Woodland Management

Types of Woodland

A woods is an area of trees that are too young and/or sparse to have formed more than an open canopy. In the woods, you can look up and see sky.
A forest is an area of trees that are old and dense enough to have formed a closed canopy. In the forest, you look up and see only trees. The forest may have layers. The top canopy, formed by the tall trees, begins 20 or 30 feet overhead and goes much higher. Below that you’ll often have a second canopy from saplings and smaller trees, like dogwoods and cedars. The third layer, called the understory, comprises shrubs and bushes, like honeysuckle. Lastly, there’s the ground cover of forest herbs: weeds, wildflowers, and other things that grow quickly in spring before the deciduous trees get their leaves.
An old growth forest is a forest that's at least 400 years old, and may have existed as far back as the last ice age. The ecosystem in an old growth forest has reached its steady state balance of plants, animals, and fungi without being mucked up by human intervention.
A copse is a woodland where the trees have been altered in shape by the woodland management techniques of coppicing or pollarding. Cutting trees in the winter makes them grow back quickly with multiple straight branches that can be used for many purposes.

Coppicing and Pollarding

Coppicing involves cutting low (15 cm) to the ground, while pollarding involves cutting higher from the ground (1.5 – 2.5 m) so that deer and cattle can’t eat the new growth. Coppicing, by preventing a tree from maturing, also increases the longevity of a tree. The cut area is called the stool, and grows wider in diameter with each cycle of cutting and growth.
Pollarding produces the sort of trunks that have swollen areas that sometimes really can look the faces of woodland spirits – but actually (apart from natural accidents) they are more likely to be evidence of human activity. Pollarded trees are more often found in wooded pasture and at boundary sites than in woodlands.

Ecology of the Coup

Trees in the copse are cut at intervals of 7 to 20 years. The copse is usually staged into sections called coups, so that some are available each year.
The increased light in a newly-cut coup allows existing woodland-floor vegetation such as bluebell, anemone and primrose to grow vigorously. Often brambles grow around the stools, encouraging insects, or various small mammals that can use the brambles as protection from larger predators. Woodpiles (if left in the coppice) encourage insects such as beetles to come into an area. The open area is then colonised by many animals such as nightingale, European nightjar and fritillary butterflies.
As the coup grows, the canopy closes and it becomes unsuitable for these animals again—but in an actively managed coppice, there is always another recently cut coup nearby, and the populations therefore move around, following the coppice management.

Tree Species Uses

Willow, being so flexible, makes excellent baskets and even some furniture. Especially osier, the basket-willow, which can be used to make wicker.
Ash produces strong straight poles excellent for tool handles and brooms.
Sweet chestnut is ideal for fence posts and sheep pens.
Hazel is most likely to be used for thatching, spars for hedge laying, and hurdle making.
Oak bark can be used for tanning skins.
The very hard broadleaf tree, hornbeam, was used for charcoal making.
Various trees, but especially willow, alder and poplar may be coppiced for firewood. Neat bundles of branches are convenient for transportation and storage, and can also produce a winter fodder crop sometimes known as tree hay for pasture animals.