake the strenuous work arboriculture requires of them. But Read more »
By Katie Stevens Welcome to the fifth blog in the Forest Tree series. This blog will focus on the densely tall Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata), shortened to WRC: a non-native conifer. Its foliage is flat and spread out into fairly even, alternating twigs of scale-like, oval leaves. It has a very glossy, dark Read more »
Over the last 30 years, trees have been incorporated more and more into the development process and are now widely recognised by Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) as a key consideration when deliberating over planning applications. Changes in legislation brought about the Tree Preservation Order (TPO) as a means of protecting valuable trees suspected to Read more »
By Katie Stevens Welcome to the fourth blog in the Forest Tree series. This blog will focus on the versatile Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus); a native broadleaf. It has soft, bright green, oval-shaped leaves that are deeply creased; although they are similar to beech leaves, they are much smaller, have a pointed tip Read more »
Following the launch of the DEFRA Prospectus in early February, Justin Mumford, Director of Consultancy, has prepared a short briefing note outlining a comprehensive list of land management options available through ELMs in 2023 and beyond, including details on the plans for the evolution of Countryside Stewardship and the Landscape Recovery Scheme. The Read more »
By Katie Stevens Welcome to the third blog in the Forest Tree series. This blog will focus on one of the minor productive tree species, the Wild Cherry (Prunus avium). A deciduous tree, it can grow up to 25-30m tall and has an average life span of 60-100 years; in the right Read more »
By Francois-Xavier Procureur Continuous cover forestry (CCF) is a broad term covering an array of silvicultural methods where the objectives are to permanently retain some form of canopy or forest presence. One of the primary methods used to achieve CCF is through shelterwoods systems, a method widely used for small-scale forestry in lowland England. Read more »
By Katie Stevens Welcome to the second blog in the Forest Tree series. This blog will focus on the toweringly tall Douglas fir (Psuedotsuga menziesii); a non-native conifer. It has soft, green needles with grey-white undersides; the bark is reddy-brown in colour, deeply fissured and cork like. Douglas fir is monoecious, meaning both male Read more »
By Katie Stevens Welcome to a new Forestry Wisdom blog series called 'Forest Tree'. Each blog will focus on a productive tree species that is commercially managed and grown in the UK. This simply means that the main objective for the woodland is to grow and manage trees to a good enough size and Read more »
By Mark Nathanson “The tree we want to plant today, for tomorrow, should have been planted yesterday.” In the winter planting season of 2021/2022, Nicholsons Forestry department and its contractors planted approximately 382,000 bare root trees across 88 sites. This how-to guide offers some of the best practice employed by Nicholson’s Forestry Operatives. When to Read more »
By Will Beament Increasingly in the contemporary world, Environmentalism is slowly being incorporated into every facet of modernity. Whether this is through policy via the encompassing umbrella of ‘Sustainable Development’, through direct-action following law, or simply through the desire of ‘grass roots’ change. Being in the industry of green infrastructure and designing Landscapes, one Read more »
Our newest member of the Forestry team, Clara, shares her experience of a day spent with our Forestry team. The day in question, falls as part of our large planting job in the grounds of Blenheim. This job was featured on BBC News over the weekend. Read the full article by clicking here... It's Read more »
By Annie Buckle Last year, we received a request by Great Rollright Primary School to help them realise their ambition of transforming a newly acquired piece of land into a Forest School haven for their students. After almost a year of planning and organising alongside our dedicated partners, the Berkley Reafforestation Trust, that dream Read more »
Tree pests and diseases are an integral part of a woodland ecosystem. Damaged, dying, dead, and decaying trees provide some of the most biodiverse habitat in this country for a wonderful variety of wildlife, from the exceptionally rare pseudoscorpion Larca lata only found on Oak in Windsor Great Park, to the more common examples Read more »
