COPPICING HAZEL

Volunteers are coppicing hazel in Cuckoo Pen at Filnore.  This will let more light in to promote ground flora . . . . .

. . . . and as a by-product create poles to be used on site for steps, path edging, etc

The thin twigs are trimmed off with billhooks showing the nascent catkins that grow on the upper branches where the light reaches them.  They would have matured in February but have now been sacrificed on the altar of coppice management.

This less usable brash material is made into a dead hedge surrounding the cut area (coupe).  This is (a) to clear the woodland floor for plants to grow, (b) to create a hedgy habitat for small creatures and (c) to show us in a year's time, where we coppiced.  It is not designed to keep people out.

Stakes are sharpened and inserted into the ground in two parallel rows

Then the brash is laid between the stakes and tidied off with loppers.