Coppicing and Pollarding

Yesterday volunteers were hard at work in the willow carr pollarding and coppicing. The area being coppiced this winter is quite large, but a lot of progress was made.

Both coppicing and pollarding allow for regeneration of trees through young shoots, and can increase the lifespan of the tree. Coppicing involves cutting the at the base to create a stool, whereas pollarded trees are cut at a height. A benefit of pollarding over coppicing is that the new shoots can't be eaten by rabbits or deer.

At Foxglove Covert, coppicing and pollarding is done in different areas on a rotation. This means the reserve has trees of varying ages, ranging from young to mature, and allowing a variety of plants to flourish across the reserve. In recently coppiced areas light is able to reach the ground better, encouraging an understory and grasses and flowering plants to develop.

When coppicing, it is important to cut the tree trunks as close to the base of the tree as possible. This can be quite difficult to do, especially with the willow trees at Foxglove Covert, as there are often lots of trunks growing close together and at odd angles. Therefore it is sometimes necessary to neaten up the stumps once the whole tree has been coppiced.

A beautiful rainbow was a lovely end to the day. Many thanks for everyone's hard work!