Nina Williams, head forester for the 6,500-ha Cowdray Estate, the largest holding within the South Downs National Park, meets with Carolyne Locher to talk about ‘A Day in the Working Life’, one of an occasional series of features on roles within the industry.

SULTRY views from this 20-metre stretch of white sand path, briefly renamed Cowdray beach, are less ‘costa’ and more a wooded heath of bushy purple heather, spiky yellow gorse and burnt-orange bracken punctuated by naturally regenerating Scots pine at Ambersham Common. This is soft forestry, a resource managed for wildlife.

A trifecta of commerce, recreation and biodiversity is Cowdray Estate’s approach to forestry. “It is very much a holistic approach,” says Nina Williams, head forester of six months.

Based around Midhurst, Cowdray Estate encompasses 6,500 ha of land, the largest holding within the South Downs National Park (SDNP). Estate businesses include farming, forestry, sporting concessions (stalking, fishing, shooting), residential and commercial property lets, and an events business. All are run from the estate office (Easebourne) and within easy walking distance of the ‘The Ruins’ (one of England’s oldest Tudor houses), an award-winning farm shop and café, Cowdray House (an exclusive-use event venue), Cowdray Hall and Wellness Rooms, the Walled Garden (wedding venue), a championship golf course and numerous polo fields. Known as ‘the heart of British polo,’ the estate hosts over 450 matches in a normal year and the prestigious Gold Cup tournament.

Forestry Journal: The Ruins, one of England’s oldest Tudor houses.The Ruins, one of England’s oldest Tudor houses.

Nina joined Cowdray two days before Storm Ciara landed, followed by the driest spring and the pandemic lockdown. She seems unfazed. Ten years with the Royal Engineers, working all over the world, has taught her the flexibility to roll with circumstances as they arise.

Coronavirus daily health check forms completed, and socially distanced car seating arranged, we head along the main road from London into the estate, where year-old sweet chestnut coppice sprouts profusely. Managed in three-year rotations, the same family has cut this for 50 years for walking sticks (exported to Germany). Plantations of Douglas fir then transition into Corsican and Scots pine, concealing a pair of nesting honey buzzards. One of only 40 pairs in the UK, they bore two chicks earlier this year. “A sign of the wood’s overall good health and a privilege to have on the estate.”

Forestry Journal: Along the main road from London into the estate, year-old sweet chestnut coppice sprouts profusely. Managed in three-year rotations, the same family has cut this for 50 years for walking sticks.Along the main road from London into the estate, year-old sweet chestnut coppice sprouts profusely. Managed in three-year rotations, the same family has cut this for 50 years for walking sticks.

Cowdray’s woodlands cover 2,757 ha, 36 per cent of the estate, comprising 55 per cent conifer (Douglas fir, Norway spruce, larch, grand fir and western red cedar (on chalk), and Scots pine, Corsican pine and Sitka spruce (in wet areas)), 20 per cent mixed broadleaf, 15 per cent chestnut (3–30 year rotations) and 10 per cent open space.

Forestry Journal: Our approach to Minepits Wood is through Douglas fir, 80 years , being left to grow into veteransOur approach to Minepits Wood is through Douglas fir, 80 years , being left to grow into veterans

Commercial woods are split into five regions and each managed on a five-year rotation. “Conifers are thinned every five years, broadleaves every 10 to 12 years. With variety in our soil types, thin chalk soils (South Downs), greensand and clay (Rother Valley), moving back to sand (Malmstone) in the north (Haslemere), we always have somewhere to work and to be productive.” The dry spring offered the opportunity to work areas previously too wet to work in and to repair forestry tracks and paths that were damaged during last year’s exceptionally wet winter.

READ MORE: A day in the working life: Greg Packman, senior tree inspector, London Borough of Islington

This year’s clearfell site is across 16 ha of Minepits Wood. Our approach to site is through Douglas fir, 80 years+, being left to grow into veterans (a couple may go to the architectural market).

Harvesting works began in July and have just finished, releasing 4,000 tonnes of sawlogs, bars (fencing) and chip. “We would normally clearfell 8–10 ha. Last winter, Minepits saw a lot of windthrow. To [avoid the timber] devaluing further, we cleared a larger area and opened up a lakeside edge for biodiversity.”

