Natural Alder Coppice

[Elliott.F]

 

We’ve got an area of about 3/4 acre of naturally regenerated Alder - both Italian and native varieties next to our woodland. It has good access so we want to manage it as SRC for firewood. 
 

The largest stems are around 4” at chest height, but it’s very dense with much smaller material as you can see in the pic. 
 

Should we start to thin it out this winter or just leave it, as it seems to be doing ok and save ourselves the work?

Aside from speeding up time to maturity, the biggest reason I can think of to thin is to improve the diversity so a bit more plant life can thrive under the canopy. 
At the moment it’s a bit of a monoculture. 
 

Any thoughts or advice greatly appreciated  

 

Cheers  

[Dan Maynard]

I think if you thin then the canopy will quickly close over, so not very helpful to wildlife. I do conservation work at the local woodland and best practice seems to be coppice areas in rotation so that you end up with a range of ages of plant, then scrub/bramble, then saplings push through and finally close over for a few years before being felled again.

 

You'd probably want something like 7 year rotation so divide the plot into 7 coupes and cut one each year, or 14 coupes and cut 2 etc.  Given the long term nature of the game you want to get this right though so probably worth trying to get advice through someone like small wood owners group.

 

Other thought looking at that you should maybe invest in a branch logger, super quick turning those poles into burnable wood.

[Paul in the woods]

5 hours ago, Elliott.F said:

Any thoughts or advice greatly appreciated  

Depending on where you are in Devon the beavers will coppice it for you...

 

When I've coppiced alder it produces multiple stems but after a couple of years it seems to thin itself and only a few dominant stems prevail. At least the deer don't like it.

 

I like burning alder, and it dries quickly, but it also burns quickly so some don't like it as a firewood. Good for cooking over as it produces a flavoursome smoke.

[Elliott.F]

5 hours ago, Dan Maynard said:

I think if you thin then the canopy will quickly close over, so not very helpful to wildlife. I do conservation work at the local woodland and best practice seems to be coppice areas in rotation so that you end up with a range of ages of plant, then scrub/bramble, then saplings push through and finally close over for a few years before being felled again.

 

You'd probably want something like 7 year rotation so divide the plot into 7 coupes and cut one each year, or 14 coupes and cut 2 etc.  Given the long term nature of the game you want to get this right though so probably worth trying to get advice through someone like small wood owners group.

 

Other thought looking at that you should maybe invest in a branch logger, super quick turning those poles into burnable wood.

Thanks Dan, some great tips.

I think you’re right about the canopy so I won’t worry about that, but dividing the area into blocks for annual cutting is sensible. 

However, because these are all young trees that have never been cut , I think maybe I need to establish some individual stems at a good spacing and allow them to grow on for a few more years, then begin cutting them on a Coppice rotation?

I will continue to explore the options. 

 

Also, great tip on the branch logger. I’d not actually heard of those, so went on YouTube to learn. 

Lastly, just out of interest what sort of conservation work do you do? 
Cheers E. 

 

[Stere]

How many yrs growth is that?

 

How about leaving them a few  more yrs to get some chunkier logs then coppice the lot?

 

From the photo thinning looks alot of hassle  thus abit impratical in that thicket?

 

Some thinning might be easier done once the  area has being coppiced  as they  start to regen during the first fews yrs of the the next coppice cycle?

 

Branch logger seems like a good idea.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Stere

[slack ma girdle]

9 hours ago, Elliott.F said:

 

We’ve got an area of about 3/4 acre of naturally regenerated Alder - both Italian and native varieties next to our woodland. It has good access so we want to manage it as SRC for firewood. 
 

The largest stems are around 4” at chest height, but it’s very dense with much smaller material as you can see in the pic. 
 

Should we start to thin it out this winter or just leave it, as it seems to be doing ok and save ourselves the work?

Aside from speeding up time to maturity, the biggest reason I can think of to thin is to improve the diversity so a bit more plant life can thrive under the canopy. 
At the moment it’s a bit of a monoculture. 
 

Any thoughts or advice greatly appreciated  

 

Cheers  

What is your optimum fire wood size, and how many years does it take to grow. That will dictate how many coppice coups you have.

The reason for thinning is to reduce competition for the retained trees, and allow better growth .

Branch loggers are good, but they produce logs too quickly. This is mine in action on manky dead Ash. Fills my 10x5 trailer In about 15-20 minutes

 

[Dan Maynard]

It's mainly coppicing, so we clear to the ground. Because of limited labour we just do a strip 5-15m wide around the rides, this gives maximum diversity benefit for the labour input. Being SSSI there is a pattern of patches agreed between Wildlife Trust and Natural England for the next 20 years so we can't just fell anything.

[Elliott.F]

2 hours ago, Stere said:

How many yrs growth is that?

 

How about leaving them a few  more yrs to get some chunkier logs then coppice the lot?

 

From the photo thinning looks alot of hassle  thus abit impratical in that thicket?

 

Some thinning might be easier done once the  area has being coppiced  as they  start to regen during the first fews yrs of the the next coppice cycle?

 

Branch logger seems like a good idea.

 

 

 

 

It's about 10 years growth and I think leaving them to get bigger is the way forward.

 

They're all self seeded and have never been cut before, so what I'm wondering is whether I should pick out the bigger stems with say a couple of metres between each one, cut everything else away and then in a few years go back and start coppicing those stems in blocks. 

By taking out all the smaller stuff, I'm assuming the trees I leave will grow much quicker and be ready in a few years?

Or I could just leave it all to sort itself out, which is already starting to happen.

 

[Elliott.F]

54 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

It's mainly coppicing, so we clear to the ground. Because of limited labour we just do a strip 5-15m wide around the rides, this gives maximum diversity benefit for the labour input. Being SSSI there is a pattern of patches agreed between Wildlife Trust and Natural England for the next 20 years so we can't just fell anything.

Looks fantastic and a great way to help the trusts out and create biodiversity.

And you're a Husky man too.

Do you get to keep any of the wood?

[Elliott.F]

1 hour ago, slack ma girdle said:

What is your optimum fire wood size, and how many years does it take to grow. That will dictate how many coppice coups you have.

The reason for thinning is to reduce competition for the retained trees, and allow better growth .

Branch loggers are good, but they produce logs too quickly. This is mine in action on manky dead Ash. Fills my 10x5 trailer In about 15-20 minutes

 

 

Good advice and great video, thanks.

 

When you say your branch logger produces logs too quickly, do you mean it fills the trailer so quickly that its hard to keep up?