Natural Alder Coppice

[Mr. Ed]

On 11/08/2023 at 11:47, 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  

I'm a great fan of Alder - it’s lovely timber to work and is a popular tree with the birds (and doubtless the bees). Were you thinking of letting the best stems grow to maturity? Pretty fast growing initially.