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Coppicing
is the traditional practice of periodically cutting trees and shrubs to a low stump from which several new stems grow.
Coppicing was originally undertaken to produce wood for
fuel, fencing, furniture making, etc. Trees which are
coppiced are not being killed; in fact coppicing often
extends a tree’s lifespan.
Queen’s Wood would have been coppiced for several
centuries before it became public land. Hornbeam was
the species of tree traditionally coppiced, whereas the oak
trees (the other major species in the wood) were grown for
timber and allowed to grow into large canopy trees.
For a long time after the wood became public,
coppicing was discontinued but it has been revived in a
number of parts of the wood in recent years. The most
recent schemes have been supported by the Forestry
Commission’s English Woodland grant Scheme and Mayor’s
Community Grant Scheme to help maintain species diversity
and habitat structure for the benefit of wildlife.
The benefits of coppicing are that it lets
sunlight into the Wood allowing flowering plants and insects
to thrive. It also allows new trees to grow which will
in time replace those that we lose through old age.
There are no immediate plans for more coppicing,
but the Management Plan calls for extending coppicing in
appropriate areas and managing existing coppices in the
future.
A new Botanic survey of Coppiced area can be seen by clicking HERE