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Hello there ,

was in our small forrest today and found that quite a few pine trees were dead , okay they will be recycled but in the clearings
there will be trees to be placed .Which ones ? Oak grows too slow , pine is not our favourite , maybe ash ,as it is ast growing and good for the fireplace ?
Any one got ideas or good advice ?

regards ,

Paul

And beech or birch or both - those are the natural secondary forest flora in Europe.

Mike

I'd go with ash, under planted with oak.

MW

plant sweet chestnuts

Doesn't it rather depend what you want from your forest? Do you want to plant wood to burn for firewood, trees which give you something edible (fruit or nuts) or do you want a natural forest with species which already grow in your area and therefore good for the local wildlife, rather than introducing species which don't currently exist there? As we don't know what species are already in your forest or what your aim is, it's a bit hard to help with this question!

If you want fire wood then I'd go with Ash - useful also for making tool handles and the likes - so would be a good coppice crop. Also have some Oak as standers.

But as Millymollymandy points out - it really depends on what you want.

Birch is also good - as you could tap them for their sap in spring, and also use the bark to make oil.

Willow is a fast grower and is useful as a crop for coppicing, if you want to either make charcoal or withies.

The possibilities are almost endless, as different varieties of tree can be used for different things.