Cutting Trees with Intent

The restoration of Fingle Woods is providing many interesting opportunities for people within their working lives or during their rest and relaxation. Various parts of the woodland have been busy through the winter with forestry contractors and volunteers hard at work, and the longer days of spring and summer are likely to attract even more people to enjoy a walk or find their own bit of peace among the trees. Devon’s economy relies heavily on visitors enjoying the great outdoors and on the ingenuity of local people like Paul Hext from Buckfastleigh who has found a way to combine woodland management work with some rest and play. New and interesting styles of holiday accommodation are always growing and this arboreal entrepreneur is involved in making poles for tepees for those adventurous visitors who want to spend a night under canvas.

 Paul continued to measure and cut the poles to length before loading them onto his Land Rover. As Fingle is gradually transformed into a more natural looking woodland, he estimates that there might not be many small Douglas fir poles left at Fingle in ten years’ time but joked “I’ll probably be retired by then!” Checking the load was well strapped on and ready for the road, he drove out of the woods, leaving only a few firewood offcuts and the scent of tree sap hanging in the air.by Matt Parkins