Coppicing by the pond

IMPORTED POST FROM OLD BLOG. ORIGINAL DATE: 28/11/2007

While we're waiting for our felling licence to arrive (which should be any day now...) we decided to coppice some of the trees near the pond, as we want to get more light down to it next year. Our friends Andrew and Sarah were visiting over the weekend, so we got them involved as well, for their first experience in the woods.

Here's the site we worked on, before:


and after:


Both Andrew and Sarah had a go at felling, here's Andrew in action with the bowsaw:


and Sarah with Tracy, cutting the logs to length after they were felled:


There was quite a bit of clearing up to do, considering it was such a small area:


The stems were felled a few inches up, but they need cutting off near the ground, with a slope on them to avoid rainwater collecting. Of course, now we have a chainsaw, this job can be done in a couple of minutes, which makes the whole experience much more fun for visitors!

Mike