Reforestation
What is reforestation?
Reforestation is the replanting of your forest after a clear-fell. Once your forest is clear felled there is a legal obligation to replant, and this must be considered before the trees have been felled in terms of cost. Forestry Services Ltd has many years’ experience replanting and maintaining reforestation sites to the highest professional standards at very competitive prices.
At Forestry Services Ltd we offer competitive rates offered on a per hectare basis for establishment and maintenance and ensure complete professionalism and experience from start to finish. We can also offer consultancy contracts in an advisory role.
What do we do?
We visit your site and review your felling license which will outline the size of the reforestation site, planting setback distances and which species is to be replanted and at what percentage in terms of conifer to broadleaves. This is 80% conifer to 20% broadleaf as standard. We will also look at any ecological reports as these may also contain conditions such as setback distances or other replanting requirements. Once all of this has been taken into consideration, we will draw up a replanting contract. This contract outlines our prices per hectare for establishment and maintenance and outlines the obligations of both parties during the replanting and maintenance process. Once agreed we organise the cultivation and planting of the site and organise maintenance for 4 yrs.
Reforestation process.
Cultivation.
In the establishment phase we start with cultivation. This is the process of cleaning up the brash (branches removed during felling) left on site after felling by stacking it in windrows. Windrows are 2m wide and are stacked in lines across the site. As conifers are planted at 2m x 2m spacing this means that we can plant a line of trees tightly to either side of the windrow and no productive ground will be lost. We do this by using an excavator digger to collect and stack the brash. The site may also need to be mounded, which is also done by the excavator and dependent on the site conditions. We use experienced subcontractors to complete this work to ensure quality and the process is overseen and managed throughout by the forester.
Planting
Once the cultivation process is completed, we plant the tree. Once we have ordered the trees from the nursery, we again use experienced sub-contracted planting crews. The crews are overseen and managed by the forester to ensure that planting is completed to the foresters plan and the quality of planting is maintained. We will plant conifers and broadleaves to a stocking rate of 2500 trees per hectare. If there is a high deer population, we will advise that to successfully establish these broadleaves they will need to be planted in tree shelters ,at a lower stocking at 4m x4m, to prevent the deer from browsing and damaging them and ensuring successful establishment.
Maintenance
After the site is planted, we offer a 4-year maintenance service. Maintenance of the reforestation is essential to ensure successful establishment. The maintenance process involves replacing any failed trees after the initial planting and controlling the vegetation on site to stop competition with the trees and as such aiding establishment and we also monitor for Pine Weevil. Pine Weevil are small beetles that will feed on the bark of newly planted trees. We treat the trees with a safe pesticide that specifically targets the Pine Weevil and does not have a detrimental impact on other insects within your forest. After 4 years all trees should be free-growing meaning that they are fully established and on the way to a healthy crop into the future.
