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Registered Charity
1071012
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A study of practical tree pollarding
techniques in Europe - week 7 |
August
Helen Read's diary so far
Weeks 4,5 and 6 - click here
Weeks 1,2 and 3 - click here
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"At the beginning of August I started a three month study tour to find
out more about the techniques that are used in different countries for
pollarding trees. The aim is to find out information to help improve the
management of newly created pollards in Britain, especially in Burnham
Beeches, a Natura 2000 nature reserve where I work." |
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Week 7
Oak pollard cut recently leaving traditional sap riser
The chemin des Trognes in Voursay with Dominique Mansion and Jenny
Clark-Contreras (translator)
A typical view of the bocage in Orme with pollards in the hedgerow
Hornbeam pollard felled for the new motorway
Re-erected oak stumps
Huge beech pollard with girth of nearly 8m in the forest of Sare
Beech pollard in the forest of Sare
Oak pollard in the forest of St Pee |
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France and the
Pyrennees
The Second part of my pollarding tour started on 19th October when I crossed
the channel to France on an over night crossing to Cherbourg. First stop was
the ‘European Centre for Pollarding’ in the small village of Boursay near Le
Mans. I was met there by Dominique Mansion who is an artist, doing
biological illustrations for books and with a long standing interest in
pollards (or Les trognes in the local Percheron dialect). A few years ago he
put together an exhibition about pollards and their loss as part of a large
Garden Exhibition. This involved moving 27 dead pollard stumps to the site
of the exhibition. Dominique drew them and recorded details about them
beforehand. After the exhibition he managed to raise enough money to move
them to his village to create a ‘chemin des trognes’ and this is now a
spectacular path with newly planted trees between the stumps that will be
pollarded in due course. The path leads to a small museum, the ‘Maison
botanique’. With funding from various sources this has new exhibitions every
six months and provides activities for school children both within the
school curriculum and during the holidays. A previous exhibition had been on
fungi, while I was there it was about the locally grown plants used for
making fabrics (linen, hemp and nettles) and the next one will be about
pollards. The exhibitions were of a very high standard and are put together
by the two full time and one part time people who work there. The part time
person, Elisabeth Dumont is also collecting together information and
literature about pollards. First she is using that which Dominique has
gathered, which is mostly in and around French speaking countries, then she
hopes to include other areas.
The following day I met with Vincent Vignon a little further north in the
Department of Orme. We spent a very interesting day exploring the bocage or
traditional countryside of hedged fields. In the hedges were a staggering
number of pollards of a wide range of species including oak, ash, field
maple, aspen, alder a few beech and also some fruit trees. Vincent and his
colleagues had put together a map showing the location of all the trees with
hollows across a wide area, many of these were pollards and we used the map
to locate some beech trees as well as going to some of the very good areas.
Sadly the reason that this area is known so well now is because of a new
motorway to be built running south from Caen straight through this region.
The protected beetle Osmoderma occurs here and temporarily stopped the
building of the motorway. A survey of all the trees in the area of the
motorway was carried out and did result in the route of the road being
altered by 50m to go round two trees found to have the beetle. Of course
many of the trees appear solid and it is impossible to survey them. Where
trees are felled for the works (and we saw a whole line of lovely pollards
felled to make a new access road) an entomologist is on hand and has to
inspect every tree. If evidence of Osmoderma is found then the tree is
re-erected somewhere else. Vincent took me to see some of the re-erected
trees and I also saw some further south, all inspired by Ted’s work at
Windsor!
After travelling south via a few trees I met Mark at Biarritz airport and
the next day met with Cyril Van Meer to visit the Forests of Sare and St Pee
in the northern foothills of the Pyrenees. Despite the wet weather we had a
very interesting time seeing lots of beech pollards in Sare at a higher
altitude than a huge area of oak pollards all planted and cut in a semi
commercial way in the past for charcoal. The trees have not been cut
recently except some of the beech that are cut by hunters to create good
flight paths for birds for them to shoot. St Pee was rather different in
atmosphere and is largely oak pollards in more open conditions and well used
by visitors, creating problems of compaction round the trees and safety for
visitors. This area is threatened by the construction of a flood relief
scheme that may cause a rise in water table of 5m.
Mark and I then spent a few days in the Pyrennees, mostly on the south side,
visiting various places that we had heard about where we could see pollards.
The most interesting time was in the small Gistain Valley where we went with
Federico Fillat. On yet another wet day he showed us the Pyrennean style of
pollarding (mostly ash trees) for sheep fodder. Ash pollards were a major
component of the landscape here but very much rarer in other places we
visited. It seems that they were once widespread across the Pyrennees but
are no longer cut except in this valley. The trees are cut every 3-4 years
after hay making and before 20th August. The branches with the leaves
attached are then stacked in or between the trees, supported on poles with
the branch tips facing south. They dry on the outside but the inner leaves
stay green and soft. They are used later in the winter, first for the sheep,
then for the rabbits and finally the poles are burnt.
On our way back to Biarritz we travelled through Sierra Andia and Sierra
Urbassa so Mark could see the spectacular views and tremendous beech
pollards on Urbassa.
Next week I should be back to these areas again with
some of the people that manage them to learn more about the trees – that
will be in the next installment!
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Ash tree recently pollarded with branches stacked up
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The landscape of the Gistain valley and ash pollards
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Weeks 4,5 and 6 - click here
Weeks 1,2 and 3 -
click here |
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