Wood use - Coppice

Coppicing is a traditional technique of woodland management that relies upon the ability of trees to regenerate as shoots after being severed close to the ground.

In southern Britain, coppiced trees were traditionally hazel, hornbeam, beech, ash, or oak, grown amongst oak or sometimes ash or beech standards; alder and willows were coppiced in wet areas. Coppice with standards is variation in which scattered individual stems are allowed to grow on through several coppice cycles. The technique provides greater flexibility in the range of materials produced by a given area of woodland.

In north-west England, coppice-with-standards has been the norm, the standards often of oak with relatively little simple coppice.


Alder (Alnus glutinosa) thrives in moist soils, so it is important as coppice-wood on marshy ground.






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