Coming from the French word ‘coup’ meaning to cut, coppicing is the traditional practice of cutting certain trees at their base, creating a base in which fresh shoots will regrow. This was historically completed on a rotation, ensuring a regular supply of timber for firewood, as well as building materials for things like fencing and garden stakes. 

Which trees?

Most native deciduous* trees can be coppiced, but the most commonly coppiced are hazel (Corylus avellana), small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata), ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and sweet chestnut** (Castanea sativa). Ash is no longer coppiced as regularly due to the regrowth’s susceptibility to ash dieback, however there are some suggestions that some of the older ash copses*** have developed thicker bark around the coppicing.

Why we coppice

Here at Durham Wildlife Trust the main reason we coppice is to support biodiversity and a good woodland structure. Coppicing trees allows the all-important sun to access the ground flora, some of which may have been lying dormant for many years, only to be awoken by the heat of the sun warming the soil around them. My favourite displays as a result of coppicing can be seen at both Edmondsley Wood and Baal Hill Wood, both of which have incredible displays of native bluebells  - well worth a visit in April. Coppicing also provides different stages of growth throughout the woodland which in turn provides a wider range of habitat for birds and invertebrates to flourish, the brash that isn’t used can be made into habitat piles, providing nesting materials for birds and decaying wood for invertebrates.

Despite our primary reason for coppicing being for biodiversity, we do also use the wood to support other conservation work. At Milkwellburn Wood, we have used coppiced willow to create a living revetment wall that will continue to grow, further stabilising the bankside. This is a brilliant example of our nature-based solutions to tackle issues such as flooding on site. Elsewhere, we use the spare hazel to support hedgelaying activities; the strong, straight wood helps to provide stability to the laid stems and can help stockproof the hedge until it regrows.

How We Coppice

Tree Selection

Different trees benefit from being coppiced at different ages, hazel can be cut on a 7–8-year rotation, whereas sweet chestnut can be cut up to a 20 year rotation. As such, dividing your woodland into sections and cutting on a rotation ensures you have different stages of growth throughout, benefitting as many species as possible.

Once you have selected your tree/trees to coppice, you then decide the order of stems to cut within the tree. This should be selected based on the safest felling order. It can be safer and easier to cut slightly higher initially before our final cut which should be around 5cm above where the stem meets the stool, sloping away from the centre of the tree. This allows rainwater to run off away from the tree, minimising the risk of rotting the tree.

Next, it’s time to sort your wood; you will generally have two piles; thicker wood and thinner wood. Both piles will be used in the creation of a deer guard which will protect the vulnerable shoots from browsing deer for the first two years before they re-establish.

Firstly, the thicker, straight wood will be pointed using an axe and hammered in as stakes around the stool. The thinner brash will be used to weave around the stakes, providing a buffer of protection for the vulnerable new growth before it establishes after a few years.

Finally, you have the finished product, a protected coppice base and a new supply of wood to be used however you see fit. Over the following years keep an eye out for signs of regrowth and any new patches of wildflowers that may be growing in their new sunny spot. For hazel, a tree left uncut, will mature and live to about 80 years old. A well-coppiced hazel tree will live for several hundred years, showing its value as a traditional practice for a wood source. As mentioned earlier, a variety of growth stages provide the widest biodiversity, so some trees should be left to mature as part of good woodland management.

* Deciduous trees refer to those which drop their leaves annually, usually in winter.

** Sweet chestnut trees are not considered to be native to the UK and have long been suspected to have been introduced by the Romans. Recent evidence suggests that they actually arrived in the 12^th century, much later in the UK.

*** A copse is a thicket of smaller trees that have usually been subject to coppicing practices.