New small wood owner from Wales

[suziequeue]

Hi - I've recently bought a smallholding in Wales which includes a small deciduous plantation - planted for coppicing. It is now about 10 - 12 years old and I am keen to start coppicing in order to provide sustainable fuel for our wood burning stove which heats the house and the water.

The trees are mainly ash, sweet chestnut and hazel with some oak and maple and three big BIG old cherry trees (I think).

The whole plantation is on a steep slope. None of the trees have been coppiced yet.

I have been on a crosscutting & maintenance and felling small trees course. My husband has read the instructions that came with the winch!! (from Halfords! - let's see how long that lasts!!).

We have felled a few trees this month and I think we have enough wood for next year now but I am keen to make sure that we are doing the right thing by the trees.

Am I supposed to clear sections? or just thin out the biggest trees each year? At the moment we have just felled a few that were very leaney

Also - how should I protect the stumps? and is there any advice about how "long" the stumps should be? I have been cutting them pretty close to the ground.

Sorry to be asking so many questions - I have alot to learn!!

Susanna

[tracy]

Hi Suziequeue

Welcome to SWOG, and we look forward to hearing how you get on. Well done on doing the chainsaw course - it is a shame that it didn't come with more information on the actual coppicing side. You might like to do a course in coppicing - there are a lot around - mostly coppicing with hand tools but the information would be good. There is a good course in N Wales if you are up that way?

In the meantime here are some thoughts:

www.coppice.co.uk should help with some information

BTCV woodlands book which you can read on line is excellent and well worth buying! (but free online)

http://handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/content/chapter/690

For coppicing you need to clear sections at a time so that sunlight can get down to the new growth - it won't grow back very well in the shade.

Cut the stumps as low as you can.

You shouldn't need to especially protect chestnut, but ash and hazel will be yummy for rabbits and deer. We have been putting brash over our hazel stumps. Not sure yet how this will work.

Very best wishes! Tracy

[John H]

Hi Susanna

Where abouts in Wales are you?

I am not an expert on coppicing but it would be good to have a bit more information.

How big is your plantation?

What diameter are your 10 year old trees?

Do you plan to coppice all the trees or will you grow on the best as standards?

How many cubic meters of logs do you estimate you will burn a year? If you are heating your whole house with wood then one does get through large quantities. I would say we burn between 10 and 15 meters a year but most of that is softwood.

John