Thinning and coppicing

When we cut hazel bushes down to ground level, they re-grow and in 5 to 7 years produce poles that we can use or sell.  This also creates an ever-varying habitat for different flowers, insects, mammals and birds.  This is conservation coppicing.  The photo below, taken a couple of months ago, shows an area that we coppiced last winter.  You can see that the hazel has re-grown about a metre.

And this section or 'coupe' was cut two years ago.  The hazel is now 2m tall.

We cut a section each winter, but as we get round to the last section or 'coupe' of our coppice woodland we have found that it is full of young trees that are a bit too large to coppice and there is hardly any hazel.  Most native trees re-grow if cut to ground level but anyway these are rather spindly because they are so close together.  We need to thin them out so that there will be fewer trees but they will be able to grow larger and better.

You can see that there is a lot of new growth on the woodland floor.  Much of it is young ash but there are also hazel, field maple, wayfaring tree, bird cherry and sycamore seedlings.  These are the trees of the future.