Kielder Forest 29th May 2019
Just been out with Rob, a forester at Kielder. He took me to an area of CCF - Continuous Cover Forestry - where they manage the forest for biodiversity and for public loveliness - three tiers of cover. The trees are often not able to withstand the wind if they aren't close together - there is not enough light for non-conifers - regeneration of natural woodland is a long process. Red squirrels are managing to eke out an existence in the forest - but not grey squirrels - it's the wrong type of woodland for them. There are lots of deer in forest - all roe. Forestry England is managed by Forestry Commission. In 2010 the government were going to sell it off to commercial enterprises but there was a public outcry, so they backed off. Most of the forest is still commercial - a form of agriculture. Not harvested every year like grain crops, but every 40-50 years. They do it by clear felling. Rob drove me to a working area with machines and piled up logs. I didn't see a harvester working, but here is a clip from the internet.
Rob used to drive one. I asked if it was exciting, and he said, actually boring. I said what about the first time? He said it was terrifying for the first month or two - but terrifying is how you learn. We talked about chainsaws and how the first harvest at Kielder - probably in the seventies - would have been done with saws and chainsaws, lots of manpower. No chatting, as they had to leave two trees length between each person. Now there are only two people and huge machines.
He told me about a guy from Canada, came here after the war, worked in the forest for the rest of his life. His grandsons -twins - still work here. They remember the old days. When they came home from boarding school (state boarding school - it's too remote for travel to day schools), aged fourteen, they each had a chainsaw as an easter present from their grandad. He took them out and showed them how to cut down trees. No health and safety.
There's still a need for chainsaws - to take down the big trees that the machines can't manage - but it's a dying skill. Expensive to train, to get the certificate. We saw a chap teaching some students how to fell a tree. He's itinerant. He takes his work from forest to forest as there's not enough work in any one forest. He's a peripatetic chainsaw teacher.
The machine strips a tree bare, then it's assessed for straightness. The felled trees are piled up according to grade.
I asked Rob if he knew everyone who worked in the forest, if they had an office Christmas party. He said yes, more or less. I asked him if I could credit him in my work, and he said no. He didn't want me to name him or quote him. Rob is not his real name.
Where the clear felled areas are not so new, they are covered in cotton grass, stretching for ever. So lovely. You don't really get the effect in this picture, but there's a bit in the foreground.
I asked Rob if there were stories attached to the forest, and he said no, not really as it is too new. He was thinking of myths and legends, local tradition. But he did tell me stories. I asked if he'd got lost, and he said yes, a long time ago when he was new to the forest, as a contractor. He had no gps, there was cloud cover so he couldn't see the sun, he had no compass. He got disorientated and didn't know where he was. Then the sun came out and he was able to find his direction from that. I asked if he was scared, and he shrugged didn't really say yes or no, which I took to mean yes although he didn't want to admit it. Then he told me that sometimes people get lost on purpose in the forest and commit suicide - hanging usually. Only a month or two back there was a suicide found hanging from a tree. Years back a German man went missing in the forest and he was never found. His body is still out there somewhere.
These are stories. So is the story about the Canadian man and his twin grandsons. So is Rob's own experience.
In areas that are SSSIs the trees are still taken out by horses in order to limit damage. There are still a few horse foresters, though not many.
When an area is ready for felling they invite bids for standing timber. The buyer arranges the felling, under the forester's guidance.
Rob recommended going up to Deadwater Fell for a good view across the forest, so we did that.
Then mossy winding paths through taller conifers, and out onto open stony hillside, which had been clear felled, but was now covered with tiny trees.
More tall conifers, then onto open moorland, with the view opening up. You could see areas that have been clear felled, forested areas of varying ages, stretching for miles.
At the top of the Fell the views reach into Scotland. The Cheviots go on for ever, hill after hil , slightly misty, with hardly any signs of people, an empty forgotten world. Kielder is the most remote village in England, and it feels like it. Here on the highest hill for miles around there is emptiness in every direction.
Rob said there is forest under Kielder Water, and farms. But before they flooded the valley they clear felled - a cash crop - and the houses were demolished. So there is not a forest of tall trees beneath the surface, no houses with fish swimming from room to room.