Forestry Journal: Nina sitting in front of a window in the sawmill on a sawn length of timber. The window frame is painted a distinctive ‘Cowdray Yellow’, a colour reflecting political affiliations over 100 years ago. Today, this yellow is repeated across all houses owned by the estate, making them very easy to distinguish.Nina sitting in front of a window in the sawmill on a sawn length of timber. The window frame is painted a distinctive ‘Cowdray Yellow’, a colour reflecting political affiliations over 100 years ago. Today, this yellow is repeated across all houses owned by the estate, making them very easy to distinguish.

We squint into bright sunshine as the estate’s Komatsu forwarder loads the last of the very dry Norway spruce logs onto stacks and one timber wagon cross-loads another. Both wagons are bound for Tilhill BSW (Southampton).

The Komatsu harvester has moved to a new site 500 metres away, currently clearing self-set birch from around oaks on the outskirts of a 27-year-old compartment of Douglas fir and Norway spruce. Useable birch stems are placed on the ride-edge, while windrowed lop-and-top provides a surface for machinery to travel over as it rots down. “This wider ride will scrub up, removing the potential wind tunnel effect and creating habitat for invertebrates and small mammals.”

Beside this working woodland, the shade of a forest path is welcome, and its edges are filled with mushrooms: deadly panther caps, hallucinogenic fly agarics; and ceps. Harvesting a few edible mushrooms is a seasonal perk of being a forester.

Forestry Journal: Komatsu harvester driven by Richie Keen, Cowdray’s full-time owner/driver subcontractor and considered one of the members of the forestry team, removing self-set birch from around oaks before cutting the first racks in a 27-year-old compartment of Douglas fir and Norway spruce, setting up the plantation for the next 100 years.Komatsu harvester driven by Richie Keen, Cowdray’s full-time owner/driver subcontractor and considered one of the members of the forestry team, removing self-set birch from around oaks before cutting the first racks in a 27-year-old compartment of Douglas fir and Norway spruce, setting up the plantation for the next 100 years.

The forestry team begins their day in the forestry yard, where a barn stores forestry machinery, firewood, woodchip and charcoal. During daily toolbox talks, “we discuss worksites, key safety features and any last-minute trees down or footpath closures. The teams (five teams of two) go to their areas. I go to the office and catch up on paperwork: forward-planning for the next rotations and making sure licences are in place, or preparing paperwork for the next parcels, tenders and contracts.”

Nina, 41, grew up near Chichester, spending time on the South Downs amid Kingley Vale’s yews. Following a degree in sports science from Bangor University, she joined the army, based in England, Germany and Scotland. In Edinburgh, “… when looking for engineering tasks for the soldiers, I met lairds, foresters and ghillies and enjoyed the forest management they were doing.”

Forestry Journal: Restock site, an oak plantation with a small amount of Norway spruce. “The stalker doesn’t cover this area, so we used tree guards and fenced to protect the crop.”Restock site, an oak plantation with a small amount of Norway spruce. “The stalker doesn’t cover this area, so we used tree guards and fenced to protect the crop.”

Realising for the first time that a land-based career could be open to her, Nina graduated with an MSc in rural estate management and forestry from the Royal Agricultural University (Cirencester).

Beginning her forestry career as forestry and woodland development officer for the South Downs National Park, Nina then moved to English Woodlands Forestry (Cocking Sawmill), where she additionally qualified as a chartered forester.

As an active member of the ICF, she attends and organises local events. As a member of the RFS, she learns much from conversations with other foresters. “Forestry is a vocation – you never stop learning. Even after a lifetime in the woods there would always be some new thing to learn or problem to overcome.”

Forestry Journal: First racks and usable birch firewood lie in small piles.First racks and usable birch firewood lie in small piles.

The confidence to communicate, with humour when possible or being polite but firm when stressing safety to members of the public, is equally important and a benefit of Sandhurst leadership training. Confidence in your team is crucial. “New as I am (and with less time to learn the woods during lockdown), I rely on the skills and expertise of these guys who know the woods inside out.”

In the middle of the day, Nina might meet Cowdray’s stalker or go out making H&S checks. “We do our tree risk assessments in three phases: major roads, public roads [and car parks]; footpaths and edge trees; residential trees (works for residents with boundary or garden tree issues all come under our remit), prioritising the most dangerous at the time.” A car and sturdy army walking boots are key pieces of equipment.

