I’ve recently purchased a biomass boiler and looking to plant a coppicing forest but have received conflicting advice as to the best trees to plant. I’m located Cheshire/Shropshire border and want to locate anyone in this area who have something similar who can offer advice or suggestions. Thanks in advance.

We have quite a large garden in Inverness which we have developed to encourage wildlife as well as fruit and vegetable production. Recently we cut down several overgrown, decorative conifers with a view to replacing them with trees or shrubs which will be more wildlife-friendly and which could be used to help fuel a wood-burning stove.To these ends Hazel coppicing has been suggested and we would appreciate any advice you can give us about how to grow it.

For John Stevens: It’s a straightforward job, difficulty only relates to how tall/thick trunks are/amount of understorey in hedge bottom etc. Clear out bottom of hedge so u have room to work and see what u r doing. Using a chainsaw cut through trunks, with a slight biase toward the outside of the hedge so rain doesn’t lay on it or run off into stool(if coppocied before). Cut each trunk down to about 4″/10cm/100mm from ground, but can be up to about 12″/30cm/300mm if weeds/rubbish grows quickly/densely in spring which may lay over stump if too short and shade out new buds. If u have deer or rabbits around, you could pile trash resultings/tops over the coppice stools to deter deer/rabbits eating new shoots. Pull out trunks to both sides of hedge if room or one side otherwise, cut to manageable lengths and either gather up all resultings to cart away – or heap up to burn. The one problem with coppicing where undergrowth is rank, is keeping that down – very tricky to spray herbicide for fear of hitting regen (even with an arb guard on lance), I have seen new regen swamped by thick vegetation which falls down and smothers coppice stool to some extent, resulting in a less successful regen than hoped for.

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hi Tracy,
I have a hawthorn hedge i want to coppice and need advice on how to
do it.
could you help?

john

Hi Emily,
great to hear from you. The best place to look for answers to this sort of thing is the Small Woodland Owners Group, sponsored by woodlands.co.uk

It is a more complicated answer than we would hope right now, but as far as I know, you can have a caravan to stay in for 28 days a year. Shelters and sheds for forestry are permitted development, but this needs to be looked at carefully before you build something, as you wouldn’t want to be told to take it down!
Come and look on the swog website to see more discussion on it.
Tracy
http://www.swog.org.uk

Hi Emily

As a “beginner” woodland owner, have a look at the “Owning a Wood”( http://www.woodlands.co.uk/owning-a-wood/ ) section which is full of helpful information. Re building a shelter, read the guide to Lucy Nichols on woodlands and planning here: http://www.woodlands.co.uk/buying-a-wood/planning-and-woodlands.php

Hi, my name is Emily and I have just purchased 14 acres of land, of which half is woodland. I am wondering if anyone can help with regards to what I am allowed as shelter.I.E.Caravan, shed or any kind of timber structure for that matter. Any help would be gratefully received….Thankyou, Emily