Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
A few years ago, David Gillen bought 30 acres of clear cut Sitka Spruce plantation on
a mountainside in the Welsh borders, for which he paid the princely sum of £300 per acre.
The firm which felled the trees left a generous shelterbelt standing all around the site, pre-
sumably at the instigation of the Forestry Commission who deserve considerable praise for
this foresight. This meant that Gillen could move on to the site in a caravan and set up
home in a sheltered glade which would have been a windswept moor if the trees had never
been planted. He bought in pigs, plus a few chickens, and scratched a living selling pork
and smoked bacon at farmers' markets. The pigs keep the land clear, whilst allowing nat-
ural regeneration of broadleaf trees. The stream provides potential for hydro-power and the
remaining woodland provides firewood and construction timber.
By bringing in feed for his pigs, Gillen is gradually enhancing the fertility of the soil.
With liming he could plant crops and within some years, when the tree stumps have rotted,
he should have a potential arable holding that will have been improved beyond measure
from its original condition of mediocre pasture. Gillen has toyed with the idea of weav-
ing and staking lines of brash along the contours of the steeper slopes, and planting willow
and other trees within them - the idea being that these would serve as barricades to retain
the soil disturbed by heavy duty pig rooting, eventually forming terraces bound in place by
living willow walls. Unfortunately it is perhaps one of those nice ideas that don't work in
practice; it would require the compliance of the pigs (not something one should normally
rely on) who might root too much, or not enough.
In Scotland, The Forest Village project is advancing a more formal proposal for the set-
tlement of conifer plantations by new land-based communities. The timber would be felled
gradually and processed on site for sale in the local economy, rather than shipped off for
pulpwood. David Blair, the project's spokesman, emphasises:
This doesn't have to be in the middle of nowhere, with few amenities. Many of
Scotland's rural towns and villages back onto forests which currently provide few be-
nefits to the local community. As well as managing the local forest and providing tim-
ber, affordable houses, fuelwood, crafts, and employment opportunities, the forest vil-
lage community would bring in more people to support the local school, shop, post
office and so on. For a forest village community to be viable, many of the basic needs
of its members must be provided from the forest that surrounds it. That means that its
housing, water and much of its food and power should be produced locally and sus-
tainably.
Sitka is a perfectly acceptable building wood and a resource which should not be
wasted - it has a role to play in the construction of affordable sustainable housing.
