Trees, tools, vehicles

[coppicer]

Apologies in advance for a bunch of related questions that don't seem to fit neatly into any one category. First post on this site.

 

In January 2006 I had a small (2.5 acre) field on my property professionally planted with ash at 1.2m spacings to create a high density coppice, purely for my own domestic firewood. The field is level (although one corner slopes gently), long and narrow. Since the coppice was planted I have been living abroad but I have recently returned to the UK and plan to start living at the property in October 2014.

 

 

Part of the top end of the coppice can be seen beyond the gate and fence in the above photo. It has had no maintenance at all since it was established. No thinning, nothing. Now in their 8th year, the trees have mostly grown tall and straight, which is what I wanted for firewood. Size varies wildly. Some are bean poles, a few have 8 inch diameter boles at ground level. I haven't had a really good look through the entire coppice yet but I'm thinking I should look for the largest to cut this coming autumn.

 

In addition to the coppice there is other woodland on the property. There are a number of small to mid-size trees that are encroaching on the pasture that I would eventually like to fell and some trees with fallen/horizontal branches that I want to lop off for firewood.

 

So these are my questions.

 

1) What to do about other tree species in the coppice?

The coppice was intended to be a monoculture but I have a fair bit of self-seeded downy birch and some silver birch mixed in with the ash. Some are large, some are apparently small descendants of the larger trees. There are also occasional thorn trees round the edges. Overall the ash is clearly dominant. Given that birch isn't supposed to be good firewood, should I start removing the downy birch to give the smaller ash trees (which should be great firewood) more of a chance? Or leave it all be?

 

2) What tools should I use?

The trees at this point are obviously pretty small and because it's such a dense planting they do not fall straight; they get hung up and I pull them down bole first. For now, I have been using a Silky Gomtaro handsaw to do simple sink and back cut, close to the ground. It works for removing one or two trees at a time but it will be too labour intensive once the coppice matures and as I start cutting more. I'm thinking a small chainsaw with a 12-14 inch bar would be about right for felling and cutting? Stihl MS181 or maybe MS211? Probably only doing a few hours of work a week. I have a good local Stihl dealer.

 

3) What sort of workflow should I follow?

After felling I'm thinking of the following procedure.

i) Cutting off the top of the tree and leaving the brash in place, at least for now. In future I may try to make faggots out of the brash or use it to fill holes in the hedges.

ii) Dragging the tree with logging tongs out to the headland of the field (remember that the trees are not large, so it is tiring but feasible by hand).

iii) Stacking multiple logs in a saw horse, cross-cutting, loading into a trailer.

iv) Taking full trailer of logs back across the fields to the outbuildings for stacking.

 

4) What vehicle should I use?

Key issue - I need something to pull the trailer. All would have to be secondhand as I've only got about 2,500 quid budget. The options as I see it are:

i) Mini-tractor (e.g. 18hp Kubota) as field is level.

ii) Utility quad, Honda or Yamaha.

iii) Roadgoing 4x4, something like a Daihatsu Fourtrak or a Hilux pickup. Hard to get the latter for 2.5k.

 

The coppice is TIGHT so I don't see a 4x4 getting inside unless I cut a sacrificial lane down the middle of the coppice and even then it would be a squeeze. The field headlands are also tight. Also I worry that a 4x4 might be too heavy in wet conditions and as this is in Wales, we're bound to get wet conditions. On the other hand, a 4x4 would be by far the most versatile i.e. could use as a third car and to pull a trailer around on the road as well as to and from the coppice.

 

A quad or a mini-tractor would probably get all the way into the coppice, but neither are cheap to buy and both are less versatile as I can't really use them on the road for my purposes. I like the idea of a quad as it should have minimal impact on the pasture between field and house; I don't want to cut the ground up too much.

 

So there you have it. Again, I don't think there'll be much that needs cutting this year, it's more of a question of thinking about how I organise myself for the long term. Any pointers or suggestions gratefully received. I'm a complete amateur.

[forestgough]

can I ask roughly where you are in wales,i got just the machine for converting the brash and any material under 4 inch diameter into fuel,that would mean zero waste.

[coppicer]

> can I ask roughly where you are in wales

Down in Pembrokeshire.

[woodyguy]

Interesting question. Firstly birch is excellent firewood so nothing wrong with it.

Secondly, you don't thin coppice but cut it all in small areas called cants. If you thin it then it doesn't grow well. Cutting a 10th of area each year will make it grow back incredibly strongly and thickly and give you a 10 year rotation. Much better result that way. No idea about vehicles but I use a 211 for a similar task and it is excellent.

