Hazel Coppice Restoration

Management Prescriptions

Neglected coppice can be felled at any time of the year with little effect on subsequent growth, but it is inadvisable to cut during spring and early summer when it will disturb nesting birds. The tree must be in its dormant cycle to begin the process of coppicing.


Stools should be cut as close to the ground as possible. Cut the tree above the basal wood, which is the swollen area at the base of the tree trunk. New stems will probably develop closer to, or below, ground level and may develop their own root systems and have greater stability.


Coppice with standards is more complicated to manage than simple coppice. Standards reduce the size and vigour of coppice shoots and stools, and if necessary overstorey canopy cover should be reduced when the understorey is cut.


Allow shoots to grow. A number of shoots will spring up and grow rapidly after cutting. These may be cut during the dormant season, whenever they reach the desired size. Cut each new stem above its basal section. New shoots will continue growing after each cutting. A broad stump, known as a stool, eventually will develop.


New shoots must be protected from deer, until they have grown beyond the height at which browsing damage occurs, for vigorous crops in good growing conditions this will be a minimum of two growing seasons. Temporary plastic fencing erected around a coupe of hazel, should provide adequate protection.


Shoots will grow rapidly during the following spring which is then left until ready for cropping. Once cropped the cycle starts again.

Tools to be used

Small or medium-sized shrubs and small-diameter tree species can be cut with a pruning saw or billhook. Thicker-diameter shrubs or trees may require the use of a bowsaw, axe or chainsaw. Regardless of the tool you choose, remember to follow all necessary safety precautions. Be aware that thicker trees may require undercutting, which can add significantly to the danger of falling material.

The conservation value of coppice

Some butterflies, in particular, require the open conditions of newly cleared woodland which was once provided by coppicing. Several of the woodland butterflies, for example, have become much rarer since the decline in coppicing.


Actively coppiced woodland is very diverse in its structure and is, therefore, attractive to many different plants and animals. Rich communities of birds, for example, can be found in coppiced woods with many stages of growth. Although no birds are confined to coppiced woods, some, such as nightingale and garden warbler, find ideal habitats in coppice. These species and other birds needing open and young woodland were probably far more widespread before the decline in coppicing.

Many invertebrates undoubtedly thrive in young coppice because it provides open ground with a particularly warm microclimate for adults feeding at flowers or hunting for prey and because the highly diverse ground flora. Ground-dwelling species such as ground beetles and wolf spiders occur in these areas, when cutting is done.

Under the shade of a mature coppice canopy the field layer is usually very sparse some species of plant have become dependant on coppice woodland. Their success require regular cutting of the coppice. If cutting become neglected the dense canopy that forms will shade out the woodland floor.


Light reaching the woodland floor is the first step to promote the growth of flowering plant species such as bluebells, ground-ivy and yellow archangel.

What is Coppicing?

COPPICE WOODLANDS

Coppicing is the act of periodically cutting a small tree so that it produces many shoots rather than one main trunk.

History

The practice of coppicing dates back to Neolithic times and by the middle ages the hazel cycle system had become the standard form of woodland management. In Celtic law, hazel or ‘coll’ were given chieftain status along with Oak, Yew and Ash. The system reached its zenith in the 19th Century by becoming an indispensable part of the rural economy. The isolation of settlements and industries meant that timber had to be procured from the immediate area. This necessitated perpetual management of woodlands in order to produce a constant timber crop. Nearly all indigenous species will sprout readily from the base if cut and this is how the crop of wood was maintained. Rotational cutting over an area of woodland gave a constant supply of wood which was used in every aspect of life. A few standard trees – ones that were never coppiced – were allowed to reach maturity or a size for specific purposes such as building houses, barns or boats.

Decline

By the mid 1800’s the decline in rotational cutting had begun. More and more oak standards were planted to supply the rapidly expanding tanning and ship building industries – ironically both demands collapsed before the felling time. Other factors aiding the decline included the improved transportation which carried the exploitation of coal for fuel, and brick and stone for building to rural settlements and industries. Since then two world wars have decimated the rural communities who managed these rotational systems and, coupled with the march of modernisation in agricultural practices, have caused many ancient woodland sites to be grubbed up and changed to extensive softwood plantations, or to increase productive field sizes for crops or pasture land for grazing stock.

