Coppicing: October Session
On Saturday, in the short, sunny gap between Storm Austen and Storm Boelo, we got together in the Oxleas to carry on with clearing the coppicing area.
Both storms missed Oxleas for the most part; we only had a little brush past by the edges of each storm. But with the trees stressed after another dry summer, and with full leaf still on, we weren't all that convinced that every single branch was going to stay up. Before the session, we had a good hard look at the area. Although there were trees down in the wood, in the coppicing area there weren't any significant new drops.
15 volunteers dragged both of our barrows down the hill. We had some bigger hollies on the to do list, so all the saws and loppers needed to come down to the wood. A couple of hollies had been felled but not processed last session, so that was first to get on with. We keep the smaller trunks for stakes and stack the leafy material to rot. Usually we have trouble finding a home for the bigger trunks, but Thames21 have been using them up in their leaky dams. The bigger trunks from last session have already been used.
We'd also taken down some half fallen chestnut that was going to be a hazard for coppicing. These trunks were covered in lichen or in moss, and we did not want to accidentally step on those or work them into a hedge - instead, we got ourselves lined up and carried the trunks over into last years coppicing area, where they can sit without further disturbance.
We spent some time with the tree popper working on the smaller hollies and some of us carried on with bramble reduction.
All in all, we've a reasonable sized area prepared for starting to cut hazel when the leaves fall.
