Living WoodlandsDawn Fielding introduces a partnership between woodland owners, coppice workers and volunteers

Surrey is well known as a London commuter belt but surprisingly it is also the most wooded county in the UK. Throughout Britain we have witnessed a decline in the

economic value of managed woodland over the last 100 years, leading to neglect and a gradual change to dense forest. The Living Woodland Project aims to reverse this decline, supporting efforts to restore woodlands by reintroducing coppicing. The project is helping to bring woodlands back into good management, whilst showing the public why it is necessary to selectively fell trees. There is a lot of work to be done. People have not seen woodlands being worked and coppiced within their lifetime and often take a negative view of tree felling. England has more woodland today than 20 years ago, and yet woodland birds, butterflies and plants are disappearing. A Plantlife report, Forestry Recommissioned 2011, outlined that woodland birds are in decline and are at their lowest levels since 1970. Woodlands are also an important home for 41 of our 55 species of butterflies and the main habitat for 16 but there has been a 56% decrease in woodland butterflies since 1990. One in six of our woodland flowers has been threatened with extinction over the past 20 years.

CoppicingWoodlands throughout England were traditionally coppiced. It is an ancient system of woodland management more than 3000 years old. As most Living Woods readers will know, a tree is felled and useful products are created from the shoots that re-grow from the original stump. The main trees are hazel, oak, ash, sweet chestnut and hornbeam. Early man, having made clearings in the forest for grazing animals during the Neolithic period, used

this natural re-growth for fencing, building, tool handles and firewood. Coppice woodlands are still harvested for these products today, by established coppice workers and also a new generation woodsmen. Standard trees, often oak, are also a feature of coppice woodland and provide timber for building large structures and in the past, shipbuilding. As a general rule, no more than 15 large standards should be left per hectare within a coppice area as too many standards reduce the amount of light reaching the ground and the coppice will not re-grow successfully. Coppicing is our woodland heritage and its future. The coppice cycle (ie. cutting a woodland ‘crop’ on a rotation) has enormous benefits for wildlife. The huge increase in the amount of light on the woodland floor (particularly in the year or two after it is first cut) promotes the growth of ancient woodland indicators, including grasses such as the graceful wood mellick and flowers such as the native bluebell and wood anemone. Pollen records show that the bluebell (along with other woodland flowers) only really became prominent in the fossil record after coppicing became established. There are three main reasons why coppice is so good for wildlife. It supports a wide range of different habitats and the continual management over centuries has allowed many species to adapt alongside the system. It also maintains a close link with the original ancient wildwood by the way it is made up of a semi-natural distribution of trees, shrubs and plants as well as fungi and soils. The loss of wildlife is understandably linked to the reduction of coppicing in the last century. For more than 3000 years a whole range of species of plant, insect and animal have adapted to the continual cycle of clearance and re-growth that results from

Coppicing

coppicing woodland. People love trees but an English woodland is so much more than trees. To thrive, woodland wildlife needs open spaces with coppices, rides and glades. We need to restore these lost areas and let in both sunlight and life. Several species of butterfly (pearl bordered and small pearl bordered fritillaries) depend heavily on the woodland clearings that result from coppicing. The caterpillars from these two species feed on the violets that thrive in woodland clearings. Plants such as primrose, several orchids, yellow archangel, woodruff, wood anemone and many others thrive under coppice management. Many of these species are so associated with coppice woodlands that they will only grow where coppice woodland is present. A lot of once-common plants and insects are now uncommon or rare, both locally and across the whole of southern England. In north Surrey, some of the survivors include primrose, tutsan, wild strawberry, dog violet, early purple orchid and silver washed fritillary butterflies. These species depend upon the periodically open, sunlit conditions, which go hand in hand with coppicing.

Woodland initiative Living Woodlands was launched in 2007, and developed by the Lower Mole Countryside Management Project. The ‘Moles’ carry out countryside improvements for the benefit of people and wildlife in the urban fringe of north Surrey and Kingston. This includes landscape enhancements, pond restoration and access re-surfacing. Much of what they do is dependent upon their large and enthusiastic volunteer group. Over the last 25 years they found their volunteers loved working in woodlands, restoring the hazel coppice for nature conservation and public access needs. Yet they had

