This is my dream: To live as my forefathers once did - in harmony with the land that sustains us. A project to investigate and innovate the creation of a low impact home with methods of living in a form of permaculture designed to sustain my family and improve biodiversity. To leave the land richer than before and in doing so enable others to do so.
About Coppicing
Posted 16/04/08 by Matt B in the Woodlands category
Instinct might say that this would kill the tree but in the years that follow new shoots will emerge. After a number of years (which varies based on possible use and species of tree) the cycle can begin again and the coppiced tree, also known as a stool, is ready to be harvested again. Only this time not there is a great deal more wood available. The wikipedia says"The cycle length depends upon the species cut, the local custom, and the use to which the product is put.". The humble Birch can be coppiced for what are called faggots every 3 or 4 years but the mighty Oak can only be coppiced over a cycle of 50 years for poles or firewood.
Coppicing can be used to creat long straight poles of wood or thicker "logs" as required and the tree will live like this to many times it normal age. In this way it outlives many generations of "woodland managers". The wikipedia says "Coppicing has the effect of maintaining trees at a juvenile stage, and a regularly coppiced tree will never die of old age some coppice stools may therefore reach immense ages."
A coppice woodland is very often harvested one area at a time on a rotation. These sections or coups (pronounced "coop") are therefore at different stages of growth improving the biodiversity of the area. A crop is, therefore, available for each year at one location or another in the woodland area.
As I mentioned coppicing has the effect of providing a much richer and more varied range and number of habitats. This is because the woods have a all sorts of different aged and different staged coppices growing in it - the result is increased biodiversity. For someone wishing to live the dream of living in a woodland this added richness can be both a benefit for food but also a possitive to present should planning permission rear it's ugly head (which it will do sooner or later).
For more information on Coppicing I have compiled a collection of links:
thatroundhouse.info/live.htm includes information of how coppicing is being used by Tony Wrench and Jane Faith as part of a way to live within a ecological footprint that is sustainable. It was from here that I learned that the aim is for 1.9 hectares per person but that in the UK we average 6 hectares per person or about 3.2 planets. The BBC have more pictures.
The national trust have their own version of the story although I dislike the way they open with assumptions and best guesses as if they were documented facts. woodnet.org.uk goes on to rather fancifully copy the pattern.
Sticking to the facts of the mater countrysideinfo.co.uk also have a page up on the subject but it is rather scant.
Rather more in depth is coppicing.com which has many illustrative photo's, a case study and, as you might expect, lots of pages on the subject. However, it is impossible to link to anything other than the main page.
The coppice image used is from the wiki commons under a relatively free license.
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