Low-impact forestry hub and much more besides, the Hilliyfield are looking for volunteers to help with their barn-building project on Dartmoor this summer. Doug King-Smith tells us more. Read more …

Here’s your chance! We hear from Ele and Anthony at Pentiddy Woods about a unique learning opportunity on offer from October 2019. Read more …

From growing the trees to selecting the right timber for the job, Andy Reynolds brings a lifetime of experience in forestry, carpentry and innovative thinking to timber for building. Here he explains how to source timber as responsibly as you can. Read more …

Steffi Schaffler lives and works in Scotland, running a horse logging business along with her partner Dave and 3 horses. Read more …

During winter, while the animals hibernate and the trees sleep, magic happens on hillsides across the land – forests are created! A brief account of the ups and downs of life for a tree planter this winter… creating a woodland on a farm in Devon.

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I have been running our home for the last decade or so using wind and solar electricity. The experiences of building this system have been distilled into a book, of which we are now in the third edition. Read more …

It’s one thing to identify deciduous trees in summer, with their distinctive leaves on full show, but what about winter? Without leaves, we have to look at other telltale signs. After a bit of practice, it can be easier than you think. Have a go, using these helpful methods, which will make it easier to identify trees in leaf too.
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In a post kindly shared from the Native Hands blog, our basketry specialist Ruby Taylor recounts a recent trip to the woods to make a beautiful ash pack basket. Read more …

We’re excited to introduce our new Facebook group Living Low Impact – and you’re invited! Read more …

This is a question asked in an interesting debate on Facebook along the lines of uplands and their appropriate maintenance with regards to grazing. There are several fascinating projects and opinion pieces that were linked to Read more …

At this year’s Scottish Smallholder Festival  I attended a fascinating talk by Jack Flusk and Katie Swift of Conservation Pigs about their pioneering use of pigs for woodland conservation work. With benefits to the pigs, the pig keeper and the woodland this is a practice which could become far more widespread. Read more …

In this post, Jeffrey the Natural Builder shares his top reading recommendations based on an original natural building books post on his blog. It’s over to him from here. Read more …

Burning wood is a highly sustainable and environmentally friendly heating method. Burning wood on a high efficiency stove can create less CO2 than letting the same wood rot on the floor of a forest. Read more …

A traditional rural skill sometimes overlooked, crook and stickmaking is making a comeback in the UK. Lowimpact.org’s Sophie Paterson spoke to Joe Musialowski of Wren Country Sticks about his journey to become a professional stickmaker and what the future might hold for this timeless country craft. Supplier of bespoke sticks, crooks and croziers for walkers, shepherds and Bishops, it’s over to Joe to tell us more in his own words. Read more …

After reading the excellent article in Smallwoods magazine (issue 61) on formative pruning by Steve Woollard, I thought to build on that article with a perspective from a timber user. Read more …

I’ve had six years of self-employed catering with Proved Wood-fired Pizza, alongside working full-time in the housing and homeless sector. I originally wanted to sell the van/business to help fund going back to university as a full-time student. Read more …

We’ve been contacted several times by people who ask why we’re promoting the building of timber homes and the burning of wood in wood stoves or biomass boilers. Their argument was that timber building and the production of firewood require the felling of trees Read more …

This article holds some clues to the faults in timber most commonly found in Oak and Sweet Chestnut, but I have also encountered it in Southern Yellow Pine. For the novice, timber shake may sound a bit nautical or piratical, but it is a fault in growing trees Read more …

The various pressures and threats to UK woodland are ever-increasing. These can include development, climate change or globalisation contributing to the spread of disease, insect and mammalian pests. Read more …