Knowlands wood fuel

Knowlands farm provides logs for sale by the bag, some of the profits of which goes to the New Village Hall Fund.

The wood is close to the main village housing and therefore provides a good source of sustainable wood, as the Lear family manage the woodland sustainably for the benefit of both wildlife and wood fule, coppicing as well as other resources.

"Knowlands Farm is owned by the Lear Family who own 80 acres (32 hectares) of predominately ancient semi-natural woodland. This woodland is broadleaved in character, with semi-mature oak standards over the under story of hornbeam and hazel coppice. The coppice was extensively cut during the Second World War, and as a result much of the resulting regeneration was even-aged when Nick Lear commenced the management with the main objective of re-structuring the age-class distribution of the trees on this site to provide more ecological diversity.The woodland is now under a long-term management programme with a primary objective of nature conservation, focussing on improving the
woodland ride layout and managing light levels by cyclical coppicing to create habitats for woodland birds and butterflies. A target of coppicing one acre per year has been implemented for well over a decade, and some of the oak timber trees have also been thinned during this cyclical process.

*The outcome has been impressive, with a large increase in biodiversity and in particular increased numbers of woodland birds and a greater range of butterflies are being recorded. Open space habitats have, however also become attractive to the growing populations of mainly fallow deer and some serious concerns are developing about their impact on both coppice regeneration and the ground flora. Fencing and deer control are now being
carried out.
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*A result of the coppicing and ride widening has been the creation of large quantities of cordwood for firewood, in the order of 100 tonnes per annum.These large logs have been used by the landowners themselves, in a woodfired boiler supplying the farmhouse, whilst the bulk generated by thecoppicing production is purchased standing by local firewood contractors, witha small proportion reserved and sold as loose “PYO” logs from the farmyard.
*

From the landowners' perspective the cost of restoring the cyclical woodland management is supported by the sale of the firewood, with additional income coming from thinning a small proportion of the oak standards for fencing or building materials.".

Extract from wood fuel report by David Saunders

link to Knowlands on Community21