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]

Monk and novice felling a tree, from the Moralia in Job
© Bibliotheque Municipale de Dijon
<click to enlarge>

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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