An Idiot's guide to Ancient Woodland management

[trigger_andy]

On 22/12/2019 at 12:25, the village idiot said:

Do people still read books?

I personally read at least 5 books a month.  

 

I'll give that book a try, cheers.  

[the village idiot]

A hazely picture from yesterday.

 

We are working in a section of neglected coppice at the moment. The whole area covers 25 hectares and much of the hazel understorey looks similar to the photo below, although this is a particularly big specimen.

 

nb. Not every hazel stool sprouts an idiot from it's base!

 

 

When you compare this picture to 'in rotation' hazel (see below) it is pretty obvious as to which can yield the best variety of potential product.

 

 

Our primary drive in reinstating the hazel coppice cycle is to enrich the habitat for biodiversity, but the fact that, through coppicing, you are also laying the groundwork for the generation of a more valuable product is also highly significant. There is an old adage that 'a wood that pays is a wood that stays'. There is a lot of truth in this, especially if you tag the word 'managed' onto the end. It is quite surprising what a hedge layer or thatcher is prepared to pay for a heap of sticks.

 

Most sustainable woodland management practices require you to weigh up and balance both ecological and profitability considerations. Unless your income stream is generated elsewhere it is important to ensure that your activities are accumulating enough income to keep you viable. Improving the 'quality' of the crop is an integral part of this.

 

We are cutting one hectare per year in the 25 hectare plot, producing a 25 year coppice cycle. (A map of the whole block divided into hectare coppice coupes is copied below). This allows the 'high canopy' trees to grow to a firewood friendly size before being re-cut. We may well incorporate a shorter cutting cycle for the hazel understorey (maybe 7-8 years). This will depend somewhat on the markets that are available and whether the inevitable bramble layer has been shaded out enough to enable easy access. If we adopt this approach the hazel will be cut twice or even thrice in the period between coppicing the larger growing species. Running two rotations in tandem is a tried and tested approach.

 

 

Those of you with too much time on your hands will have noticed that there are only 19 designated compartments on the map rather than 25. This is because 6 hectares of the whole area are taken up with our mega ride edges and a couple of areas earmarked for non-intervention (more on this in later posts). We may choose to operate on a 19 year cycle or alternatively we may not cut a compartment every fifth year. I haven't made a decision on this yet, it will depend a bit on how quickly the non-hazel coppiced trees put on growth.

 

It is feasible to let the hazel grow on to the 25 year threshold too and have firewood as the designated product, although it is sometimes difficult to market hazel as firewood. This is a shame as it burns beautifully but the general public have generally been conditioned to desire larger diameter wood split down into wedges. Hazel rarely grows to a size that would require splitting. I have considered producing unsplit hazel firewood bags at a slightly reduced cost to test the market but haven't got my act together on it yet.

 

Next up, a hole for a vole?

 

 

[Paul in the woods]

Interesting, I've been advised to be careful of mammals living in the stools of overstood hazel but I didn't expect them to be so big...

 

Are you removing all the stems in the overstood hazel or leaving any shoots? It has been suggested to me to leave a few young stems if I try and rejuvenate a old stools but I'm not sure it's necessary.

 

This might be something you'll come to later but I'm curious to know your plans when most of the woodland is back into management and you have much less firewood to sell. Do you plan to sell many coppice products for example?

[the village idiot]

24 minutes ago, Paul in the woods said:

Interesting, I've been advised to be careful of mammals living in the stools of overstood hazel but I didn't expect them to be so big...

?

 

24 minutes ago, Paul in the woods said:

Are you removing all the stems in the overstood hazel or leaving any shoots? It has been suggested to me to leave a few young stems if I try and rejuvenate a old stools but I'm not sure it's necessary.

We remove all the stems from our overstood coppice stools. As I'm sure you'll know hazel 'loves' to be coppiced and failure to produce new shoots is very rare. They'll come up from the roots if not from the stump. Browsing damage is a much greater concern, and I guess leaving a stem or two uncut could act as a safeguard against failure through feasting.

Some people leave a bendy stem or two for layering (a technique for producing a new stool from an existing one). We may start doing this on the second cut after we get a good idea of healthy stool density.

 

24 minutes ago, Paul in the woods said:

This might be something you'll come to later but I'm curious to know your plans when most of the woodland is back into management and you have much less firewood to sell. Do you plan to sell many coppice products for example?

This is a good question. The Woodland is very large so if we get our rotations right it is unlikely that we will run out of viable quantities of firewood material. That being said there will be a progression towards smaller diameter material, less Ash, and resource of better quality for coppice crafts. I can see us moving towards more specialised products as the management progresses, but I imagine firewood will still be the backbone of the operation.

 

It looks as though Birch is going to become the new Ash on our site so we would be wise to start looking at the most profitable markets for Birch wood arisings.

Edited December 31, 2019 by the village idiot

[Mick Dempsey]

Would you plant white birch?

[The avantgardener]

5 minutes ago, the village idiot said:

It looks as though Birch is going to become the new Ash on our site so we would be wise to start looking at the most profitable markets for Birch wood arisings.

There is a pretty good mark up on these Birch faggots for horse hurdles, you just need a good connection with The Jockey Club.

[the village idiot]

2 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Would you plant white birch?

It's unlikely that we'll plant anything as we prefer to rely on natural regeneration.

 

Not sure if by 'white birch' you mean silver birch (which comes up naturally in our wood like cress) or 'paper birch' which is very white and more common across the pond.

[Mick Dempsey]

Betula pubescens.

[the village idiot]

4 minutes ago, The avantgardener said:

There is a pretty good mark up on these Birch faggots for horse hurdles, you just need a good connection with The Jockey Club.

Wow!

 

We do produce a limited amount of birch bundles for horse jumps already, but yes, it could become a more integral product for us in time.

 

A huge area must have been cut to produce that load. They pack down to nothing when you bundle them up.

[the village idiot]

3 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Betula pubescens.

Had to look that up. It's a bit bizarre that downy birch is called white birch as it is much less white than silver birch.

 

We have downy birch and silver birch in the wood already. They tend to hybridise also so we just call everything Birch. It suits our simple nature.