Tree Coppicing

Coppicing is a type of forestry management that involves cutting down trees to the ground, and then selectively cutting them again every few years. The practice has been around for centuries, but it hasn’t always been called coppicing. It’s common in many countries, including England, Ireland, France, Sweden, and Finland. Home County Tree Surgeons are experts in this process and we offer it in Nottingham.

Contact us today for a free consultation or request an estimate online 24/7 using our convenient form on this page!

Benefits of coppicing

Coppicing is not only a sustainable way of managing woodland, but it also has many benefits.

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Firewood

Through coppicing, you can sustainably harvest wood. This reduces the need to clear land for agriculture or housing, which helps protect biodiversity and wildlife habitats. It also means that coppiced trees will store carbon and not contribute to climate change as they grow back quickly.
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Woven Fence Material

If you cut the tree down and leave it on-site, saplings will sprout from its roots. These shoots are very flexible, so after about three years, when they’re taller than five feet (about two meters) tall, they can be woven into mats of fence material.
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Small Wood Projects

Coppicing is great for creating small-wood projects like furniture or tools because small branches have finer grain with fewer knots than older growth. Coppiced trees can also be used as a living fence, with the coppice shoots growing to form their natural fencing.
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Livestock Food

Tree trimmings can be used as animal bedding or chopped up to make livestock feed.
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Chop-and-Drop

Coppicing makes harvesting a lot more efficient because you’re not just cutting down one tree and removing it from the forest floor to collect firewood.
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Lumber/Fence Posts

The wood of coppiced trees is great for making sturdy fence posts that won’t rot quickly like untreated wood can when placed in the moist ground (or even on top of an older rotting post).
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Beds

It’s possible to build raised beds using coppice shoots by weaving them together into a grid pattern with their flexible branches before filling them with soil and compost.

When is coppicing not advised?

Although coppicing has lots of benefits, it’s not always the best option for trees. If a tree is coppiced too early, before it has had time to reach maturity and develop a thick trunk or sturdy root system, its growth can be stunted.

The process we use for coppicing

• Home County Tree Surgeons will assess your woodland to establish which stems are ready to have their branches lopped off. The rest of the wood may then either remain in situ where it’ll continue growing (or tillering), or it may be carefully removed.

The step-by-step process involves lopping the chosen branches back to between half a metre and two metres from the tree’s base.

Frequently Asked Questions

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When should coppicing be done?

As a rough guide, Home County Tree Surgeons recommend coppicing should be done every ten to fifteen years, but it depends on the type of tree and its individual requirements.
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When should you stop coppicing?

Once Home County Tree Surgeons have removed all the branches from your tree that are deemed ready for removal, they’ll leave those selected stems which can either remain where they are (tillering) or may need to be gently pruned back. It’s important not to over-prune at this stage, as any further lopping will remove too much bark, resulting in dieback.
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Is coppicing good for trees?

Yes. Coppiced trees actually grow much straighter and are easier to harvest. If you’ve ever tried splitting logs from a coppice stool, then it’s easy to see how straight the stems have grown as they’re all roughly parallel with each other.
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What are the disadvantages of coppicing?

There aren’t any major drawbacks if Home County Tree Surgeons carry out your coppicing work correctly-though Home County Tree Surgeons advise that you don’t plant an oak tree or poplar directly into a stump because their roots will go in search of water first and not be able to find it easily beneath the ground. This can lead to problems for new saplings that emerge after being cut back too drastically following