February will see the resumption of coppicing at Close Sartfield. The cut material (willow and birch) has a variety of uses and these products will be available for purchase. This includes:

• Willow and birch bean poles and pea sticks, a local sustainable way to grow peas and beans, you can find a handy guide here.
   
• Willow wattle fence panels, approximately 1.5m high and 1.8m wide. We are also able to make bespoke size panels depending on your requirements, get in touch!
   
• Bundles of birch brash to jazz up your XC and working hunter horse jumps. Perfect for practicing at home and for competition too.

For availability and prices please contact MWT Reserves Officer, Tricia -  494143 or tricia@mwt.im

Coppicing as a tradition and why we do it.

Almost all woodlands in Britain have been managed and coppicing is a traditional silvicultural system used extensively since Neolithic times.

Some trees die when cut down but many others (including hazel and willow) coppice i.e. the cut stump sends up shoots and becomes a coppice stool from which successive crops of poles can be cut.  Coppicing is a very efficient method of harvesting wood, as the new shoots can grow more than 5cm a day.  Coppice products have been used as building materials, charcoal, providing bark for tanning, pea and bean sticks, hurdles, thatching spars, and stakes and binders for hedging.  Some material harvested from other reserves has already been used for hedge laying around the Island. The conservation value of coppicing means it continues to play an important role in the British landscape and it is for its conservation and wildlife benefits that we have undertaken coppicing at Close Sartfield since 2000.

Traditionally areas felled were small being based on the amount one or two men could cut and process in a winter season.  In order to reduce edge effects coppice blocks need to be a half to one acre in extent. 

Traditionally, coppice is cut in winter (October to March) because it is easier to work without the presence of foliage, there is a full season’s growth for the new shoots and in the past woodsman had other work to do in the summer.  At Close Sartfield coppicing takes place January – March this avoids bird nesting and reduces the amount of regrowth eaten by the sheep. 

Coppicing is practised on a series of rotations of anything from 4-35 years depending on the tree species and the purpose for which the coppice poles will be put.  At Close Sartfield there are two blocks of coppice which are cut every five years. Mature willow is left between the blocks for birds and bats to roost and nest.

The conservation benefits of coppice are as follows:

• The variety of habitat provided by the different stages of worked coppice is very beneficial to plants and animals.  It ranges from the open ground after felling which by an increase of warmth and light encourages a ground flora, to the dense canopy and shaded ground of older coppice where ground flora may be absent or only sparse where light manages to penetrate.  This situation assumes that different parts of the wood are felled at different times.  Coppicing a whole wood in one go only gives variety of habitat time but not space.
   
• The relatively short coppice rotations mean that the period of complete canopy cover is short and seeds can remain dormant and wait to take advantage of the light following the next coppice.  The spring flora is most evident in the early years of the coppice cycle and declines thereafter.
   
• The different stages of coppice regrowth and relative amounts of ground flora also produce a variety of microclimates and in turn microhabitats.  These microhabitats provide homes for a wide range of invertebrates, which thereby attract different birds.  Older coppice blocks provide shelter, roosting and nesting sites, whilst blocks provide different food.