Unfortunately, once coal replaced charcoal as the main fuel supply for many industries in the mid-19th Century, and conifer plantations became the favoured way to produce wood, coppiced woodlands that had been carefully managed for centuries fell into neglect. Even during the Industrial Revolution, which you might think of as being bad for nature, woodlands were carefully maintained to supply the demand for charcoal to fuel the industries. The need for wood meant that woodlands were carefully managed, and therefore conserved throughout much of history. The stems produced by coppiced stools are small in diameter and tend to be straight making them suitable for many uses including furniture, fencing and charcoal manufacture. The earliest evidence of coppicing in the UK comes from the remains of wattle trackways found in the Somerset Levels that date back to 4,500 BC. Image via Wikimedia Commons licenced under CC BY 2.5Ĭoppicing been widely practised in the UK and Europe for a long time. hazel, alder, chestnut) are suitable for coppicing, but coniferous tree species such as pine are not because they die when cut instead of producing new shoots. In Europe, most deciduous tree species (e.g. For example, ash ( Fraxinus excelsior) trees typically live for 200 years, but coppiced ash stools can live for over a 1000 (1). Coppicing extends the lifespan of trees dramatically. Generally, a different area of the woodland is cut every year with a 5-30 year rotation cycle to allow sufficient regrowth between cuttings (see figure below). Trees in a coppice or ‘copse’ are cut down to the base and this stimulates the base (called the stool) to produce new shoots. The word ‘coppice’ originates from the French ‘couper’, to cut. Until about 150 years ago, most deciduous woodlands in the UK were coppiced to produce wood for use in a variety of industries, but today coppicing is largely only practised for woodland conservation. This is likely to be part of a traditional woodland practice called coppicing. If you visit an ancient woodland in Europe at this time of year, you may well see small areas where the trees are being cut down to the base, but the stumps left behind. It is easy to think of woodlands as wild places, but in the UK and Europe, most have been carefully managed for centuries. A hazel coppice stool in Lower Wood, Ashwellthorpe.
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