READ MORE: A day in the working life: Peter West, assistant forest manager, Scottish Woodlands

Two hand-cutters work ahead of the harvester, half-cutting, and half-cleaning self-set birch from within a 1.5 ha area of Douglas fir. Creating better sightlines means less downtime for the harvester who will cut first racks (one in seven), setting up the compartment for the next 100 years.

Cowdray releases between 10,000–14,000 tonnes of timber a year. Hardwoods tend to go for firewood or niche markets. Most conifer goes to sawmills and wood processing plants (Tilhill/BSW, Euroforest, Thomson), as chip for horse bedding (spruce, Bedmax) or as biomass for the estate (three district heating systems) or to KRE in Kent. Currently, some bespoke first thinnings of pine are going to America for tipi poles.

Forestry Journal: One timber wagon with self-loading crane cross-loads another. Both wagons are bound for Tilhill BSW (Southampton). “Loading happens pretty much independent of our forwarder, so Rupert does not have load up lorries all day and we get maximum production.”One timber wagon with self-loading crane cross-loads another. Both wagons are bound for Tilhill BSW (Southampton). “Loading happens pretty much independent of our forwarder, so Rupert does not have load up lorries all day and we get maximum production.”

“Once a year, we open to tender a big parcel, checking the market to ensure we get the right value for our [conifer] wood. The scale at which we work means we can create marketable parcels of timber, keeping production costs under control. This morning, I was comparing the harvester’s computer readouts against my notes, making sure we are where we think we are in the tonnage produced. [These last months] have been busy. Fun. The guys have met the challenge well. We are halfway through the year, and if the weather is good, we should complete all the planned works.”

Restocking with up to 60,000 cell-grown trees a year (Cheviot Trees), a mulched Minepits Wood will be planted with Norway spruce, Douglas fir and other mixed broadleaf species yet to be decided. “We try not to plant monocultures, mixing species that grow well together, for climate change and resilience. My predecessors did create new woodlands and we [will] look into woodland carbon offset grants in any new woodland created in the future. Our various stewardship schemes end in the next couple of years. With the farm, it is a good opportunity to see what we can do together.”

Forestry Journal: Nina with forestry team members Gil Bates and Paul Prudente.Nina with forestry team members Gil Bates and Paul Prudente.

Where possible, young plantations are established without tree guards or fencing, saving on costs and keeping vistas open. Nina spots that a western hemlock, restocked last year amid mulched stump chips, has been nibbled by fallow, roe or muntjac deer. “Our stalker monitors and manages the deer population. He is also excellent with the management of squirrels and rabbits.” One of the hemlock’s two leaders will be favoured during ground maintenance or formative pruning.

Barely two months into this head forester role, lockdown was imposed. “When the mills shut, there was nowhere for the timber to go. I had to decide what to do, knowing that when they reopened, we were providing an income for the estate when others [departments] could not. Some staff stood down. I stayed on with two of the team for emergency tree clearances, keeping footpaths and roads open and maintaining the biomass supply for our heating systems.”

Forestry Journal: Light and airy CCF woodland of Fenced Common. All ages grow together. “We are widening the ride up the steep slope to let in more sunlight and get undergrowth to grow. The shoot like it here; it is a nice place to stand the guns.”Light and airy CCF woodland of Fenced Common. All ages grow together. “We are widening the ride up the steep slope to let in more sunlight and get undergrowth to grow. The shoot like it here; it is a nice place to stand the guns.”

The forestry team’s resilience surprised her, as did the work of colleagues in other departments, delivering farm shop produce or prescriptions (Midhurst Angels) to shielding members of the community. “We opened access [across] as much of the estate as possible to local the community, allowing for safe recreation and exercise during lockdown. Everyone came together across the estate to help the wider community in a wide variety of ways.”

Today, visitors sunbathe beside Benbow Pond, a short walk from the John Cowdray Memorial Arboretum, a relatively young mix of conifers and broadleaves intersected by footpaths laid out in the shape of a wagon wheel, at the bottom of the Old Deer Park.

This parkland contains the 1,000-year-old Queen Elizabeth Oak, a squat, hollow pollard that Queen Elizabeth I sat under for shade during a hunting trip. More impressive is Colossus, a 450-year-old sweet chestnut, the largest in England. Putting on a metre’s girth in ten years, Colossus’ lower branches are bigger than the trunks of most mature trees. “At some point I will have to take some of the weight off. A mildly terrifying prospect!”

