thinking trees

I'm thinking...

Other than the obvious safety considerations of having two people there when a tree's being cut down, I want to be there for every tree-felling because I want to check every tree for hollows as it comes down.

We have Yellow tailed Black Cockatoos, Glossy Black cockatoos, and Wedge tailed eagles on the farm, along with 6 varieties of owl. I'm concerned that, notwithstanding the many varieties of arboreal mammals there, that, if we fell a tree with a hollow, there could be unfledged young in it.

Now, I've hand raised cockatoos before. I'm not really overly keen on doing it again (it's a bloody lot of work) but, if we happen to accidentally fell a tree with young in it, I'll want to be absolutely sure that the young are cared for.

I'd like to try to avoid felling trees with hollows in them. Other than the fact that they aren't good milling trees (not a lot of timber in a hollow!) They'll serve to hopefully steer the critters away from those trees we DO want to use. Some areas this will not be possible, for example, the home site, the boundary and the roadways. We'll have to clear ALL trees, whether possible hollows or not, and unfortunately our timing is shithouse, since it'll be right in the middle of breeding season. It would be better if we were felling toward the end of winter.

Maybe we'll be able to set ourselves up such that we drop a years worth of trees in a few weeks at the end of winter, to minimise the breeding disturbance, and just mill for the rest of the year.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Glossy Blacks and Wedgeys hanging around our farm. I used to breed Gang Gangs many years ago, and have to admit, they're my favourite of the black cockatoos, I'm sorry we're too far north to fall into their habitat.

I have to get onto the draftsman and certifier tomorrow and get my house plans done! That'll be fantastic. Then maybe we'll have some sort of timeline for when we can actually get to living in paradise.