Coppiced hazel stool.
January has seen my woodland work progress with one area – the New Territory, now nearing completion concerning the coppicing of the hazel stools. As many of these were looking somewhat moribund, they largely being compromised by too much shade from the ash canopy high above and also from sprawling bramble, I decided to only fell the older and larger hazel stems, leaving the growth on the younger stems to assist the stools to reinvigorate.
The predominant ash canopy ideally needs some trees thinning out but that involves a lot of heavy labour and half-metre diameter trees are on the margins of my competence. I earlier removed several that were compromising an oak but I was working outside of my ‘comfort zone!’ As probably all of the ash are suffering from ash die-back they will break-up and eventually fall during or following windy spells of weather…
Our woodland is enclosed and protected by deer fencing… The surrounding woodland none of which is managed, is browsed by fallow deer which have largely decimated the ground flora, young tree saplings and tree re-growth. As there are now no ‘top predators’ apart from Man, the country’s deer population has exploded over past decades through failure to adequately control their numbers. There are now estimated to be 2 million deer across Britain. The current Covid pandemic has served only to exasperate this situation as it’s not financially worthwhile for stalkers to operate, as the market for venison has collapsed due to the temporary closure of the restaurant trade. Wild deer herds grow by up to 30% each year meaning the population expands by 600,000 between May and June. It seems a pity that this source of healthy protein cannot be humanely exploited thus helping both the nations diet and conserving its woodland.
