Community coppicing

Connor highlights the importance of coppicing for communities and woodlands.

This year, the Wilder Worcestershire team have delivered coppicing events with community groups across the county, helping to demonstrate how this valuable practice benefits both woodland health and the people who use the wood it produces.

Sustainable forestry is a core part of how woodlands in the UK have been managed for hundreds of years, with the needs of the community and the health of our habitats held in a delicate balancing act. This style of forestry tries to emulate the natural cycles of disturbance and regeneration that we would see in an unmanaged woodland, which helps to retain the varied age, height and light structure that allows biodiversity to flourish.

Members of the community creating hurdles and dead hedges

Coppicing is one of the traditional woodland management techniques that allows us to use our trees sustainably whilst also keeping the trees themselves healthy and growing. Certain tree species, such as hazel, willow, sweet chestnut, ash and hornbeam, are particularly suited to being coppiced. These species can be periodically cut down to their stems, allowing multiple new shoots to grow from the remaining stool. Rather than killing the tree, this controlled cutting stimulates vigorous regrowth that can be repeated at regular intervals, typically between 7 and 20 years depending on the species. These trees naturally regenerate from their base, meaning a coppiced tree can live for centuries, far longer than if it were allowed to grow unmanaged. For an example of this, head to Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire to see the 2000-year-old lime coppice.

The timber and poles we get from coppicing these species have been used in traditional woodland crafts, such as hurdles for fencing, obelisks for use in the garden and the creation of charcoal to keep our houses warm, among so many more. As a result, coppicing has been a valuable tool for communities since the Palaeolithic era and is something that we have been sharing as part of our work in supporting communities to reclaim local green spaces.

A person making a willow obelisk using an old tyre placed on a table with vehicles in the background

At Westlands First School in Droitwich, we created a willow dome and tunnel using a willow coppiced by staff on the school grounds. We also worked with a group of home educators at Droitwich Community Woods to show how coppicing opens the forest floor to light and life. In addition, at our Monkwood nature reserve, we gathered hazel poles and bracken to create hurdles and dead hedges at Worcester Community Garden. This work was supported by the wonderful students from the Heart of Worcester College who used some of the willow and hazel to make hurdles for their own school garden.

All these events helped to bring these communities together and demonstrate how a little bit of woodland management can help nature (and us) stay happy and healthy. With sustainable building methods and an eye towards the environment, crafts like coppicing are a vital way to help us maintain the balance of nature and industry. So next time you see a hazel hurdle or willow sculpture in your travels around the county, spare a thought for the centuries of co-existence with our woodlands that have allowed these crafts to flourish.