Funky trees from today’s coppicing work.

Anyone care to guess how old that ash stool is in the first image? (top left) the clue is in the width of the base, not the upright.

i believe a while back you mentioned that certain trees benefit from being cut but i cannot find the post? could you elaborate on that bc im Fascinated (curious eyes emoji)

That's coppicing! Funny you mention it actually, the next biome research post I'm gonna make (in the style of the moorland one) is British forests. It's not only good for an individual tree, coppiced woodland is like moorland in that it's an anthropogenic area that becomes extremely important for several animals. Butterflies, bluebells, nightjars...

But I'm getting ahead of myself. To coppice a tree, you cut it down to its stem, and then allow it to sprout back for a number of years. The length of time depends on the species and purpose you want the wood for. You can make perfect, straight poles for tools, beams for construction, bundles for firewood...

A coppiced tree does not die of old age. They can live forever, and produce wood for GENERATIONS. No need to clean-cut and devastate a woodland!

What's good about coppiced woodland is that it leaves the canopy clear. Clear canopy = sexy, sexy understorey. Lots of sunlight comes through which allows the growth of low-laying plants and berry bushes, lots of places for animals to eat and hide.

Downside tho is that if you don't come back and manage your beautifully coppiced grove, you will end up with a thick canopy of trees all the same age, blocking out the sun. That's bad. You're gonna see a recurring theme in all of this research that a TON of biomes in the UK REQUIRE human management and have really been suffering without proper stewardship.

Basically, coppicing without ongoing human management just results in a plantation (derogatory) with extra steps.

Lake cats did a lot more coppicing than modern Clan cats. Modern Clan cats don't really have the tools to cut hard trees like beech and hornbeam; they can only manage softer, thinner ones like birch and alder with their claws and stone tools. It's a lost art.

Street lamp in Poland 😀 Happy New Year everybody Contact us to discuss your arboricultural requirements [email protected] www.acornarb.co.uk #Arborist #Arboricultural #treesurgeon #crane #Tree #surgery #Forestry #shrub #hedge #planting #aftercare #Coppicing #Pollarding #Hedges #Reductions #Lifting #Thinning #Deadwood #Crown #felling #Dismantle #Stumpgrinding #Ecoplugs #Siteclearance #mulching #flailing #AirSpade #SplitLogs #Woodchip #Vegetationclearance https://www.instagram.com/p/CnU1mjcLhXF/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Morrisy billhook on a hazel handle

2024/04/13

Coppicing is a traditional woodland management technique that dates back to the Stone Age. It involves felling trees at their base to create a 'stool' where new shoots will grow. You can recognize a coppiced tree by the many thin trunks or 'poles' at its base.

Daisugi, Growing Trees Out of Other Trees?

Daisugi, Growing Trees Out of Other Trees?

Save the Trees! We know that trees are our natural air filters, provide oxygen, water conservation, soil preservation, and support wildlife. Growing trees out of other trees? Seems like it is impossible? When I read about this method and saw images of this process, I thought, “Surely this has to be Photoshopped.” Some think that this method is a hoax and not possible. Yet such tree cultivation is…

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Coppice To Renovate Overgrown Shrubbery

Coppicing stimulates vigorous new basal growth. Pollarding is extreme pruning. It removes all but the most substantial of limbs and trunks. Coppicing is even more extreme. It leaves only stumps above ground. Both are common and respected arboricultural techniques outside America. However, they are vilified here. Actually, very few arborists here know how to pollard and coppice properly, or admit…

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Andy Goldsworthy: Stone Coppice (2009)

Timelapse for this painting I posted

Spar making update: I’m getting better but the points still need work. Between two of us, we’ve got to make 4000 of them for a thatched roof though, so I’d better get on with it!!

The process involves taking one of the 28” hazel rods in the background of the photo (called ‘gads’) and, using a billhook or a splitting hook (the bigger and blunter of the two blades at the bottom of the photo), and splitting them first in half, and then into either quarters, sixths, or eighths, depending on the thickness of the rod to start with. Then with a pointing hook (smaller of the two blades) you put a three-faced point on each end. They’re kept from drying out and stored for a short while, and a thatcher then twists them into a pincer or staple shape to skewer and secure the thatch of a roof into place.

Spar making is on the Red List of Endangered Crafts so it’s an honour to be continuing this ancient ancient tradition with a few other people.

World Biodiversity Day

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The good old days when it was acceptable to cement glass bottles onto the tops of brickwalls then smash the glass to leave nasty jagged, glass shards embedded to deter or injure any trespassers from climbing over the wall 😲 Work smart - work efficency 🙂 Contact us to discuss your arboricultural requirements [email protected] www.acornarb.co.uk #Arborist #Arboricultural #treesurgeon #crane #Tree #surgery #Forestry #shrub #hedge #planting #aftercare #Coppicing #Pollarding #Hedges #Reductions #Lifting #Thinning #Deadwood #Crown #felling #Dismantle #Stumpgrinding #Ecoplugs #Siteclearance #mulching #flailing #AirSpade #SplitLogs #Woodchip #Vegetationclearance (at Chelmsford, Essex) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpP1VeGoy73/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Trunk and Coppice  - Carry Akroyd

British , b. 1953 -

Pastel , 18 x 22 cm.

Fish rising and female mallard

Christmas Circle Park, Borrego Springs, California, 2023.