Coppicing

Once again we have been coppicing hazel.  This time at the bottom of the slope.  

As the wood is now 20 years old, planted in 1998, the hazel is quite hefty and it is more like thinning trees than simple coppicing which you would hope to do on a seven year cycle.

This produces thin poles for beansticks, thicker wood for hedging stakes and long straight poles for building steps and footpaths on site.  The thickest wood is suitable for firewood once seasoned.

This leavesa lot of twiggy brash, which we make into dead hedges to mark out the coupe (the area cut), so we know where we got up to.

The dead hedge also makes a different habitat and it leaves the floor clear so that flowering plants and tree seedlings can take advantage of the bare soil and increased light.