Coppicing; September Session
On the last Saturday in September, in blazing sunshine, we met to start this years coppicing season.
The first order of business was a reminder on the safety considerations when working in the wood - how to move in the wood while carrying tools and all the myriad ways of paying attention that are needed. With most people having had the summer off, and with the summer itself being so stressful to the trees, it was definitely time for a reminder.
After that, it was a trek down the hill to this years work site, where we'll be making ourselves at home until spring.
Our experienced volunteers got started on thinning out the larger hollies. In Oxleas, holly is over-competitive; if we leave hollies when we coppice, we'll end up with massive hollies and choked out hazel.
While that was happening, our newer volunteers got a bit of a briefing on coppicing hazel, and on what tools to use for what - and were then distributed amongst the rest of the group to assist in holly removal.
For those that weren't feeling like holly removal, there was (and still is) a plethora of brambling to do. This year we are deliberately leaving mini-heaps of bramble on the coupe floor. They should rot much more quickly than any of our other material, and should provide habitat in the meantime.
One of our most experienced volunteers, who also does hedge work for Woodlands Farm, spent some time dealing with two places where fallen chestnuts trees had landed on hazel stools, and on making those stools safe to work on later in the autumn.
We packed up a little slowly - everyone wanted just one last tree, and in the end we left two trunks safely down but not fully processed. We'll have to square those away next time.
