Woodland Work
The bulk of woodland management work, such as felling or coppicing, takes place between late autumn and early spring. During this period, the trees are dormant, the sap having retreated back into the roots. When cut in this state, the damage done to the tree as an organism is limited. The arrival of spring brings rising sap. Normally, it would be pushed high up to produce new leaf and structural growth at the top of the tree. In coppiced trees, however, it starts again at the stump, producing new shoots instead. These shoots start to grow at approximately the same time, and in similar conditions. This means they grow at a similar pace and in the same direction, up towards the light. After several years, the outcome is a large number of very similarly sized, relatively straight poles. How long they are left depends on the intended purpose of the poles and the species of tree. Cut early, they are used for basketry and hurdle fencing. Left longer to grow larger, the wood can be used for fence posts or building materials. Cut down by chainsaws, the felled poles are cleaned up and processed with the traditional coppice workers’ tool, the billhook. Work starts at one end of an area to be cut, then carries on systematically through the coup. A coup is an area, or section, of coppice. Coppiced woodlands are separated into coups where everything will be cut the same season. Each stool is felled in turn, then processed. Useful timber is stacked, and the brash or twiggy bits that are trimmed off may be built into dead hedges. These are rows of brash material used to delineate the coups. These can provide nesting and shelter for birds and other species. They can also be used to cover over the stool, or stump, to protect it from browsing animals, mostly deer. In Riddy Wood, much of the timber being harvested at present is overstood coppice. This is wood that has been left too long without being cut. What may once have been useful poles have become warped. Much of it ends up being cut and split for firewood, although some of the straighter pieces are used for erecting shelters in the wood. Some large mature trees have fallen down, or been felled, because they were dangerous. These have, where possible, been cut into planks for benches, cladding and tables. All of the furniture and structures at the camp in Riddy Wood are made using materials from the interior of the wood itself.