Coppicing
Coppicing is the traditional method in woodland management of cutting down a tree to a stump, which in many species encourages new shoots to grow from the stump or roots, thus ultimately regrowing the tree. A forest or grove that has been subject to coppicing is called a copse or coppice, in which young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level. The resulting living stumps are called stools. New growth emerges, and after a number of years, the coppiced trees are harvested, and the cycle begins anew. Pollarding is a similar process carried out at a higher level on the tree in order to prevent grazing animals from eating new shoots. Daisugi is a similar Japanese technique.
Many silviculture practices involve cutting and regrowth; coppicing has been of significance in many parts of lowland temperate Europe. The widespread and long-term practice of coppicing as a landscape-scale industry is something that remains of special importance in southern England. Many of the English language terms referred to in this article are particularly relevant to historic and contemporary practice in that area.
Typically a coppiced woodland is harvested in sections or coups on a rotation. English terms for an area of coppice include 'cant', 'panel' and 'fall' which can be interchangeable and regionally-based. In this way, a crop is available each year somewhere in the woodland. Coppicing has the effect of providing a rich variety of habitats, as the woodland always has a range of different-aged coppice growing in it, which is beneficial for biodiversity. The cycle length depends upon the species cut, the local custom, and the use of the product. Birch can be coppiced for faggots on a three- or four-year cycle, whereas oak can be coppiced over a fifty-year cycle for poles or firewood.
Trees being coppiced do not die of old age as coppicing maintains the tree at a juvenile stage, allowing them to reach immense ages. The age of a stool may be estimated from its diameter; some are so largeas much as acrossthat they are thought to have been continually coppiced for centuries.
History
Evidence suggests that coppicing has been continuously practised since pre-history. Coppiced stems are characteristically curved at the base. This curve occurs as the competing stems grow out from the stool in the early stages of the cycle, then up towards the sky as the canopy closes. The curve may allow the identification of coppice timber in archaeological sites. Timber in the Sweet Track in Somerset has been identified as coppiced Tilia species.Originally, the silvicultural system now called coppicing was practised solely for small wood production. In German this is called Niederwald, which translates as low forest. Later on in medieval times, farmers encouraged pigs to feed from acorns, and so some trees were allowed to grow bigger. This different silvicultural system is called in English coppice with standards. In German this is called Mittelwald. As modern forestry seeks to harvest timber mechanically, and pigs are generally no longer fed from acorns, both systems have declined. However, there are cultural and wildlife benefits from these two silvicultural systems, so both can be found where timber production or some other main forestry purpose is not the sole management objective of the woodland.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the technology of charcoal iron production became widely established in England, continuing in some areas until the late 19th century. Charcoal once fuelled all metalworking and other high temperature industrial processes but scarcity led to the eventual adoption of coal as the primary fuel. Decline in charcoal as an industrial fuel accelerated after the discovery of coke in the 18th century and leading to a crash in UK charcoal production in the century thereafter. Notably, scarcity of charcoal for industrial processes actually led to the survival of large areas of woodland in the weald of Kent and the Sussexes as large areas of coppiced woodland were jealously guarded by Roman ironmasters and later by Medieval ironmasters. Charcoal hearths in woodlands are indications of ancient status.
Along with the need for oak bark for tanning, charcoal required large amounts of coppiced wood. With this coppice management, wood could be provided for those growing industries in principle indefinitely. This was regulated by a statute of 1544 of Henry VIII, which required woods to be enclosed after cutting and 12 standels to be left in each acre, to be grown into timber. Coppice with standards has been commonly used throughout most of Europe as a means of giving greater flexibility in the resulting forest product from any one area. The woodland provides the small material from the coppice as well as a range of larger timber for such uses as house building, bridge repair, cart-making and so on. But note that coppice produce was used in parallel with larger timber. For example, hazel and willow as woven wattle infill panels in housebuilding and ash coppice to produce components for carts, and several species for components for bridge rails and fences.
