I had just returned from a morning's work on the reserve removing a number of small trees in order to thin out a hardwood plantation. They were mostly silver birches and I wanted to keep few of them because, to be honest, I think they are pretty trees. So we had to strain our eyes to see the squirrel damage to their tops and leave one or two undamaged ones.

We have always had squirrel damage, especially to a youngish row of ride-side hornbeams which, however, seem to cope with having most of the bark stripped off them. But in the case of the birches the damage was more severe. Most of those which we felled were dead at the top; lower down, the main stem looked dead but the wood was good inside, and the laterals looked normal and had buds on them, but for how much longer? A case of emaciation by squirrel. "Bah" to food for squirrels, I say.

One of our green team days this month was notable for a bitter south-east wind which would have cut us up into little pieces while we thinned. So we took the hint and moved across into the lee of the wood. There, along a footpath, we coppiced eight hazels according to the winter plan of action. This was the third year of coppicing - the practice of cutting wood down to the ground when it regenerates and can be used again some years later. The height were selected out of 48 "stools", meaning that we have a further three of so years to complete the rotational cycle of six years. (I think!) Then we start again.

Hazels are still used from time to time for making hurdles, but the former use for making hoops for "dry" barrels; making crates for crockery, and "wattling" for plaster and ceilings, has fallen into disuse. So why did we coppice them? Mainly in this case because it helps to keep the footpath open, but also (and I prefer this explanation) because it offers us a continuity of ages, and acts as a backcloth for an oak plantation.

"Almost every wood of which the coppice stools still remain is worth preserving. Normally re-coppicing is the best conservation policy, for it brings to life the traditional working of the wood and all its plants and animals." - "The History of the Countryside" by Oliver Rackham.

John Hall © 2002