Pollarding Willows Along a River Bank

[Vigen Tigen]

I am the guardian of around half a mile of riverbank which contains a mixture of mainly white willow; goat willow and osiers. Most of the big trees self pollard which is good news on one level as I'm about to install a log gasification system, but aesthetically, I'm left with some quite ugly gangly looking trees! 

Having taken a walk in a local town and seen how the authorities manages similar trees along their river bank i.e.they pollard them, I am of a mind to do the same. My question is, where do I start researching how best to do this? I'm not a professional arborist, but as I have the right gear and plenty of experience after 30 years of clearing up trees from the bank and river, will be looking to carry out the work myself

Edited September 14, 2022 by Vigen Tigen

[Mick Dempsey]

Cut them to the required height, simple as that.

 

[Vedhoggar]

If trees have been previously pollarded re-cut as before however if new pollard the cut height will be influenced by how far deer and/or livestock can reach, if not fenced off from livestock that is, plus another 30cm from cut as regrowth might be below cut surface. For roe deer 1.2m, fallow deer 1.8m, cattle 2.1m and up to 3m for horses, all plus 30cm.

[coppice cutter]

I've never planted willow but I've quite a number self-seeded in my wood, and like yourself, a lot self-seeded along a stretch of riverbank which I own.

 

My experience of them is that there is nothing as robust.

 

We graze sheep along the river and they are harsh on the riverbank willow at times, it doesn't deter the willow one jot. I do tend to think however that possibly they're not the most pallatable plant as there's always plenty of new growth on the willow which they don't bother with for some reason.

 

But as above, if you're going for asthetics, probably best cut above where anything around it will be able to reach although even then it won't stop them stripping bark if they take the notion.

[AHPP]

14 minutes ago, coppice cutter said:

I've never planted willow but I've quite a number self-seeded in my wood, and like yourself, a lot self-seeded along a stretch of riverbank which I own.

 

My experience of them is that there is nothing as robust.

 

We graze sheep along the river and they are harsh on the riverbank willow at times, it doesn't deter the willow one jot. I do tend to think however that possibly they're not the most pallatable plant as there's always plenty of new growth on the willow which they don't bother with for some reason.

 

But as above, if you're going for asthetics, probably best cut above where anything around it will be able to reach although even then it won't stop them stripping bark if they take the notion.

Do you let it bush out low to keep sheep away from the river?

[Vedhoggar]

Roe deer love young willow shoots but sometimes just browse on the side that they cannot be seen from so other side gets away, they don't seem to like alder though I've noticed. I've seen sheep seriously damage newly planted willow to a point it had to be all guarded.

[coppice cutter]

3 hours ago, AHPP said:

Do you let it bush out low to keep sheep away from the river?

No, because sheep being the contrary-some creatures that they are would probably then decide to go after the new shoots and the willow would end up luring them in to the river.

[AHPP]

14 minutes ago, coppice cutter said:

No, because sheep being the contrary-some creatures that they are would probably then decide to go after the new shoots and the willow would end up luring them in to the river.

I did remove 'try to' from my post before hitting submit, only because it made the sentence cleaner. Solidarity. I have observed the ovine instinct.