As he states “most of the broad leaf trees in Britain can be coppiced: apple, alder, oak, ash, sycamore, chestnut, hazel, willow.” This guy makes wooden bowls, heats his home all from his coppice patch. Here is a great video on Coppicing from Britain. Life cycle analysis of willow biomass production_ADC Research Review 2009.Managing_willow_rings_for_biomass_Mushanski-Schroeder_ 2012FINAL – e.Unconventional woody species for agroforestry biomass_ADC Research Review 2009.Willow Rings for Biomass Production_ADC Research Review 2009.Buffer strips for biomass production and riparian protection_Schroeder_A….EcoBuffers-an alternative agroforestry design_ADC Research Review 2009.Journal_2009_SchroederKort_Biomass Harvest from Natural Willow Rings.

Breeding willow for bio-energy and agroforestry_ADC Research Review 2009….

This research is much needed and it is going to have to be continued by individuals and universities. I believe that the centre has been shut down, like most of the other gems in our country over the last 6 years. Upon further inquiry it turns out that this research centre was heating all of their buildings with wood chips from their on farm research projects. The articles are loaded with information on yield, energy content, rotation and species.

I tracked them down and have placed them below for folks to download. I had a great chat with her and she mentioned that they had a ton of resources on coppice agroforestry that they had produced. Not too long ago, I was speaking at the Organic Connections conference and there was a representative from the Canadian Agroforestry Research Farm at Indian Head, Saskatchewan. They include Caragana, Manitoba maple, Green Ash, Willow (105 species) and Elm. In Canada we can grow a number of different trees that can be cut and grow back. The curve may allow the identification of coppice timber in archaeological sites-timber in the Sweet Track in Somerset (built in the winter of 38 BC) has been identified as coppiced lime. This curve occurs as the competing stems grow out from the stool in the early stages of the cycle, then up towards the sky as the canopy closes. Ĭoppiced stems are characteristically curved at the base. The age of a stool may be estimated from its diameter, and some are so large-perhaps as much as 5.4 metres (18 ft) across-that they are thought to have been continuously coppiced for centuries. Birch can be coppiced for faggots (bundles of brushwood) on a three- or four-year cycle, whereas oak can be coppiced over a fifty-year cycle for poles or firewood.Ĭoppicing maintains trees at a juvenile stage, and a regularly coppiced tree will never die of old age-some coppice stools may therefore reach immense ages. The cycle length depends upon the species cut, the local custom, and the use to which the product is put. Coppicing has the effect of providing a rich variety of habitats, as the woodland always has a range of different-aged coppice growing in it, which is beneficial for biodiversity. In this way, a crop is available each year somewhere in the woodland. Typically a coppiced woodland is harvested in sections or coups on a rotation. In subsequent growth years, many new shoots will emerge, and, after a number of years the coppiced tree, or stool, is ready to be harvested, and the cycle begins again. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level. “ Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. Here is a great Wikipedia definition on coppicing: Setting up these types of systems within our cities and farms would be a way of preventing this as well as providing bee fodder, bird habitat and windbreaks. As mentioned in my wood gasification article, if we all moved over to burning wood for heat and power, we would deforest the planet in a matter of years. These conifers are cut once and then die. This is quite different from the type of forestry we practice here in Canada with spruce, fir, and pine trees. In other words, the tree is cut and grows back. Coppicing has always been interesting to me as a wood production system (fuel, timber) because it uses trees that can be cut perpetually.

Coppice meaning