Coppicing on Saturday, only because of heavy rain.  Worked a good shift.  Martin starred taking down two difficult leaning, hung up trees and  dropped assorted others. Stuart and I did the easy bit sectioning up the trees and separating off the brash. We decided to retain some long straight ash sections for possible later use.

Lucy and Mary did the hard shift stacking logs and making brash piles.

We had welcome tea breaks and Lucy’s cake, seem to have a giant hunger when I work outside. Slept well last night. Fabulous day in good company- more on Monday

Coppicing;

A cycle of cutting mature trees back to near the ground and allowing the shoots to grow in to usable lengths of wood over a 10 year plus period. In our woodland we have coppiced ash and willow:

jpg sourced from Google – www.arbortectreecare.co.uk

Brash;

The piles of wood made up of branch twigs and tree tops. Recycles nutrients back into the soil over a long period. Provides a habitat for insects and birds as well as small mammals.  The brash piles are distributed and never made so dense they suppress plant growth totally.