Cotswold Canal Trust - WRG Forestry have completed a tree survey on a 10 mile section of canal from Eastington to Chalford with somewhere in the region of 300 plus trees for complete removal or renovation via pruning, coppicing or pollarding. This involved consultation with local authorities, British Waterways (BW) etc. regarding planning and conservation issues.
The team returned to the Cotswolds in June 2004 combining a visit to The Arboricultural Association show show with an extraction job on The Thames and Severn canal. On the offside of the canal a limb from a willow tree had partially severed and was resting across the canal along with a number of other limbs which had been ripped off in the same area. WRG Forestry spent a day with ladders, chainsaws and tirfor winch untangling and removing the dangerous limbs.
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After a lengthy break from volunteer work on the Cotswolds while the outcome of bids for funding for the restoration of the canal was awaited, WRG Forestry team returned on 29th January 2005. Contractors had been employed by a local industrial estate to pollard some ancient willows along the length of the canal. The overhanging branches from these would in time become an impediment to the progress of the canal restoration and hence these had been removed. We arrived to find the willows had been neatly pollarded, and that local work parties had made a very good start on the clearance of the resultant branches. Two steady days work saw an improvement in the clearance work, although with plenty left for following local groups.