In the 18th century coppicing in Britain began a long decline. This was brought about by the erosion of its traditional markets. Firewood was no longer needed for domestic or industrial uses as coal and coke became easily obtained and transported, and wood as a construction material was gradually replaced by newer materials. Coppicing died out first in the north of Britain and steadily contracted toward the south-east until by the 1960s active commercial coppice was heavily concentrated in Kent and Sussex.
Practice
The shoots may be used either in their young state for interweaving in wattle fencing, or the new shoots may be allowed to grow into large poles, as was often the custom with trees such as oaks or ashes and sweet chestnut. This creates long, straight poles which do not have the bends and forks of naturally grown trees. Coppicing may be practised to encourage specific growth patterns, as with cinnamon trees which are grown for their bark.are removed. Suckers refers to shoots growing from roots in response to felling to ground as seen in wild cherry or gean and aspen but also has been adopted in horticulture to refer to a competing shoot sprouting from a rootstock below the interface with the scion. Such shoots.
Another, more complicated system is called compound coppice. Here some of the standards would be left, some harvested. Some of the coppice would be allowed to grow into new standards and some regenerated coppice would be there. Thus there would be three age classes. Coppiced hardwoods were used extensively in carriage and shipbuilding, and they are still sometimes grown for making wooden buildings and furniture.
Compound coppice is a term used for when two or more different species are grown in the same cant and cut on different cycles. Example: Hazel-ash coppice with hazel cut at 7 years and ash in the same area cut at 21 years. But note that under coppice with standards the oak was cut under a much longer cycle. With hazel-ash under oak standards you now have 3 cycles superimposed. However, a range of ages of standards was managed-for to allow for continuity of oak production for timber and this was sometimes legislated for. It is commonly written that there should be 12 standards per acre. But this '12 per acre' includes maybe 1 mature oak per acre, a couple of young standards and several waivers with a larger number of seedlings/saplings whose genesis was sporadic and occurred when oak mast years coincided with coppice cuts - planting being relatively rare until perhaps the 16th century. Coppice can be complicated, which is likely why large areas of one species with no standards is called 'simple coppice'.
Waivers: Young oak trees that may become standards in due turn. Or may be cut before becoming standards. If you can get both hands around it at breast height but cannot get 4 Sussex fence rails out of the first 10’, it is a waiver.
Withies for wicker-work are grown in coppices of various willow species, principally osier.
In France, sweet chestnut trees are coppiced for use as canes and bâtons for the martial art Canne de combat.
Some Eucalyptus species are coppiced in a number of countries, including Australia, North America, Uganda, and Sudan.
The Sal tree is coppiced in India, and the Moringa oleifera tree is coppiced in many countries, including India.
Sometimes former coppice is converted to high-forest woodland by the practice of singling. All but one of the regrowing stems are cut, leaving the remaining one to grow as if it were a maiden tree.
The boundaries of coppice coups were sometimes marked by cutting certain trees as pollards or stubs.
United Kingdom
In southern Britain, coppice was traditionally hazel, hornbeam, field maple, ash, sweet chestnut, occasionally sallow, elm, small-leafed lime and rarely oak or beech, grown among pedunculate or sessile oak, ash or beech standards. In wet areas alder and willows were used. A small, and growing, number of people make a living wholly or partly by working coppices in the area today, at places such as at the Weald and Downland Living Museum.Coppices provided wood for many purposes, especially charcoal before coal was economically significant in metal smelting. A minority of these woods are still operated for coppice today, often by conservation organisations, producing material for hurdle-making, thatching spars, local charcoal-burning or other crafts. The only remaining large-scale commercial coppice crop in England is sweet chestnut which is grown in parts of Sussex and Kent. Much of this was established as plantations in the 19th century for hop-pole production and is nowadays cut on a 12 to 18-year cycle for splitting and binding into cleft chestnut paling fence, or on a 20- to 35-year cycle for cleft post-and-rail fencing, or for sawing into small lengths to be finger-jointed for architectural use. Other material goes to make farm fencing and to be chipped for modern wood-fired heating systems.
In northwest England, coppice-with-standards has been the norm, the standards often of oak with relatively little simple coppice. After World War II, a great deal was planted up with conifers or became neglected. Coppice-working almost died out, though a few men continued in the woods.