![]() In fact, this surprising side effect eventually led to many people using the technique to diversify woodland areas. Both methods allow a larger amount of light and rainfall to reach the undergrowth, offering smaller plants an opportunity to really grow. Pruning your trees in either manner will also be beneficial if you intend to grow other plants around the base. Benefits Lower Level Growth Surrounding Trees When it comes to taking care of trees, shrubs, and other forms of greenery, there can be many different approaches to care for them. No chemicals or fertilizers are needed, making it an incredibly sustainable method for creating dense greenery, without compromising on the safety of overhead wires or nearby properties. With wood produced through pollarding and coppicing going on to be used in shipbuilding, fence post usage, and sustainable fuel source through wood burning.īy incorporating these methods into your garden, you can encourage your trees to grow faster simply by utilizing their natural ‘instinct’. While it may seem counterproductive to chop down your trees in order to help them grow, it has proven surprisingly effective over the centuries. This is why it is important to know your trees are 100% suitable. If you were to prune a tree without these ‘dormant buds’, then it would simply die without its leaves. ![]() When the branches are then cut or pruned, these buds are essentially prioritized by the tree and pushed out to the surface in order to continue growing. These methods work primarily on trees and shrubs which often have dormant buds in their bark. You’ve more than likely seen trees that have been pruned this way while driving through cities or other urban areas! What Does Coppicing and Pollarding Achieve? While you may not have realized just what pollarding and coppicing actually entail, it is a method of woodland maintenance that is popular across the world. But this has since evolved as a way of managing tree heights to keep them safe or prevent them from interfering with electrical wires. It has been around since medieval times, where it began as a way of producing materials and feed. The branches are cut at the head of the tree, in an attempt to encourage a thicker, denser head of foliage. Although more traditionally associated with hazel coppice it is not unusual to come across evidence of dormice.īutterfly and moth species and numbers are recorded every year and data sent to national recording centres.Pollarding, on the other hand, is a technique that focuses on the upper branches of a tree. Hares enjoy the shelter and varied diet provided by young coppice, but are occasionally responsible for damage to stocks when they eat the bark in harsh weather. There are recent records of nightjars,and the older coppice is attractive to large numbers of woodcock in the winter, which appreciate the lack of disturbance and enjoy feeding in the soft soil and deep leaf litter. The woods have a particularly large population of willow warblers, and the occasional nightingale. The early years of the coppice cycle provide excellent habitat for songbirds. Rarities in the Torry Hill chestnut woodlands include autumn helleborines, herb paris and occasional appearances of the very splendid and nationally rare greater broomrape, a parasite on the broom which flourishes around fire sites in the newly cut coppice. ![]() ![]() In some places wood anemone predominates, and in others there are hundreds of primroses, and other woodland plants such as yellow archangel. But they are not the only flowers to put on a show in spring. In April and May newly cut cants are a sea of blue with hundreds of flowers per square metre. After ten years or so only the most shade loving plants and woodland specialists adapted to low light levels can survive, until of course the coppice is cut again and the sudden increase in light levels triggers another explosion of growth Bluebells are the most iconic plant in the Torry Hill chestnut woods. As the coppice grows and the canopy closes the light levels at ground level start to fall, and only taller plants such as broom can compete with the chestnut for light. For the first three or four years after cutting, the woods are full of plant life, and the rich food sources benefit insects and songbirds, as well as providing an excellent habitat for reptiles, particularly slow worms which can often be seen basking on the edge of tracks. The patchwork of areas of different aged woods produce a variety of habitats around which wildlife can move to find the perfect environment.Ĭoppice woods contain seed banks which remain dormant until the wood is cut, when the sudden increase in sunlight levels trigger germination. History | Management | Wildlife and the environment | ProcessingĬoppicing as a management regime is generally accepted as producing very high wildlife benefits, particularly when carried out on a large scale and with regular rotational cutting.
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