While I was down in Kilkenny last week at the Teagasc forestry event, I visited Cathy Fitzgerald and her small woodland near Borris, Co. Carlow. Cathy is an artist and her husband Martin Lyttle is a sculptor. Cathy has recently made a couple of cute little films about forestry :Burning Brightly & First Thinning – Holly Wood that are really worth viewing.
Cathy Fitzgerald in the recently thinned alder. Look at all the rich flora starting to come into the new light.
Cathy and I worked on “The Local Project Revisited” back in 2006. During this time I visited Holly Wood for the first time. Then it consisted of rather poor sitka spruce that were planted by Martin’s father about 20 years ago.
There were some alder coming in along by the road boundary and I thought they would benefit by some thinning. We marked a few of the alder and Martin cut them out. Cathy and Martin were so inspired by the effect of this simple thinning exercise that they asked me back to mark the rest of the forest the following year.
But Cathy is a natural networker. She invited about ten people from nearby to come and learn about this simple method of thinning and she even filmed the event as part of her ongoing documentation of the evolution of their woodland. Check out her excellent blog: ecoartnotebook. She has loads on forestry and related subjects and it is well worth a browse. Chris Hynes of Lightfoot Forestry was one of the people to come to that impromptu workshop and he carried out the harvesting and extraction of the timber the following year using his iron horse. But there’s no need for me to tell much about the process as it’s all on Cathy’s site.
Cathy is a networker extraordinaire, so the tree marking exercise turned into a documented workshop in her woodlands
It was great for me to see the woods last week and to notice all the changes that the extra light has brought in since the thinning operation. About 20% of the spruce were taken out and this action has really bump started the whole forest to get a move on.
Thinning let new light into the forest which bump started a whole new cycle of growth.
Cathy and Martin built a timber house some years back right inside their woodland. The woods provide a tranquil setting and their house is well screened from the road and very sheltered. They have cleared a small area around the house for a vegetable garden, workshop, sheds, etc. The thinnings have been stacked neatly near the house for firewood for themselves, plus they sold a few trailer loads to help pay for the work.
Cathy and Martin's timber house peeping through the trees. Notice all the bright little ash seedlings dancing into the woods in the new light.
It was Cathy who first encouraged me to start writing down my observations about forests. When I didn’t, she twisted my arm and taught me how to work a blog site. As I said, – she’s a compulsive networker and firmly believes that by sharing our skills etc., the wheel doesn’t have to be re-invented.
As I was driving off along their winding, narrow driveway I wondered if their woodland is called Hollywood because their dog is named Holly or because of Cathy’s film making ventures. I’ll have to sit on that one for a while.
Here's Cathy with one of the hundreds of ash saplings that are coming into her woods. (The umbrella is for the rain, - not the sun. Even though it's called Hollywood, - it's Ireland, not California!
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Jan,
thanks a million for the wonderful post and photos and sorry for delay in response – work is so busy. Taking the work to the first UK Art and Forestry conference in London next week.
Talk soon
Cathy