Conservation

The act of coppicing increases the longevity of a tree. By rotational coppicing in coups (the term given to compartments within a woodland as illustrated) it will be highly beneficial to both flora and fauna, ranging from the dense canopy and shaded area of the older coppice to the bare open ground of the cleared coppice with various stages of growth between the two. This creates a constantly recurring cycle and it is important to remember that most of our native flora woodland species and wildlife have evolved under the coppice system. Years 3 - 5 are most suitable for wildlife cover. It is estimated that over 90% of coppice is out of cycle or derelict, even this state in conservation terms is far more favourable than plantation or field systems.

Coppice Working

Ideal conditions for coppicing occur between October and March. This is the period when the sap level is low in the stools. Cutting outside this time can harm the stools and reduce the vigour of the regrowth. It will also produce material full of sap which, in the case of hazel for hurdles, lacks the durability of those made with the sap ‘down’. Other factors include the damage to flowering flora and nesting wildlife.

Just below the bark is the cambium layer – this is the living layer that produces the shoots when cut. Before felling commences the immediate area around the stool should be cleared and the height and lean of the growth assessed for safety reasons. The cutting height should be as close to the ground as possible. This gives a greater yield of produce and also increases root development. In the case of old stools, this may be as high as 0.5m. The angle of the cut should be outwards and clean to prevent water collecting which will cause rotting. The finished cut when felling should leave no damage to the bark and cambium level of the stool.

The size of area cut in any one season is called a coup and its size will depend on the workforce and management objective. Traditionally this was dictated by the ability of one or two men to prepare the produce required in a winter’s season. As a general rule coups should be no smaller than 0.5 hectares (1 acre) and no more than 25% of the wood or 5 ha maximum.

Traditionally, billhooks with various weights were used with handsaws and side axes. This is still the case but with the added help coming from the chainsaw (full safety precautions to be observed). Waste material such as ‘lop and top’ is placed over the cut stool to protect new shoots emerging in the following season from the ravages of deer browsing. Any excess should be burnt, chipped or heaped into habitat piles. Bonfire sites should be kept both in sites and numbers.


Rotation Lengths:


Suggested length of rotation is very much site specific and geared to the end product.


Hazel - Spars and other thatching uses, pea and bean sticks, hurdles (7 to 12 years)


Birch - Horse jumps, besom brooms (4 to 12 years)

Ash, Birch, Field - Firewood (15+ years)

Maple, Hornbeam Turnery poles (15 to 20 years)

Oak - Charcoal cleftwood (30+ years)

Standards

Overstory also needs management. A wide age distribution being the goal, with new saplings coming on to replace the mature trees.

Suggested age range:-

20 saplings – 0 – 25 years                                  

12 young trees – 25 – 50 years

8 semi mature trees – 50 – 80 years

6 mature trees – 80 – 125 years

4 trees ready for felling – 110+ years

Replanting Coppices

Consideration should be given to replanting gaps in the coppice floor which prevent the canopy from suppressing all undesirable species from gaining a foothold. The suggested densities should be aimed for, depending on soil and drainage.

Hazel - 1500/2000 stools per acre

Sweet Chestnut - 800/1000 stools per acre

Ash and Oak - 200/500 stools per acre

Economics

Short rotations such as hazel make favourable income compared to other broadleaved crops. In addition it will provide a livelihood for approximately 10 times as many people as a similar sized wood managed by modern forestry methods. Hazel is used between the years 6 – 12, any older and it fast becomes a liability. Prices paid by coppice workers for standing in-cycle hazel vary widely per acre depending on quality, but a well-stocked acre of 8 year old hazel should produce 10,000 – 12,000 rods of 10 to 15 feet in length. This can be converted into approximately 300 x 6 foot square hurdles, or 75,000 thatching spars. In addition, assorted bean and pea sticks, clothes line props and the occasional oak or ash standard. Other uses include stakes and ethers or hedge laying, charcoal, pulpwood, wood chips, turnery, firewood, garden products, compost bins, tree guards, clothes pegs and tent pegs, walking sticks and rake handles. Other coppice species include Alder, Apple, Aspen, Birch, Sweet Chestnut, Lime, Hornbeam, Ash, Oak, Maple and Willow, all having a multitude of uses and income.

