Ben Law is an experienced and innovative woodsman with a deep commitment to practical sustainability. Here he presents a radical alternative to conventional woodland management that creates biodiverse, healthy environments, yields a great variety of value-added products, provides a secure livelihood for woodland workers and farmers, and benefits the local community. The author views the separation of agriculture from silviculture as unnecessarily limiting and argues… More >>
The Woodland Way: A Permaculture Approach to Sustainable Woodland Management
Tags: healthy environments, silviculture, value added products, woodland management, woodland way
Something to tell me exactly what to do with my Tennessee woods, I guess. And no British book is going to do that.
Last year a British on-line acquaintance told me that those tales of the early settlers in Tennessee being able to drive their ox-carts through the forest without getting stuck in the trees meant that the Indians were grooming the forest, had put a lot of thought and energy into making sure that the forest could sustain them. I wasn’t sure what he meant. This book tells me. How he rotates his crops–cut some of the willow for artist’s charcoal, a couple of years later, for rustic furniture, then let it come back from the stumps. In the meantime, blackberries can grow and fruit in the clearing, and a fairly rare bird just loves to nest there. The birds can move on to the next patch of cut back to the stumps by the time the blackberries are in too much shade and the willow is about ready to be cut a little bit for artist’s charcoal.
So I’m now busily wondering how I apply this to my woods.
Rating: 5 / 5
I found the title to this book deceptive. I don’t consider interplanting a few fruit trees and listing their habitat a permaculture design. While it might be an step towards a forest garden the book neglects the ground cover layer, various companion planting, the nutrient cycling, water cycling and co-management of animals.
The book is mostly dedicated to traditional woodland managment in the United Kingdom. The author successfully introduces the concepts of coppicing and various derivitives. He also breifly mentions various ways of making a living from the forest, such as charcoal production and furniture making. Although, if you wish to pursue either of those activities you will need to find another source, as the details of these operations are missing entirely.
Finally the resources listed in the book are only sepecific to the United Kingdom, again a let down for someone not culturally familar with the management of coppice stands that has been going on for hundreds of years in places. So to summarize, if you want to learn how to coppice, read this book, otherwise choose somewhere else.
Rating: 3 / 5