If it's the
last Sunday before Christmas then it must be coppicing at Crickley
Hill. A regular fixture on the GVCV calendar over the past 12
years or so and is always popular with new and regular volunteers
alike. Leader Rob
If it's the
last Sunday before Christmas then it must be coppicing at Crickley
Hill. A regular fixture on the GVCV calendar over the past 12
years or so and is always popular with new and regular volunteers
alike.
This year saw 15 eager volunteers keen to experience the pleasures of woodland management. It was an ideal day for working i.e. sunny and cold. For the second year running we were working for the National Trust under the guidance of Warden Martin Jones. Work commenced after the obligatory safety talk, introduction and 'first aider' identification. We carried on clearing the coppice block started last Christmas.
Coppicing is a technique for managing woodlands that has been practised for centuries. It involves the cutting down of trees (mainly Hazel or Ash) in an area of woodland and then allowing the regrowth to develop over time. Then blocks of the woodland are cut on a rotational basis. Harvested materials had a variety of uses e.g. hurdle making, besoms, tool handles as well as construction. Essentially timber was treated as an economic crop.
Nowadays, the primary reason for coppicing is for the environmental benefits its brings to woodlands. The different degrees of shade within a coppiced woodland encourages different plants and animals to flourish i.e. it increases biodiversity in current parlance.
Any material suitable for bindings and stakes for hedgelaying was saved for future use. Larger logs were saved for firewood/habitat. The rest was burnt and provided fuel for the highlight of the day.
As is traditional with this task, baked potatoes (from the bonfire) with a variety of fillings were served at lunchtime. This could be why this particular project tends to be the most popular task of the year! These were followed by cakes and mince pies. A big thank you to Alison for buying all the goodies and then getting up at 6am on Sunday to give the spuds a head start in the oven.
We continued felling trees in the afternoon and burnt up the remaining branches. We watched the fire burn down whilst polishing off the remaining mince pies washed down with the final cuppa of the day. The area was comprehensively cleared and the coppice cycle starts again.