History of UK Forest

13000 BC:

• Ice Age came to an end – as glaciers and ice receded northward trees began to colonise Britain.

• Britain was joined to the continent at this time – seed spread northwards from the continent.

• Early colonisers included species such as Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) and Birch (Betula sp.) – these were followed by Oak (Quercus robur), Beech (Fagus sylvatica), Elm (Ulmus sp.), etc.

10000 BC:

• Land bridge between Britain and continent disappeared.

• An image of the area known as Doggerland which connected the British Isles and the European continent.

• Most of Britain was covered in forest – trees that had established themselves by this time are known as Native.

5000 BC:

• Britain experienced warm moist climate.

• Most of the country up to 2500 ft. (800 m) was covered in forests of Oak, Elm and Elder (Sambucus nigra).

• Birch was present in some of the uplands – rarer in the east and south.

• Highlands of Scotland contained a cover of Pine (Pinus sylvestris).

• Animals of the forest included Bear, Wolf and Mesolithic man (middle stone age) - these men were hunters and fishers, collected berries in the Wild Wood, as the virgin forest is known.

3000 BC:

• Neolithic period

• First farmers appeared introducing stock-keeping.

• Britain and Ireland were still covered in forest at this time, grassland was rare.

• Foliage was probably the only fodder available for sheep and cattle.

• Particularly Elm (Ulmus procera) – elm decline during this period may be due to feeding stock on a large scale.

• Another theory for elm decline – infection akin to Dutch Elm disease

• Neolithic man seems to have cleared patches of forest to plant crops, then abandoned clearings as crop yields declined, - didn’t know about crop rotation.

• Usually re-colonisation of woodland followed, but occasionally the clearance was more lasting.

1700 BC:

Bronze Age:

• Acceleration of deforestation – man now had metal tools to clear the forest.

• Chalk hills of eastern and southern England were cleared for arable farming – remained important arable areas throughout the Iron Age and Roman occupation.

Anglo-Saxon Period:

• Considerable forest clearance and expansion of agriculture on clay lands of Midlands and Weald.

• Introduction of the eight-ox plough.

• Farmland abandoned on some of the chalk ridges – gave Beech (Fagus sylvatica) a chance to establish – normally unable to compete with Oak (Quercus robur).

• Woodland formed in areas such as Chilterns and Cotswolds.

• Major deforestation around AD300 coincided with the beginning of the Christian era – Celtic monasteries promoted agriculture.

• Scotland – some forest was destroyed by fire during Viking raids – main deforestation came later than in England.

AD 1086:

• Doomsday records show greater portion of England was still covered with forest compared to today.

• Normans designated areas of Royal Forest:-

New Forest

Forest of Arden

Feckenham (Midlands) -.special laws passed to preserve the King’s hunting, particularly boar and deer.

• Norman woodland was used extensively to provide ‘pannage’ for swine, and they also re-introduced rabbits (previously introduced by the Romans a thousand years earlier).

• These were two important factors in preventing regeneration.

• Cistercian monks had considerable impact on the ecological history of the uplands of northern England. They were initially tenacious toilers of the soil, clearing vast tracks of wooded and unpromising countryside for agriculture and industry. As the extent of their holdings outstripped their ability to provide sufficient monks to work the land they recruited vast numbers of ‘lay brothers’ who perpetuated the order’s industrious and entrepreneurial impulse. By the high middle ages, the Cistercian Order was the wealthiest organisation, ecclesiastical or lay, in England.

• Monasteries owned large tracts of hill country – monks were efficient estate managers.

• They farmed sheep on a large scale – large areas of woodland were cleared to provide grazing as a consequence, in the 12th and 15th Centuries.

AD 1200:

Oakwoods

• Woodlands of lowland England began to have scarcity value – began to be managed for profit

• Coppicing was the usual method, leaving a number of standards of Oak and occasionally Elm.

• Lower layers of Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), Maple (Acer campestre), and Hazel (Corylus avellana) were regularly cut (coppiced) on a 14 year cycle.

• Exploitation of timber in 16th Century.