Forestry Journal:  The parkland contains the 1,000-year-old Queen Elizabeth Oak, a squat, hollow pollard that Queen Elizabeth I sat under for shade during a hunting trip. The parkland contains the 1,000-year-old Queen Elizabeth Oak, a squat, hollow pollard that Queen Elizabeth I sat under for shade during a hunting trip.

Since reopening after lockdown, the estate sawmill has been working flat out, adding value to oversized estate timbers. 100 m³ of fresh-sawn products are cut a year on a stationary Woodmizer LT40, for delivery to local sawmills (English Woodlands Timber, WL West & Sons). Conifer offcuts go for chip (landscaping or biomass). Hardwood offcuts are burned in a rustic charcoal kiln, producing up to 20 6-kg bags a week for the farm shop. Nina says that with garden centres closed during lockdown, the sawmill had a lot of enquires for landscaping products and that she is working with the estate marketing team to raise the sawmill’s profile.

Behind the sawmill, a member of Forest Research, out walking their dog during lockdown, spotted blight on one branch of a sweet chestnut stool. A statutory plant health notifiable disease, sweet chestnut blight is killing trees in America and impacting trees in Southern Europe. “From the point of infection, they surveyed a three-kilometre circle. You can see our trees are not dying. The infection may have been here for 20–40 years and we may have natural resilience. Threats from a wide range of tree diseases and pests are an ever-present part of the woodland management process.”

Forest Research set up a trial site to collect windblown spore data and ambrosia beetles (a possible vector), to inform management options to reduce and eventually eliminate the disease within the estate. Annual helicopter surveys and follow-up ground truth surveys take place in compartments of larch for a possible outbreak of Phytophthora ramorum, hopefully discounting what was seen during an aerial canopy survey of the South Downs National Park and beyond. Ash growing on steep scarp South Downs slopes (Bepton) is suffering high losses from ash dieback. “It is wild woodland, so we prioritise public safety on footpaths, retaining some areas as minimal intervention where the ground is too steep to access.” All falls within the range of management works of the estate’s annual forestry programme.

Forestry Journal: Nina demonstrating how impressive Colossus is. Colossus, a 450-year-old sweet chestnut, is the largest in England.Nina demonstrating how impressive Colossus is. Colossus, a 450-year-old sweet chestnut, is the largest in England.

We finish our trifecta tour on a sandy path at Ambersham Common SSSI, a key habitat for the SDNP. Five years ago, the ridge we stand on was a commercial Scots pine plantation. Thinning and removing productive woodland (leaving seed trees) and clearing hectares of rhododendron have created areas of minimum intervention and a thriving heathland habitat, improving the visitor experience and vistas.

There are still Scots pines to thin and space out, scrub and rhododendron to clear (Year 2). “It has a different feel to the rest of the estate, a break from commercial forestry. Wooded heathland is a landscape and habitat in transition. Clearing one area, another returns to forest. This is the transition that nature needs. Removing birch and pine and scarifying under the pylons, we hope to get young heather coming back down the hill, creating areas of connectivity for key heathland species, Dartford warblers, smooth snakes, sand lizards. We apply for grants where they fit with our business model and the Countryside Stewardship (or future ELMS) allows me to do things like this, which would otherwise be uneconomic.”

Towards the end of her working day, Nina may head back to the office to prepare for tomorrow, “or measure timber volumes at roadside so that I know what I have to sell. I was just thinking, there is a stack to measure that I have not seen, some very nice chestnut. It needs to be measured differently and marketed as logs, probably through tender for higher-end joinery. I will contact five to six people that might be interested and invite them to tender.”

Nina concludes: “I wanted to show our full cycle of forestry. We are a commercial and profitable forestry enterprise with sustainability at its heart. It is a privilege to look after this wooded landscape. As foresters, we are merely stewards of the woods, working to ensure that they are productive, healthy and biodiverse into the future.”

The best part of Nina’s work? “There is no ‘typical’ day.”

www.cowdray.co.uk/the-estate/woods

Forestry Journal remains dedicated to bringing you all the latest news and views from across our industry, plus up-to-date information on the impacts of COVID-19.

Please support us by subscribing to our print edition, delivered direct to your door, from as little at £69 for 1 year – or consider a digital subscription from just £1 for 3 months.

To arrange, follow this link: https://www.forestryjournal.co.uk/subscribe/

Thanks – and stay safe.