We took a different route on the way back, through mossy woodland. It was amazing, so green and magical. Wilf said it felt like goblins lived there. Under the trees on either side of the path was a dark mysterious world. My camera wouldn't capture it. Mossy floors near the edges, further in bare ground, darkness between the trunks, an other world right next to the path. Who knows who lives in there? Maybe goblins. This isn't like Tangham, it's not Red Riding Hood's wood, no little girls or talking wolves. This is more mysterious, more unknowable, this is the land of fairy folk. It may be a new forest, but where else can the fairies live in the modern world. In this remote region of trees, moss and water the air smells fresh as pine and the skies are the darkest in Britain.
Rob used to drive one. I asked if it was exciting, and he said, actually boring. I said what about the first time? He said it was terrifying for the first month or two - but terrifying is how you learn. We talked about chainsaws and how the first harvest at Kielder - probably in the seventies - would have been done with saws and chainsaws, lots of manpower. No chatting, as they had to leave two trees length between each person. Now there are only two people and huge machines.
He told me about a guy from Canada, came here after the war, worked in the forest for the rest of his life. His grandsons -twins - still work here. They remember the old days. When they came home from boarding school (state boarding school - it's too remote for travel to day schools), aged fourteen, they each had a chainsaw as an easter present from their grandad. He took them out and showed them how to cut down trees. No health and safety.
There's still a need for chainsaws - to take down the big trees that the machines can't manage - but it's a dying skill. Expensive to train, to get the certificate. We saw a chap teaching some students how to fell a tree. He's itinerant. He takes his work from forest to forest as there's not enough work in any one forest. He's a peripatetic chainsaw teacher.
The machine strips a tree bare, then it's assessed for straightness. The felled trees are piled up according to grade.
I asked Rob if he knew everyone who worked in the forest, if they had an office Christmas party. He said yes, more or less. I asked him if I could credit him in my work, and he said no. He didn't want me to name him or quote him. Rob is not his real name.
Where the clear felled areas are not so new, they are covered in cotton grass, stretching for ever. So lovely. You don't really get the effect in this picture, but there's a bit in the foreground.
I asked Rob if there were stories attached to the forest, and he said no, not really as it is too new. He was thinking of myths and legends, local tradition. But he did tell me stories. I asked if he'd got lost, and he said yes, a long time ago when he was new to the forest, as a contractor. He had no gps, there was cloud cover so he couldn't see the sun, he had no compass. He got disorientated and didn't know where he was. Then the sun came out and he was able to find his direction from that. I asked if he was scared, and he shrugged didn't really say yes or no, which I took to mean yes although he didn't want to admit it. Then he told me that sometimes people get lost on purpose in the forest and commit suicide - hanging usually. Only a month or two back there was a suicide found hanging from a tree. Years back a German man went missing in the forest and he was never found. His body is still out there somewhere.
These are stories. So is the story about the Canadian man and his twin grandsons. So is Rob's own experience.
In areas that are SSSIs the trees are still taken out by horses in order to limit damage. There are still a few horse foresters, though not many.
When an area is ready for felling they invite bids for standing timber. The buyer arranges the felling, under the forester's guidance.
Rob recommended going up to Deadwater Fell for a good view across the forest, so we did that.
It was a walk of just over eight miles through fabulous woods.
First the Gruffalo's deep, dark woods.
Then mossy winding paths through taller conifers, and out onto open stony hillside, which had been clear felled, but was now covered with tiny trees.
More tall conifers, then onto open moorland, with the view opening up. You could see areas that have been clear felled, forested areas of varying ages, stretching for miles.
At the top of the Fell the views reach into Scotland. The Cheviots go on for ever, hill after hil , slightly misty, with hardly any signs of people, an empty forgotten world. Kielder is the most remote village in England, and it feels like it. Here on the highest hill for miles around there is emptiness in every direction.
Rob said there is forest under Kielder Water, and farms. But before they flooded the valley they clear felled - a cash crop - and the houses were demolished. So there is not a forest of tall trees beneath the surface, no houses with fish swimming from room to room.
We took a different route on the way back, through mossy woodland. It was amazing, so green and magical. Wilf said it felt like goblins lived there. Under the trees on either side of the path was a dark mysterious world. My camera wouldn't capture it. Mossy floors near the edges, further in bare ground, darkness between the trunks, an other world right next to the path. Who knows who lives in there? Maybe goblins. This isn't like Tangham, it's not Red Riding Hood's wood, no little girls or talking wolves. This is more mysterious, more unknowable, this is the land of fairy folk. It may be a new forest, but where else can the fairies live in the modern world. In this remote region of trees, moss and water the air smells fresh as pine and the skies are the darkest in Britain.
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