Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Ellen Winter reflects on a month of activity in and around the Stroud Valleys.

I MENTION coppicing pretty regularly in this column, so it’s time to explain more about coppicing and why it is such an important management technique at GWT nature reserves.

Stone Age humans would have cut trees with their flint blades and seen that the stumps of some quickly produce strong, straight new shoots which eventually grow into long stems. This process of cutting trees to the ground and allowing the stump to regrow to produce a valuable crop is called coppicing, and it became a mainstay of forestry in Britain.

Remember that for thousands of years before plastics arrived wood was a highly valued material – it didn’t matter if you wanted a plate, a cart or house – or a warm fire!

Many types of tree will coppice, and 100 years ago every child would have known the different types of tree and the uses for that wood. Around Stroud the main coppice tree is hazel, although there is also coppice ash, oak, lime, alder and maple.

On our many woodland reserves around Stroud we have hundreds of acres of hazel coppice. This is because when managed it is home to an abundance of wildlife – bluebells and other wildflowers thrive in freshly cut areas. Woodland butterflies, bees and birds find homes in the airy tree canopy, and rare hazel dormice snooze and scurry in the branches.

Sadly, coppice woodland has largely been abandoned as plastic has taken over the world, and for the wildlife that lives in such woodland this is a disaster. Many species, such as dormice, could disappear forever if we don’t take action.

If you’d like some hands-on experience, join us at our Cake and Conservation event at Box Wood near Minchinhampton on Wednesday, November 22, where you will learn traditional woodland management techniques. It’s free, book a place at gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk