Mately Passage

 

Well established Alder (Alnus glutinosa) coppice flank the headwaters of the Beaulieu River as it  runs through Mately Passage. These stands haven't been coppiced for many years, they're what they class as notable alder now. Once it was wood much prized for the quality of the charcoal it produced, an important forest industry. I don't know about nowadays. This morning it was quiet, verdant and lush through Mately Passage, and the stands felt cool and airy. It was lovely walking.

Light at the end of the tunnel

The light at the end of the tunnel.

Old Hazel stool

I'm guessing that this old grown out Hazel stool was last coppiced around 75 years ago, it's one of several in the copse behind Knoll beach. They're fairly large and I suspect they'd have been managed for some years before the war, though, the war would have put an end to that management. The area was closed off at the beginning of the war, then due to exercises too dangerous to access through the war and beyond for years after until the dangers of unexploded ordinance had been removed. By then the land use had changed as had the need for coppiced materials, and the area became one of recreation rather than production. They're find old trees and I'm certain that re-cut they would once again become productive, a sustainable resource too. 

Ridley Wood

It's been quite awhile since I last walked through the majestic stands of Ridley Wood.  Stuck out on a knoll, Ridley's exposed to the full rigors of the elements, and this pocket of ancient woodland has suffered greatly from the storms of recent years. Ridley Wood comprises of mighty Oaks and Beeches with a mixed under story, many of the Beeches are clearly grown out pollarded trees of some girth and sporting several giant boughs; usually in the forest this denotes that these trees originated in the pre-enclosure period, as with enclosure came restrictions of traditional forestry practices such as coppicing and pollarding, both outlawed in favour of the single straight trunked trees required by the navy for ship building. Ridley's a lovely pocket of woodland and it's sad to see it so battered, if it's part of the natural cycles, you know, things grow, they live, they die, then new things grow, that's one thing.  My worry is that the acceleration in destruction I've seen in recent years could be attributed to climate change and associated weather anomalies and that bodes less well. 

Coppiced Ash

The grown out stools of Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) reminds us that coppicing was once widespread and extended over several varieties of tree. It looks like these stools have been neglected for many years by the size of the trunks coming from them. In the stool hollows Ramsons have taken seed and flourish as they do on the woodland floor.

Hazel stool

Far from damaging or shortening the life of a tree, coppicing and pollarding increase the trees health, vitality and longevity.  A Hazel tree has an average lifespan of about 80 years, though if coppiced that lifespan can be increased to several hundred years. Some of the Hazel stools we saw today must have well exceeded the average age. It's nice to see them coaxed back to life.