Winter Work Out

18/11/06

Volunteers, John, Brian and Kate were given a master class in the art of coppicing by park warden Anne Litherland. The coppicing took place on the Blackberry Slopes area of the park where the trees had become overgrown and were restricting the growth of other plants.

Coppicing is an ancient way of managing woodlands to produce a marketable crop of wood. It creates a structure which varies from open glade, through brambles and scrub on newly exposed areas, dense thickets of competing young saplings growing around fallen tree trunks, and close shaded canopies of mature forest to ancient stag headed trees. Woods are divided into compartments and trees and shrubs are cut back on rotation based on the number of years it takes for the 'underwood' to reach its desired size. This gives rise to an irregular patchwork of panels of trees of different ages, offering wildlife a wide range of habitats.

Felling trees in this way does not kill the wood. Bradfield wood in Suffolk, first recorded in 1252, though possibly old even then, has been cut down at least 70 times in its history of coppice management.

Hazel is grown as a simple coppice or coppice with standards. The wood is divided into coups or cutting areas. In Blackberry Slopes we are concentrating on one coup. Felling occurs during the winter months when the sap is down. This is to avoid disturbance to the wildlife, through spring cutting and because summer cut hazel makes low quality products.