Brashing trees in an Experimental Plot
Image courtesy of Forest Research Newton, Elgin.
Very little is known about this image but John Keenleyside, Forres, thought it could be some of the pruning and brashing experiments being worked on by one of the staff. He goes on to say ‘This one is at Monaughty Forest I think and the chap with the saw came from Archiestown, his name was Paterson but not sure of his first name but think it was Alec Paterson’
This is a very good example of the work called ‘brashing’ whereby the lower branches were cut from the tree stems allowing good access and a clear view of all the trees. The branches were normally cut off up to just over head height and allowed to fall to the ground where they rotted away. This was often a job that was done in winter weather and there are instances when the forester returned to the site in the summer to discover that the trees had been brashed between 10ft and 4 ft due to the depth of the snow covering the bottom 4 ft of the tree stems.
A small hand saw or a special pruning saw with a curved blade as shown were the usual tools. The author does recall that in larch where all or most of the lower branches were dead a thick heavy stick was sometimes used to knock the branches off.
Can anyone confirm the name of the man above and recall any ‘brashing’ stories?
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We used a handy lopping saw, with a gently curved beech handle and an bolted replaceable 12" saw blade. The saw was used for thicker branches. Otherwise an upward sweep with the back of the saw blade would knock off the thinner, brittle twigs. Left ~ right ~ then 90ยบ shift, and repeat - giving you clean trunk up to about 2 metres.
Once you established a rhythm, you could clear about two-three acres per day. Piecework ~ a powerful incentive. But I was an amateur; I'm sure professionals could do much better . . . Comment left on 23 July 2015 at 10:46 by Wallace Traill