Planting willow at the weir
On the third Wednesday of February, Fingle Woods had every arrival looking up at the sky, commenting that it hadn’t started raining, yet. The River Teign was making its noisy presence known behind the stand of trees on the edge of the lower track. Days before storm Dennis had caused the waters to swell and flood, spreading close to where the assembled Friends of Fingle had parked their cars (the impact of Storm Dennis at Fingle was captured in this video).The variety of trees that can be found in Fingle Woods has undergone much change over recent years, increasingly for the better. However, whilst on an explore through Fingle Woods the previous week with site manager Dave Rickwood, we confirmed that one native species was proving fairly elusive to find. This was to be the subject of close scrutiny for the volunteers on the 19th of February, their task being to cut and plant willow setts along the bank and track edges near the river Teign. Sufficient light levels had now been achieved in this area, from the clearance of conifer, and this would allow the process of willow sett planting to begin. Conditions were looking good for this native species to grow with enthusiasm, and would be of great help to stabilise the banks and soil in this area.With less glances skywards as the day began to brighten, Phil, something of an expert in this field, began by explaining the task at hand. The site we had chosen had two long-established willow trees, one of which had, particularly conveniently, decided to fall and continue growing horizontally. This provided us with excellent pieces of long, thin, fresh whippy willow growth for us to coppice, leaving the original tree peacefully growing for the next time it might be needed.
Once these long pieces of willow had been lopped from the tree, they had to be trimmed, using hand tools, to lengths of around 50cm. This allowed for a decent amount to be planted into the soil. We soon turned into an efficient assembly line, with some volunteers coppicing, others dragging the cut willow closer to the river bank or cutting to length on a convenient bench, whilst others began the task of picking suitable places to plant the willow setts.
Although the ground had been flooded only days previously, a hefty metal pole still came in useful to prepare a suitable hole in which to plant. The most important thing we had to remember was which way up to plant the willow, easy enough when your stick had side shoots and buds to help, more of a problem when it looked only like a straight stick. The system of cutting a straight bottom and slanting top, to promote water runoff, as well as arranging them systematically on the convenient bench, were answers to this problem.
Morning coffee break ran into lunchtime, as I had issues with sufficiently heating the kettle of water. I was eventually told that it was ‘warm enough’, but at least I had plenty of biscuits to make up for it. Fortified and keen to return to the tasks at hand, we were joined by more volunteers in the afternoon. Soon we had planted willow at intervals for more than a mile from Upperton Weir along the banks and tracks upstream, as well as in the gaps between existing tree canopies. Some also had the chance to turn their hand to beaver imitation, building some fine examples of 'beaver' dams across the nearby stream, slowing the progress of the water through some of our site of newly planted willow.A satisfying day’s work all round, until it was mentioned that our new willow trees were of great interest to some of the dogs being walked in the woods that afternoon. Investigations showed that a few had already been unceremoniously pulled from their new homes. We wait with anticipation to check how the trees have grown, and hope that not too many have suffered the fate of Stick Man and are now floating down the river on the way to the sea. We hope not, but the Friends of Fingle will be ready to check on the willow and plant more along other areas of Fingle Woods soon, I am sure.By Rachael Land, photos by Paul Moody
