Coppice Ash

[renewablejohn]

Have got about 2 acres of really thick self set ash which I want to coppice. I like the idea of a high coppice to protect from rabbits but want to mechanical harvest with an excavator and kesla shear. Initial thought is a 6 foot wide ride (excavator 4 foot wide) where coppice is at ground level then 6 foot wide either side with high coppice. Any thoughts.

[Peat]

I have just finished enlarging a coppice coupe that is predominantly ash (originally cut for wildlife but has been decimated by deer due to lack of protection). I'm going to fence it and am considering singling out the stems so that it fits in with the rest of the management of the site where I am undertaking continuous cover practices and also due to worries about future lack of management of coppice on this site. Does this sound like a good idea? How do yields compare between ash coppice and high forest?

[Crazy Cutter]

Forget it, waste of time. This month we have started operations to clear fell ash woods.

[wrsni]

Have got about 2 acres of really thick self set ash which I want to coppice. I like the idea of a high coppice to protect from rabbits but want to mechanical harvest with an excavator and kesla shear. Initial thought is a 6 foot wide ride (excavator 4 foot wide) where coppice is at ground level then 6 foot wide either side with high coppice. Any thoughts.

 

How about a variety of heights, say ground, 2ft, 4ft, 6ft, done in whichever way suits your site/machinery, etc.

 

Then over the next two or three years you can give us the results of the experiment, I mean, tell us how it worked out.

[difflock]

I like Ash trees (and i believe/understand Ash trees were venerated in Irish history )

I have planted ash, I will continue to plant Ash, transplanted seedlings, some grotesque in shape due to a harsh start in their life(per WRSNI's comments)

Some will live, some will die(hopefully not all)

Those that possess the necessary fluke of genetic inheritence to survive the Ash die-back, may well be the stunted malformed stock, which may well be part of the necessary genetic mix.

But hopefully even these bent and twisted survivors will "throw" good clean Ash stock in the future.

Evolution being all about surviving, then the inevitable genetic mutations can perhaps succeed in the "new paradim"

Since that is how nature works.

Marcus

[spandit]

I am still unsure how cutting down all the ash trees and not planting any new ones will solve the problem of dieback. Surely planting more with the hope that a resistant strain will develop is the answer? This thread has crept a bit anyway

[GreenGui]

Just reading Oliver Rackham's (RIP) The Ash Tree, where he points out that ash coppice was traditionally cut at about 2ft high. Interesting observation.

 

Thanks for that woodyguy, that is very interesting. I really should get round to reading Rackham.

[wrsni]

I like Ash trees (and i believe/understand Ash trees were venerated in Irish history )

I have planted ash, I will continue to plant Ash, transplanted seedlings, some grotesque in shape due to a harsh start in their life(per WRSNI's comments)

Some will live, some will die(hopefully not all)

Those that possess the necessary fluke of genetic inheritence to survive the Ash die-back, may well be the stunted malformed stock, which may well be part of the necessary genetic mix.

But hopefully even these bent and twisted survivors will "throw" good clean Ash stock in the future.

Evolution being all about surviving, then the inevitable genetic mutations can perhaps succeed in the "new paradim"

Since that is how nature works.

Marcus

 

I think that's a pretty good assessment. No doubt the "experts" would point out all the flaws in your theory but given that the "experts" weren't smart enough to prevent this happening in the first place I think it's in order to ignore them and apply some common sense to the problem as per your post.

 

Thus I'll continue planting out all the self seeded stuff I can find about the place, on top of which this year instead of trimming all the farm hedges down to the same level, I've eyed out a few ashes along the hedges which are going to be allowed to keep growing. Even in worst case scenario and a certain percentage only survive there'll still be a tree or two out there that wouldn't have been otherwise.

[Crazy Cutter]

We are working through woods that are now 75% dead. With the babies highly infected as well.

 

Going back to cutting at 2 foot this is the height the stools end up when felled with an axe, each coppice getting higher until it was a called a soldier stool. Tabor in his experience suggests cutting back level with the ground as the regrowth is straighter. Ash was grown on a 15 to 25 rotation for hurdles so usually would be straight by then anyway. But remember the good old days did not have any deer browsing and rabbits were wiped out in the fifties and before that far better controlled.

[AlexB]

Just wrap a rabbit net around it if your fence is already up...