THE NWDG CORING GROUP

There was interest from NWDG members when Colin Edwards undertook some tree coring on the April 2009 excursion. It was clear from discussion that individual tree age and stand age information could be of great value to a wide range of projects and interests involving NWDG members, with the benefit of enhancing the understanding of native woodlands more widely. This led to the idea of running NWDG coring workshops.

Coring is a technical skill requiring training and access to specialist equipment, if it is to be undertaken properly. Laboratory facilities are also required to prepare and age the samples correctly. The workshops were designed to train NWDG members in the correct collection and preparation of increment cores from trees, and in tree age determination from cores. NWDG is also making available an equipment kit which only Trained Members of NWDG are able to hire (conditions apply) at a reasonable rate. The coring workshop and kit hire fees are designed to cover the cost of this kit and its maintenance.

The tutors: Colin Edwards, of Forest Research (Northern Research Station), Roslin, has experience in coring native British trees for age determinations, relating to his interests in stand dynamics. Coralie Mills is a freelance dendrochronologist based in Edinburgh, experienced in applying tree-ring analysis to questions of woodland history, management history, archaeology and cultural landscapes.

Two one-day NWDG Coring workshops were held at NRS in May and June 2010, and trained a total of 11 NWDG members. These trained NWDG corers are: Andy Acton, Adele Beck, Rose Clarkson, Carol Crawford, Iris Glimmerveen, Gordon Gray Stephens, Alan McDonnell, Sarah Toulson, Gale Ward, Mary Winsch and Jonathan Wordsworth. NWDG is most grateful to Forest Research (NRS) for use of its facilities for running these workshops.

Colin Edwards is facilitating onward use of facilities at NRS for Trained Members to prepare and obtain ages from cores they take themselves. Full details are available on the Equipment Hire Agreement on the Coring Kit Hire page The cores will become part of an NWDG-owned core collection, the NWDG Core Repository, which is being offered storage space in NRS through Colin Edwards, and the cores and the information derived will usually be made available for wider research. A catalogue of NWDG cored sites will be maintained, to prevent duplication of effort and over-sampling.

This section of the NWDG website is intended as a home for resources to support the trained corers, and includes the Kit Hire details and form, Resources such as the sample recording form, coring Project News from members of the group, and Coring Links to helpful resources elsewhere.  

If there is sufficient interest, the NWDG coring workshop will be re-run at a later date. So please do register your interest by contacting Coralie Mills.