A passion for Trognes

On a Monday night in September 2012 we went over to La Rabiniere at Betz-le-Chateau to a book talk organised by the "Champs des Livres" association.

The author was a man passionate about "Les trognes" which is the main title of his book.
The passionate man was Dominique Mansion who founded and runs the Maison Botanique at Boursay in Loir et Cher.

I pollarded our old willows because I love trees and knew that they were old and needed a haircut...
I was also aware of the wildlife that a pollarded tree supports...
but my knowledge pales beside Dominique's!
He spoke of the history of the pollard, the reasons, the wildlife...
he spoke quietly, intensely and with burst of loud emphasis.
He was utterly captivating...
so much so that I would have bought the book afterwards...
if I hadn't already bought a copy as we went in!!

After the talk he was doing signings...
and I asked him to dedicate it to "The Pre de la Forge" as we've recently registered the main part of our land as a reserve with the LPO.
What I hadn't realised was that he would do this...

The book dedication and a quickly drawn picture
Everyone who asked for a dedication got a sketch... every one different!!

He has also brought out an "Agenda" for 2013, so I bought a copy of that too...
not to use as a diary...
but a book to record what I've been doing to and finding in the field.
His illustrations are marvelous...
both detailed where needed and beautifully freely drawn where the impression is what counts.

Agenda [or diary] for 2013

The trogne goes back to prehistory...
the oldest example of a pollard was found on the bed of the River Trent and dates to 3400 years BP [before the present]...
which makes sense as a store of shafts and rods would have been needed then as now.
Pollarding, or coppicing, may well have developed earlier than this...
as man observed the way the trees regrow after being cut....
or, as stated in this book, after beavers had been at work.

I have used the term 'trogne'...
this is a French regional word for a pollard...
and, because he was told off, as a schoolboy...
for using "patois" in an essay, when the accepted French term is tetard...
he maintained an interest in the trogne and has now documented in this wonderful work...
the history...
the reasons...
the types...
the products...
the by-products...
and the wildlife associated with pollarded trees.
Well done, that teacher!!

This year, I started the first new 'trognes' in this meadow...
which are already providing cover for birds and food for insects and their predators.
In two years time, I will make the next batch....
in three, I will recut this years...
and also the first of the old ones.

And, in the meantime, the willow species that I have planted here will become trognes...
cutting rods at waist height is much easier than coppicing.
There will be some areas of coppice though...
because as a method for harvesting wood, it supports other species and a different flora.

But...
there are trognes everywhere in this region...
in every vineyard at least one Golden Osier glows in the winter sunshine...
providing a source of flexible rods for the vignerons.
However, the old pollards...
especially the willows...
are as neglected as ours were...
loosing branches and dying slowly...
until they get grubbed out to make the landscape tidier...
removing not only the habitat they provide...
but history.

One man went to mow...

...went to mow a meadow! At the moment in my case, it is one man and his cat to follow on.

We have around two hectares to mow....
that's around five acres in English money...
and the grass needs to be removed...
to lower the fertility and allow the weaker species to grow more successfully...
and hamper the efforts of  les orties* [nettles].

To mow we have "Betsy"...
our big two-wheel tractor with its 53" cutter bar.
To rake we have me and a Bulldog wooden rake...
so at the moment we slowly get a field full of humps and rows that become humps....
and humps that become bigger humps....
and so on....
and on!

Driving Betsy... the grimace is obligatory (as is the hat!)

When Betsy arrived she wasn't heavy enough at the cutter bar, so a cut of around three inches...
[or fifteen centimetres... I am of old measure]...
became a one foot high trim whenever the wheel hit a molehill.
It was very tiring to use and left me aching...
then the suppliers Trackmaster sent me two weights to attach to the bar and all changed...
she still bucks at humps but it is easier to get the front down again and she is, overall, more controllable...
which is vital when working near the willows!!

It is a big meadow.... this is the smaller bit....

The other reason for being able to mow large areas quickly and easily is that the meadow has Creeping Thistle [Cirsium arvense] Chardon des champs...
which needs to be kept cut before it flowers and the wind dispersed seed blows everywhere.
This is what the Wildlife Trusts have to say on the subject.
So you can see that it would not be beneficial to the birds to erradicate it completely...
not that I think I could!!

The selected areas of nettles [*les orties] that I am mowing are to reduce their competition with the grass.
I have no intention of trying to win the that battle either as...
[1] we want the butterflies that use nettle as a foodplant for the young... and
[2] we use the nettles as fertilizer and occasionally as food.
Well, that's my excuse, anyhows!!

Still mowing.... here at least you can see one of the paths along the edge of the bief (millstream).

Betsy is manufactured in Italy by part of the Ferrari works and moves at walking pace...
so I'm driving one of the slowest Ferraris on the planet....
but there is a big advantage with that...
we are working the land for the wildlife it contains and being able to stop instantly and walk forward to inspect for nests when birds fly up is a great help...
also, by cutting the grass and not chopping it with a flail or a whirling blade, allows the grass to fall aside and allows small beasts to fly, walk, run away.

Occasionally I get flying voles...
these rocket out of the grass and run along on the top, before diving back into the sward...
when they run ahead, this is usually repeated a few seconds later.

One of the first 'humps' is visble to my right in this picture.... it grew as the year wore on....
and had finished at around this height when I mowed through it last week.
We will be able to harvest compost from the bigger of these piles.

Betsy has another attachment...
a big wood-chipper that can handle up to three inch trunks....
but that's another posting.

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* Les Orties = The Nettles

(Thank you Susan for the correction.  

[The Nettles is a Celtic band - J.Nettles is an actor])