LOGS FOR LABOUR:

INTRODUCTION TO COPPICING
Based on information provided by David Rees, Oxfordshire Woodland Project

Coppicing involves felling a tree so that buds arise from the cut base ('stool'). Over a number of
years (usually 7 – 25) these buds become rods or poles which, in turn, can be coppiced. Coppiced
rods have been used for thousands of years as building, household and crafts materials. Most
broadleaved trees can be coppiced, particularly ash, oak, sweet chestnut, lime and hazel. Beech
does not coppice well, and conifers (except for the native yew) do not coppice.
Benefits of coppicing include:
 Maintenance of a traditional style of management
 Promotion of biodiversity linked to open habitats, e.g. butterflies, dormouse
 Local employment: rods, woodfuel, sporting etc.
 Low impact sustainable products for local markets
 Production of local building and crafts materials
 Maintenance of historical landscape
 Good exercise
 Management pays for itself

Characteristics of successful coppicing

The ideal coppice rod is slender, straight, rapidly grown, with few side branches restricted to the top
third, and able to be riven (split). The regular user will value a regular, dependable supply, and will
count this as equal to the other properties of the produce.
The prosperity of a copse (a coppicing site) site is extremely sensitive to changes in quality. Any rod
that is of too poor quality to be used does not contribute to productivity, but instead contributes to
the labour of cutting waste. Three characteristics of successful coppice are:
High stool density: 2500 stools per hectare (equivalent to 2m x 2m spacing) gives a large number of
rods, improves the quality of rods, and reduces the opportunity for competition by e.g. bramble and
aspen. Below ~1600 stools per hectare (2.5m x 2.5m), quality and quantity fall away progressively.
Protection from browsing by deer, rabbit and
hare:
 Maintains vigour by avoiding
repeated browsing
 Maintains quality by avoiding forking
kinks in rods in response to browsing
No shading by an overstorey, since shading
reduces stool vitality and means fewer rods
and poorer quality. Lower vitality increases
the tendency of rods to be damaged (slower A nicely coppiced stool but heavily browsed by deer
growth means greater risk); fork low down
(too slow to get above the frost); and be tapered – too fat at the bottom and too whippy at the top.
Newly established coppice plants either from transplants or via layering will only produce a modest
number of rods in their first rotation. The coppice will therefore only come into full production after
this settling in period.

The coppice cycle

A coppiced wood contains coppiced trees and possibly also scattered timber trees ('standards'). In
an actively coppiced wood, an area of coppice (a 'coupe') is cut each winter in a cycle of 7 – 25 years.
Coupes typically range from 0.5 to 3 hectares. Place successive coupes next to existing work allows
fencing to be reduced and improves conditions for wildlife. Establishing a coppice cycle from an area
of even aged coppice can be done by cutting the produce in the first couple of panels a year or two
early and the last couple of panels a year or so late, or it may be achieved over a couple of cycles.

year 2 year 5
year 6
year 1

year 3 year 4
year 7 year 8

To access the coupes, a ride infrastructure must be established. Wet conditions may be overcome
by a combination of means such as drainage, opening rides to sun and air circulation, use of brash
mats over damp patches before they liquidise etc.

How to coppice
Winter is the best time for coppicing because
 The absence of leaves makes working easier
 The bark is less likely to tear from the wood
 Stump mortality is reduced
 The new shoots grow better and suffer less frost
damage
As a general principle, when cutting for the first time, cut
as close to the ground as possible. On established stools,
cut above the previous cut. If managing for deer, you
may need to cut above the browsing height of the deer.
The quality of the cut is more important than the tool
used: the cut should be clean, with no separation of the
bark from the wood. Generally, a sloping cut (towards the outside of the stool) is made in order to
shed water and prevent fungal decay.
Young branches may be laid and pegged down as a source of new shoots.

Transforming neglected coppice into quality coppice

This process concentrates on changing the structure of the wood to as close to the ideal state as
possible. In a wood where there are patches of variable quality, restore the best area first, then work
outwards, tackling the next best, and so on. The usual sequence of work is:
  Take advice, arrange grant aid or felling licence (leave 3 months for this), arrange funding
and labour
 Cut the understorey including non-coppice species to waste, laying the waste on the
perimeter to form a brash hedge (=dead hedge, brush hedge) but removing the occasional
usable rod and any larger stems for firewood
 Cut the overstorey, uninhibited by the understorey and harvest for firewood (assuming that
quality is poor …if it is not, rethink your decision to coppice), leaving the most awkward
pieces as habitat deadwood
 Add body to the brash hedge, possibly by staking and weaving the brash. Add agricultural
stock netting supported by stakes or rods to the outside to form a double barrier.
 Enrich by planting immediately or layering rods in their 3rd or 4th year. New plants will need
to be stumped back in due course.

Estimating stool densities

A circle 5.6m in radius encloses an area of 0.01 hectares.
Standing in the coppice, make a mental 360 degree sweep, 0.01 ha
counting the number of stools within this 5.6m radius and
multiply by 100 to give the number of stools per hectare.
Neglected coppice always appears denser than it really is and an
apparently fully stocked hazel coppice suddenly looks very 5.6m
inadequate once it has been cut. Avoid being taken in by this
trick-of-the-eye by making several estimates of stocking density.

Coppice products
A rule of thumb for coppice products is to keep the product as long as possible for as long as
possible: longer rods fetch a higher price than shorter ones.
Coppice product Detail of product How product is achieved
Veneer and timber Large, straight standard trees Careful tree manage-
ment over decades
Rods / bean poles Approx. 2.5m (8 ft) long, 4cm (1.5 in) at the base, Well-managed coppice
tapering as little as possible along its length
Hedging stakes Approx. 1.7m (5 ft 6 in) long, 5cm (2 in) at the base
Binders for fencing Approx. 3.5m (12 ft) long, 4cm (1.5 in) at the base,
slender and supple
Posts / stakes for 1.7m (5 ft 6 in) to 2.5m (8 ft) long, 6 - 9cm (2.5 - 3
fencing in) wide
Pea sticks Approx. 1.5m (5ft) tall, well branched in one Under-managed
dimension woodland or side-
Firewood Anything thicker, twisted, knotted, cut into lengths product of coppicing.
of 30cm or longer and split if over 10cm (4 in) wide Often the cost to take
out > return from sales