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Woodland
Woods are wild places, waste and desolate,
that many trees grow
in without fruit, and also few having fruit. In these woods there
are
often wild beasts and fowl; herbs, grass, leas and pastures grow
here
and medicinal herbs are found in woods.
But woods are also
places of deceit and hunting, for wild beasts are hunted here, and
watches
and deceits are ordained and set of hounds and hunters.
[Read more of this thirteenth-century
account]
Woodland was a valuable and necessary resource
for any Cistercian community. It was a source of timber for building
and repair work, of thatch and fern for roofing and flooring, and
might yield fuel and minerals, such as iron and lead. Not least
of all, woodland afforded important pasturage, especially for pigs
who could graze on acorns and beech nuts.
Read about woodland management
at Rievaulx
Read about woodland management at Fountains
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