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Volunteering

to return every seven years to re-cut restored areas, effectively keeping them from working on new sites! There is only so much impact volunteers can have, on the most wooded county in England. So Living Woodlands was developed in order to help self-employed coppice workers make a living managing the newly-restored coppice, in a business which has high costs and low returns. The aim of Living Woodlands is to create lasting woodland management with enormous benefits for nature conservation, as well as improving access to woodlands for local people and creating a better understanding of why we need to manage them. We create new coppiced woodlands under long-term management by creating a partnership between the project, self-employed coppice workers and land owners/local authorities. Matching sites with coppice workers, staff make the initial negotiations with owners of woodland sites

www.living-woods.com www.living-woods.com

Timber extraction the old-fashioned way with cant hooks (above, far left). Volunteers surfacing a woodland path (above, centre). Restoring woodland to coppice (top) and securing a timber storage area (above)

The nocturnal dormouse is one of the beneficiaries of woodland management and re-introduction of coppicing

A volunteer tea break (below), otherwise known as biscuit time. Access improvements and sweet chestnut fencing improve a Living Woodland (below right)

The Coppice Craft stall at the Living Woodlands Fayre (below)

in private or public ownership. Having a coppice worker in a woodland for several years encourages regular work in scale with the size of the typical Surrey small woodland. The alternatives are occasional large-scale, high-disruption forestry operations (which are often seen by local people as ‘catastrophes’) or continued neglect leading to continued loss of biodiversity. We aim for a 14-year agreement between owner and coppice worker, for two full rotations of hazel coppice; seven years of restoration and seven years taking of the restored crop as a return for the risk and initial hard work. We aim to match products with local markets. Sales of high-quality, locally-produced items from sustainably-managed coppiced woodlands are being developed under the Living Woodlands brand. Products include traditionally-crafted items such as hazel hurdles, hedging products, besoms, beanpoles and charcoal. By-products from woodland management, such as woodfuel and blanks for woodturning are also available. We sell products through local garden centres, corner shops and from our offices at Horton Country Park, and are always looking for more outlets. We assist with grant aid. Coppice workers apply for Forestry Commission Woodland Improvement Grants (WIG) aimed at restoring coppice. FC payments and owners’ matched contributions go to the coppice worker who undertakes the work. Other income for the coppice worker is derived from local sales of the products listed above. The Project can provide in-kind practical expertise, ranging from woodland wildlife surveys to installing access gates and removing flytipping. We can carry out local consultation, help with ordering bulk materials (eg. Tenax for temporary deer fencing)

and apply for local grant aid to top up and add value to Forestry Commission grants. We can turn problems on one site to solutions on others. Our skilled and trained volunteers can help with invasive species control, access improvements, ecological monitoring and nature conservation management where the work provides no financial return. It is interesting and diverse work! They are helping to resurface paths, enabling coppice workers to access the felled timber. They are planting new trees and installing deer fencing, keeping the new growth safe from nibbling. Hazel that is left out of a coppice cycle rapidly becomes derelict and can be very costly to clear cut and restore back into cycle. Our volunteers are invaluable, as they can carry out that first uneconomic cut of the neglected woodland at low cost to the landowner.

BenefitsThe landowner’s woodland has an improved standing crop along with nature conservation improvements. Owners’ duty-of-care issues are solved, plus with improved monitoring (coppice workers are additional ‘eyes on site’) and site security. Looking further ahead there is the possibility of sales of coppice as a standing crop. The Project and its sponsors help re-make the link between the urban/suburban majority of the UK population and a living, working, biodiverse and productive countryside. We also aim to achieve better physical and intellectual access to woodlands for local people. In 2012 the Project was awarded a grant of £46,900 by the Heritage Lottery to fund a Living Woodlands Project Officer for one year, to continue

Volunteering

the expansion of this scheme. There are seven woodlands currently under the scheme but we are also involved in many more within our area. Recent promotion of the scheme has seen a higher web profile, new interpretation panels, leaflets and banners along with a Living Woodlands Fayre held in October 2012 with greenwood crafts, bushcrafts and children’s entertainment. It was a great opportunity to reach a new audience. We also invited 60 school children along to watch two large oak trees being felled and to learn about how it will benefit the woodland wildlife. They donned Bob the Builder hats and found it immensely exciting. Each child planted an acorn in a pot to take home to complete the ‘cycle’. We are expanding the volunteers’ outlook on woodland management. Many attended a butterfly training day and as a direct result we now have a number of volunteers carrying out surveys four times a year on the Living Woodland sites. They also attended a woodturning demonstration, with beautiful pots and cups created out of wood offcuts. The volunteers get the satisfaction of their work making possible something much bigger and longer-lasting than they could achieve alone. Living Woodlands has proved a successful template for managing woodlands, and the Lower Mole Project plans to expand the initiative and bring further woodlands under management in the future. The beauty of the Living Woodlands project is that it could be adapted anywhere in the country where you have access to volunteers.

