The hazel coppice
A crop in the city
Hazel has been coppiced for thousands of years. Whenever stems are cut, they regrow from the base into long, straight branches that can be used for many different things – bean poles, tool handles, fence post and so on.
We wanted to recreate a small area of hazel coppice in the school wildlife garden and show the children that areas of woodland are more useful than just somewhere lovely to be!
At the same time as planting the woodland, we also planted a lot of young hazel trees in one particular area. These were left to grow for about 4 years and then cut right back to the ground. It looked a bit drastic, but new shoots soon appeared and started to head for the sky.
The hazel will now be left to grow in 7-year cycles. Hazel cut as new children arrive at the school will be re-cut just as they are leaving to go to secondary school. This, we hope, will show them the changes that occur in managed woodlands over time (quite a long time to children) and how useful they can actually be.
An in between times, the hazel trees themselves will provide a wonderful habitat for wild plants, birds and insects as well as providing hazel nuts to harvest and grow into new trees, as food for mammals or, if you’re feeling peckish, to eat!