Coppicing
Coppicing is a traditional, sustainable and productive form of woodland management. Since the early middle ages the majority of lowland mixed woods were treated as coppice or coppice-with-standards. The standards, being the uncoppiced trees, mainly oak used for timber framed houses. Coppice trees such as Ash, Hazel and Sweet Chestnut are regularly cut off just above ground level. The stump or “stool” will re-grow to produce a selection of clean straight rods (rather than a single large trunk) which can be harvested over generations.
Traditionally most coppices were cut on rotations of 5–30 years depending on the size of the poles required - supplying local markets with firewood, charcoal, hurdles, fencing, beanpoles, thatching spars, faggots; plus stakes and binders for hedge laying. By the mid 20th century, rising labour costs and a declining commercial market for its products meant that coppicing was in rapid decline. Many coppice woods were replanted with conifers or simply neglected. Today, its main purpose is to encourage biodiversity and the variety of woodland habitats. The habitat will change during the coppice cycle as will the flora and fauna with differing species attracted to the changing environment.
After coppicing, the first year’s new growth can be over two metres, creating a great habitat for a range of plants, animals and invertebrates due to the amount of light that is able to reach the woodland floor. Woodland flowers that exist in old coppices such as bluebells and wood anemone are suddenly joined by a re-emergence of flowers whose buried seeds have lain dormant through lack of sunshine such as primroses, centaury, foxglove and St John’s wort. In subsequent years, as the stools become larger and the canopy begins to close, it becomes a dense area of scrub which is a valuable habitat for nesting birds.
There are several schools of thought as to the height of the cut stool. Some favour a complete cut just above ground level – others point to the benefits of leaving a stump of 300mm or even more which will encourage better regrowth. The practical outcome of this ever higher cutting is “pollarding” which is specifically intended to take the regrowth out of reach of animals. The downside is that until the regrowth starts the resultant stumps look as if the felling is unfinished and incomplete.
There is a strong opinion that one or two strong, young shoots should be left uncut to keep the stool alive. Others, however, believe that all smaller diameter rods be left and just the large diameter material be removed. There is agreement that the final cut surface should be left sloping to encourage water to drain off each stump to prevent rotting and infection. If early young shoots are heavily browsed the stool will probably die. So a coppiced stool needs to be protected from browsing animals particularly rabbits and deer. The woodlands that WBCV work on are usually unfenced. Consequently, we build a protective brash fence around each stool.
On many of the sites worked by our volunteers there has been little recent commercial coppicing. Consequently, the stools will be outgrown, having just a few large stems that are of little value. Younger growth may have been attacked by browsing animals, particularly deer. When volunteers rework an outgrown stool most of the larger timber will be cut for firewood or stacked to make habitat piles for invertebrates and small mammals. On subsequent visits, the rods can be harvested for use as stakes/binders in hedge-laying.