"So why are they behaving like hooligans - in a nature reserve of all places?" you may well ask with some irritation. Yes, I know it sounds awful. People love trees, and will go to great lengths to plant them, keep them growing and even join hands to keep the dreaded chain saws away from them. But sometimes trees need to be cut down for good reasons.

In the past few weeks, in the drizzle and cold winds, we have been cutting down a lot of smallish birches and willows. That's because they have been growing too fast for the crop trees which will become timber after most of us have passed on to the great wood in the sky! Some of the slower-growing trees - oaks and hornbeams - planted after the great 1987 storm, have been stunted and even killed by the self-sown saplings which have reached a height of more that six metres (about 20 ft.).

So most of the birches are coming down apart from a few between the planted trees because, although they are weeds to us, they are light, graceful trees. They are a pleasure to look at, doze under, or cool off in their shade. Actually I get quite cut up about felling them!

John Hall © 2002