• Expansion of sheep in 18th Century.

• Fully grown standards provided large timber for buildings.

• Coppiced timber was used for firewood, poles, charcoal, tool and weapon handles.

• Artificial woodland structure developed as ‘coppice with standards’.

• Old coppice can be identified by a cluster of 4 or 5 slender trunks from one stool.

AD 1800 – 2000

Industrial Revolution

• Woodland products replaced by fossil fuels

• Coppicing was abandoned in many places in 19th Century, but persisted locally up to the First World War.

• Wholesale felling during two world wars.

• Deaths of skilled woodland workers

• Setting up of the Forestry Commission (established 1919) to create a supply of home grown timber.

• Loss of 20 million elms from Dutch Elm disease.

• Catastrophic storms of October 1987 and January 1990.

• Succession of debilitating droughts – (1975 and 1976 were particular dry years).

• Closure of small sawmills means higher costs in transportation to fewer larger automated sawmills.

Conclusion

• Woodlands are much more a product of past management than they are natural features.

• Ancient woodlands have survived because they were managed.

• Management is expensive so income from woodland is crucial.

• Coppicing now becoming re-established – disturbance of the soil after cutting allows establishment of open-ground plants such as Marsh Thistle (Cirisium palustre), light reaching the ground encourages vigorous growth of species such as Violets (Viola sp.) and Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-sciptus) as well as the coppice stools themselves.

Native Tree Species

Native species are those that have arrived naturally on the island of Britain and have been here since post glacial times. Britain lost most of its flora and fauna during the Ice Age as plants and animals retreated south in the path of the advancing glaciers. When this cold period was eventually over some 10,000 years ago the land was recolonized by species that crossed via land bridges that existed between Britain and the continent. Some species, however, did not arrive in time as the land bridges disappeared under the rising seas from the glacial melt waters. As a result, some common tree species that are native to the continent are not represented in the native flora such as beech and Norway spruce. Beech succeeded in crossing to the south of England.

Most of our native trees are broadleaves such as oak, ash, birch etc while conifers are represented by only three species– Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), yew and juniper – the latter being only a shrub. Conifers form only a very minor part of the native species resource and consequently reference to native species usually means native broadleaves.

Currently, native species form only a small percentage of our forests due to their low productivity in relation to introduced species. Native broadleaves are more difficult to grow requiring sheltered fertile sites and a high degree of silvicultural skill if productive stands of quality timber are to be achieved. Better quality of land is, however, becoming available for afforestation in farm forests and along with attractive grants and premiums, native broadleaf species are being planted in higher numbers than any time since the start of the afforestation programme which began in the 1920s. Scots pine is also being planted but mostly as a nurse species in mixture with broadleaves.

Native species are being planted not only for timber production but also to encourage and enhance biodiversity in our forests. Native trees have a long association with many indigenous animals and plant species and provide rich and diverse habitats that are not seen in stands of introduced species, particularly conifers. Old forests and stands of native species are important islands of native biodiversity and it is from these areas that native plants and animals spread to new habitats. Their conservation and enhancement is therefore an important objective in forest management which today is also concerned with the environmental sustainability of the forest resource.

Elm, wych (Ulmus glabra) - Despite the English elm's name, wych elm is the only elm that is regarded as being truly native to Britain.As a results of Dutch elm disease, wych elm is now found very infrequently.

Woodland Trees In Britain

Many different tree species are able to grow and flourish in Britain due to our temperate climate. Along with native species, trees from far flung parts of the globe are to be found in our forests, woodlands, parks and gardens. Many have become naturalised or have proven to be particularly well adapted to British conditions and as a result are widely planted in our forests.

Both native and non-native trees have their own individual characteristics, whether it be fast growth rate, ability to grow on exposed sites, autumn colour, good wildlife habitat etc. These different attributes enable us to match species to appropriate sites thus ensuring that the trees survive and grow and fulfill the purposes for which they were planted.

Having a choice of many tree species also gives us a variety of timbers for different end uses ranging from low grade construction material to high quality joinery. The variation in crown shapes, foliage colour and texture adds diversity to the appearance of the countryside while the ecological benefits of broadleaves enhances the biodiversity within our forests.