Coppicing in the woods

Our coppicing programme is nearly over for the year. We have coppiced a few hectares of woodland, as we do every year. This means cutting down trees such as hazel and chestnut to the ground. By doing this we allow light to get on to the woodland floor, enabling flowers such as bluebells and garlic to thrive. Cutting down the trees is not killing them! They grow again, sending up lots of shoots and re-growing in the same place, bushing out to create cover for the wildlife.

Once upon a time the job of coppicing was done by large animals such as elephants, wild boar or deer. Now we have to do it by chainsaw, which is a lot more noisy, but has the same effect. The outcome is lots more variety in the woodland makeup, more light on the floor and therefore more woodland diversity. At Seedlings Farm Group, it also means more of a clear area to play in!