Nature’s Amazing Bounty

Pile of Hazel hedging stakes from Heavy Oak Coppice.
Photo: Paul Loughnane

At the time of writing for the Winter Grebe magazine I had conservatively estimated that 580 hedging stakes would be cut from Heavy Oak Coppice, Thornton Wood and I was very pleased with that prediction. In the end an astounding 1,054 hedging stakes were cut. The ability of the hazel to spring back is thoroughly amazing. The coppice is like the multi-headed hydra of Greek legend - cut a head off and it grows another, except in coppicing another two or three heads grow.

I have been cutting the hazel coppices for 24 years and I am still amazed at their increasing productivity - and the coppices have not reached their full potential yet.

A Hazel coppice stool in Heavy Oak Coppice.
Photo: Paul Loughnane

Why has the hazel stake crop become so prolific? The coppice stools have got bigger, some with an impressive 30cm diameter increase since the first cut in 1990 and the rootstock, the stool, has grown stronger with each cutting. The recovering hazel stools are like wound up springs with the buds shooting up faster and straighter in the first year after the cutting. Competition from bramble has been much reduced under the intensive coppice regime, perhaps, as nitrogen has been reduced in the coppice area. In 2006 a canopy alder tree fell over, opening a window of light to the coppice floor. During the coppice cut in 2008, the crowns of the oak standards were reduced allowing further light to the coppice stools. This oak crown lifting to 6 metres from the coppice floor was repeated on this coppice cut too.

Hedge stake harvest from subsequent coppice cuts

at Heavy Oak Coppice, Thornton Wood

Bluebells and primroses appear to have benefited from the coppice regime and are now able to make the most of the open phase which last two seasons.

If you would like to see the coppice there is a guided walk around Foxes and Thornton Wood at 2 p.m. on Saturday 25th April. Please see the events page on the website for details.

Paul Loughnane

Cutting the lovely straight poles at
Heavy Oak Coppice, October 2014
Photo: Paul Loughnane