Coppicing Coppicing is the art of cutting of trees and shrubs to ground level allowing vigorous regrowth and a sustainable supply of timber for future generations. Trees and shrubs that are cut down this way can produce shoots that grow over 30cm in a week and a coppiced tree can live many times longer than if the tree had not been cut down at all. In prehistoric times, people noticed that certain trees grew again after they had been felled. The new growth consisted of many thin poles, useful because they were easy to harvest and suitable for firewood, woven fencing and house building. When people began to develop a settled way of life, and to keep domestic animals, they were able to keep an area of woodland regularly cut over. This practice of cutting trees to a cycle is known as coppicing. The length of the cycle depends on the species being cut, and the size of poles that are required. Later cultures had a need for much larger timbers, so within areas of coppice, some trees were left to grow straight, tall and thick- these are called standards. Time-consuming to fell and process, standard trees were nevertheless extremely valuable for use in shipbuilding and the construction of important buildings like churches and barns. When fuels like coal and oil came to be widely used, firewood was no longer valuable. There was less demand for, and less money in all the products of coppicing and it fell into a general decline throughout the country. Many woodlands were left without their traditional management, and the wildlife that thrived with the coppice cycle began also to decline. In recent years, ecologists and conservationists came to see how the loss of coppicing was having a detrimental effect on the diversity of Britain's wildlife, and gradually the practice and the skills have been re-discovered. | 
| Coppicing has the effect of maintaining trees at a juvenile stage, and a regularly coppiced tree will never die of old age – some coppice stools may therefore reach immense ages. The age of a stool may be estimated from its diameter, and some are so large (perhaps as much as 9 m or 30 ft across) that they are thought to have been continuously coppiced for many centuries. Thee variation of coppicing known as coppice with standards (scattered individual stems allowed to grow on through several coppice cycles) has been commonly used throughout the British Isles as a means of giving greater flexibility in the resulting product from any one area. Not only does the woodland provide the small material from the coppice but also a range of larger timber from the standards for jobs like house building, bridge repair, cart making and so on. The shoots (or suckers) may be used either in their young state for interweaving in fencing (as is the practice with wilows and hazel) or the new shoots may be allowed to grow into large poles, as was often the custom with hardwood such as oaks or ash. This creates long, straight poles which do not have the bends and forks of naturally grown trees. | 
| | Coppice management favours a wide range of wildlife, often of species adapted to open woodland. As the coup grows up, the canopy closes and it becomes unsuitable for these animals again – but in an actively managed coppice there is always another recently cut coup nearby, and the populations therefore move around, following the coppice management. | 
| However, most British coppices have not been managed in this way for many decades. The coppice stems have grown tall (the coppice is said to be overstood), forming a heavily shaded woodland of many closely-spaced stems with little ground vegetation. The open-woodland animals survive in small numbers along woodland rides or not at all, and many of these once-common species have become rare. Overstood coppice is a habitat of relatively low biodiversity – it does not support the open-woodland species, but neither does it support many of the characteristic species of high forest, because it lacks many high-forest features such as substantial dead-wood, clearings and stems of varied ages. The ideal conservation management of these abandoned coppices may be to re-start coppice management, or in some cases it may be more appropriate to use singling and selective clearance to establish a high-forest structure. Artificial coppice may therefore be seen as a somewhat distorted equivalent to natural habitats which no longer occur, in the absence of now extinct or rare animals. | 
| Coppicing, which is also known as stooling, is the centuries-old technique of cutting shrubs and trees to ground level to encourage new shoots. For gardeners, it is particularly useful to promote colourful juvenile stems, ornamental foliage and to rejuvenate plants that tolerate hard pruning. Dogwoods, including Cornus alba, and willows, such as Salix alba var. vitellina 'Britzensis', are prized for their vibrant young stems. The best colour comes from the one- or two-year-old wood. To ensure a continuous supply, it is necessary to shorten all the stems to within 5-7.5cm (2-3in) of the ground or to the previous year's stubs in late winter or early spring each year. Some Cornus, such as 'Midwinter Fire', can be weak growers on poor soils. If this is the case, cut out just one third of the growth each year. The stems will not be as richly coloured, but they will be stronger. Coppicing to a stump about 60cm (2ft) tall in early spring can have dramatic effects on other plants. It restricts the size of trees such as Paulownia and Catalpa. Instead, all the plant's energy goes into a burst of rapid growth in early summer to produce a cluster of stems and, as an attractive side effect, causes the leaves to grow larger than usual. A similar treatment of Eucalyptus gunnii encourages bluish, juvenile foliage that is considered more striking than the adult leaves. Finally, overgrown Yews, Hazels and Hornbeam’s can be cut close to the ground with a pruning saw in late winter. It results in the production of lots of new stems that can be thinned to make an airy bush once again. Hazels, in particular, are coppiced every few years to produce straight canes that can be used as supports in the garden. Pollarding is a very similar process, but stems are pruned back to a trunk or leg Whether you have a selection of shrubs to be coppiced or a neglected woodland to be rejuvenated, Connick Tree Care can plan, manage and undertake all necessary works and our Consultancy division can advise on ecological issues, felling licences, marketing and other aspects of woodland management. Please note we provide Free Estimates with No Obligation. So why not Contact Us?
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