Early mounding trial in Torridge Forest
Forestry Commission copyright image of Forest Research photographs courtesy of Glenn Brearley, Roslin Neg 18
Unfortunately the images are of poor quality but this series of photographs shows the earliest mounding trials using a Liebherr 901 excavator. These machines had been used for draining in felled areas for some time and someone (who?) must have come up with the idea of spacing out the spoil from the drains into dollops into which trees could be planted. The forerunner of current very common practice of draining and mounding.
In this experiment the bulk of the brash has been cleared and the excavator had some difficulty in tracking over ground with stumps and had to clear them in front as he progressed. The mounds or dollops were placed only to one side of a drain into plots 9 meters wide (his jib reach 3 mounds) by 16 metres long (8 mounds). No explanation is given for the 3 x 2 meter spacing. They trialled mounds from surface material (soft) and from the deeper clay (solid lumps) and marked the points where the mounds were to be placed. It is recorded that the operator was soon able to place the mounds accurately by eye alone. The PDF shows someone called D Lyons pointing out the mound positions. The mounds appear quite large by today’s standard but much else is very familiar.
Can anyone say if there was any earlier mounding work on restocking sites in Scotland?
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Groups: Forest Research, Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Other Vehicles and Machines