Aspen.

Bren. · May 15, 2013

I've got a patch of Aspen on a reserve I work on.

It's a stunning site, Small-leaved Lime, Hazel,

Oak and Ash Coppice, With (mostly) Oak Standards, Which has been in almost continuous management for 600 years.

There is a small stand of Aspen in one of the compartments, some of which was coppiced in the last rotation.

It has, of course, gone bonkers and is now throwing suckers up everywhere.

Any suggestions on how to deal with them?

woodyguy · May 15, 2013

Not clear on what your problem is? Why do you have to deal with them?

If you let them grow, or thin them, then you will end up with a nice stand of Aspen.

Sounds a good result.

Bren. · May 15, 2013

As stated earlier,

It is an Ancient Woodland site. If we allow the Aspen to proliferate, then we will have to coppice it on the next rotation, or it will shade out the existing coppice stools, some of which are hundreds of years old. It will also shade out the ground flora, which emerges for the first few years after coppicing and then lies dormant, until the next rotation.

If we coppice it (the Aspen), then we stress it. leading to a fresh eruption of suckers, over a wider area and eventually, we lose either the ancient stools, or the ground flora.

Neither of these scenarios is desirable.

The site is a SSSI and NNR.

Tilio-acerion · May 15, 2013

Unless it's noticeably expanding its range and out competing other sp (naturally, not from where it's been coppiced) then I'd be inclined to leave it alone for now. If your ash coppice doesn't like the Chalara (which it almost certainly won't) then Aspen is going to be a good sp to have on site from a habitat continuity point of view, as it's shown to fulfill many of the same same habitat elements for a woodland ecosystem (which Ash currently does). There's a JNCC report coming out soon which gives all the detail.

Any stump treatment should be tackled with caution as many of the Aspen stems will be linked.

Sounds like a nice site which NNR?

josharb87 · May 15, 2013

Here it's common to ring bark the trees, let them die, then fell. Eliminates suckering and chemical free

woodyguy · May 15, 2013

Interesting. I've never found Aspen that invasive but different conditions may apply. Aspen is an integral part of many ancient woods as it is native. I am very happy in my wood to have aspen growing on a short rotation coppice. Once the ash is gone you may value it!

Bren. · May 15, 2013

It's Swanton Novers NNR. We don't want to get rid of it as the feeling is that it is felt that it is possibly the oldest living organism in the wood (in terms of the root system), probably dating from the early post-glaciation. We do have some nice Stands in the wood and are happy to have them. I have just finished a 3 month long inventory of one of the compartments, mapping and measuring everything in it!

The inventory seems to have shown that we have a high Chalara infection rate in our Ash coppice in the compartment, although we are waiting for confirmation of my diagnosis from FC.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/py72m2p2s8cokup/2013-03-13%2010.57.15.jpg

Personally, I'm sure that this is Chalara.

I'll try to get some pictures to show the extent of the Aspen spread.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Bren.