Details For more information contact Dawn Fielding on 01372 743783 or email mole.project@surreycc.gov.uk or visit livingwoodlands.org.uk.

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Community Woodlands

Hazel coppicing (above). School children experience woodland management in action (top right) and a volunteer splitting logs (right), with sales contributing to conservation. Scrub clearance (far right) adjacent to a coppice cant

A silver-washed fritillary

Living Woodlands has begun in earnest at Nonsuch Park all thanks to John Armitage, the coppice

worker, and the Nonsuch Vole volunteer group who have been working hard to make the site a success. The woodland at Nonsuch has not been managed over the last 30 odd years. John and the volunteers have so far thinned out one small area of woodland and replanted the space with young hazel trees. A further area is to be coppiced this winter. A nearby shed has been leased for storage and they have fenced the perimeter with timber sourced and processed all within the park. It’s as ‘local’ as it gets. An application will be made to the Forestry Commission for a Woodland Improvement Grant that should provide money for tree planting, thinning, interpretation boards and footpath improvements. Trees of conservation interest will be left untouched. The felled timber will probably be made into high quality benches and display boards and for use in greenwood crafts. There is a woodturner group in nearby Cheam that use Nonsuch Wood to make attractive bowls and cups. Some of the wood is suitable for firewood, to be sold from the site to help raise money to support the coppice worker. Moor Lane Allotment Conservation Area, Chessington is our smallest Living Woodland. With the help of our volunteers we have installed Sussex-style fencing along the boundary of the site. The sweet chestnut fencing has all been sourced within Surrey from sustainable coppiced trees, which will re-grow and can be harvested again in future years. The hazel trees on the site can be coppiced in the coming years and used by the allotment holders as free pea sticks or bean sticks. It should be fairly simple to set up a similar scheme in other parts of the country where there are coppice workers/small scale woodsmen and volunteers. It does require somebody to bring the groups together, but many counties have woodland officers or countryside officers who might be able to assist and mediate between the two groups. You need to think about insurance and tools.

How to make it workBringing volunteers and workers together

What is Coppicing?

Woodlands throughout England were traditionally coppiced. It is an ancient system of woodland management over 3000 years old. A tree is felled and useful products are created from the shoots that re-grow from the original stump. Coppicing is our woodland heritage and its future.

By coppicing sections of the woodland we allow more sunlight to reach the ground, increasing the variety of plants that grow here. This in turn attracts more woodland wildlife, including birds and butterflies that might otherwise disappear from within Surrey.

England today has more woodland than 20 years ago yet woodland birds, butterflies and plants are disappearing. This has been linked to the reduction of coppicing in the last century. Too many woodlands are neglected or under-managed.

What is Coppicing?

England today has more woodland than 20 years ago yet woodland birds, butterflies and plants are disappearing. This has been linked to the reduction of coppicing in the last century. Too many

neglected or

The Living Woodlands Project is restoring woodlands across North Surrey and Kingston

By coppicing sections of the woodland we allow more sunlight to reach the ground, increasing the variety of plants that grow here. This in turn attracts more woodland wildlife, including birds

Dormice are small, nocturnal and live in the shrub layer and tree canopy. Without action we could see the loss of dormice from Surrey within 50 years.

A Lower Mole Countryside Management Project

www.livingwoodlands.org.uk Tel: 01372 743783

Coppiced woodlands provide a greater variety of food and shelter for our woodland birds.*Woodland birds have declined by 20% since 1970.

Coppiced woodlands are valued for their displays of spring flowers. Most woodland flowers are not shade tolerant and prefer the lighter conditions found here.*One in six woodland flowers is threatened with extinction since 1990.

Woodlands are an important home for 41 of our 55 species of butterflies and the main habitat for 16 of them. They rely on the low-growing vegetation found in open woodland habitats. Look out for woodland butterflies in the summer months.*The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme shows a 56% decrease in woodland butterflies since 1990.

Chiffchaff - © Chris Ward

White Admiral - © Sherie New

Wood Anemone - © Mike Taylor

Dormouse - © Hugh ClarkeIn coppiced woodlands, trees

such as Hazel, Ash and Lime are cut back regularly to near ground level. This makes them produce many shoots or “stools” from the old stumps.

Hazel stool in its first summer after coppicing.

Hazel stool after 3 years.

Hazel stool 7 years later. It is now ready to be coppiced again.

Coppiced wood provides local, sustainable, good quality products such as fencing, garden products, firewood and charcoal.

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Driving in deer fence stakes (above)