Coppicing session 4

Only a week after our last session, 20 volunteers were back at work in the coppicing area.

Back to work!

We started the session with a clean up of things that had been started but not finished last session. In a couple of places, some stools had been left very high and needed to be reduced down. A couple of people had not quite finished processing their tree into materials, so that was all to do before more trees were worked on.

Too much bramble for everyone's knees

We've been making good progress in the coupe over the season - so much so that we're now into an area of it where we haven't dealt with the brambles yet. A lot of the cutting work during coppicing is low to the ground and often done while kneeling - bramble is not our friend at that point!

Over January, during any volunteering sessions in Oxleas, FOW volunteers have all been moving some of our coppiced material up the hill and over to Jackwood to use there. We've all had moments where we've mis-estimated how much we can carry that far, and we've got far more selective about which potential stakes are worth the effort. With that in mind, two of our volunteers reviewed the stake and binder heaps and removed anything that wasn't good enough.

Oversized material going in the Thames 21 heap

We had a low drama session - no cockapoodles came to visit, no material had to be retrieved from other places, and there was no extreme weather. It was a lovely morning working away at a long task in company of friends. We're back next at the end of February - but in the meantime another volunteer crew will be in the area. Fingers crossed they can deal with some of the brambles for us!