[woodyguy]

Also, sorry to be depressing but Chalara has hit pembrokeshire so it is likely that within a coppice cutting rotation or two you wont have any/many ash trees. Might be worth encouraging other species. Sorry!!

[billpierce]

Hilux are a great vehicle but do you need it road worthy? you can get a bottom end one for £1500-£2000 mk2/3. which is prob the most durable model. even better get a horse! ms181 good and study but needs to be razor sharp. i would get a 211 or more if your set on stihls. personally i would use with 12'' bar as this means more power and you can still cut just under 2ft diameter with this. as above with coppice advice. i prefer to move timber in as larger pieces as i can easily move until it is v close to where it will be seasoned as this reduces handling i.e.loading and unloading a pickup of logs takes longer than doing the same with 7ft x 8'' poles. have fun

[coppicer]

Interesting question. Firstly birch is excellent firewood so nothing wrong with it.

Secondly, you don't thin coppice but cut it all in small areas called cants. If you thin it then it doesn't grow well. Cutting a 10th of area each year will make it grow back incredibly strongly and thickly and give you a 10 year rotation.

Apologies, my use of the word "thin" may have been misleading - I never planned to thin the original coppice, but a great deal of other growth, including trees, has sprung up with the planted trees. If I had been living at the property, I would have removed the "invading" trees to reduce the competitive pressure on the ash. Unfortunately I was on the other side of the planet at the time.

 

As for the "cutting it all" bit, I think I understand the conventional wisdom on coppicing, having looked into it quite carefully in the year leading up to the planting. What I'm not sure about is whether traditional coppices had the disparity in size that I now have in mine, and which I didn't expect. I expected some trees to have 5-inch boles, some to have 8-inch, some to have 6-inch and so on. Variety within a narrow range, if you like. In reality, in some cases I have inch-thick poles next to trees with 10-inch trunks!

 

In some ways it's like an ash coppice with ash standards surrounded by smaller trees and trees that look almost like saplings and that would not normally be considered mature enough to coppice. I'm just not going to get anything useful out of a 1.5-inch, 4m long pole. Yes, I understand that coppice should grow back strongly; established root systems should be able to throw out new shoots more rapidly than a new plant and that's the core concept of coppicing. But maybe selective cutting of only the midsize and larger trees within a coupe will give the smaller trees a chance to close the gap with the midsize and larger trees that dominated up till then.

 

Thank you for the point about Chalara; I wasn't aware it had got this far West. When I planned the coppice it wasn't an issue. I suppose my trees may become affected although if it serves two rotations I'll be retired by then anyway!

 

But it may be as well not to come down too hard on the other species after all. Birch, this is your lucky day...

[coppicer]

i prefer to move timber in as larger pieces as i can easily move until it is v close to where it will be seasoned as this reduces handling i.e.loading and unloading a pickup of logs takes longer than doing the same with 7ft x 8'' poles. have fun

An excellent point. Somebody else I asked told me to plan to handle the wood as little as possible. He recommended felling, snedding, then winching multiple logs straight onto the back of a pickup and taking them to the log storage place before cutting them. Which sounds sensible, but it does kind of rely on having a pickup (or large-ish trailer) and a winch! I don't need a roadworthy vehicle for the coppice, but I do want something that will pull a load on the road.

 

Stihl - the local dealer seals it as he seems competent with the strimmer and hedgecutter he services for me. The Husky dealer is a lot further away. Thank you for point about the bar size.

[ArthurBottlesworth]

What about old tractor

Grey fergie or similar?

Should get nice one for £1500

Could put saw bench on it too....

[hedgesparrow]

you say you have birch which you will cut down. and is good firewood.

your wood can be a better investment than just looking down the route of firewood. the birch the brash will make good besom brooms. needs to be harvested bundled like straw and stored so it can dry out for next year. this needs doing november time. when sap has gone. bessom brooms sale for £10 each you have the ash for handles.

if you want to make your little coppice work for you find a experienced coppicer to help work the wood for you. or go on a coppicing course to learn the basics. the national federation of coppice workers should be able to help on both counts. the ash can be if that tall can be sold for hop poles. you need to look at your wood and go right thats good for that and that. and anything that can not be used more productive can go for firewood. but you could make charcoal shortage of good british charcoal.

outlets allways looking for lumpwood charcoal.

use the coppice and get 110% from it and that will help pay for a chain saw. and a small 4x4 tractor MF135,ford 4000,5000. and other posts can but a saw bench on it. and a mall agg trailer flat bed to stack timber on to take back for processing. if you were nearer i would ask if i could coppice the birch. good luck and hope you can make your coppice productive.