Coppice & Cawl ~ FULLY BOOKED
Want to learn how to get more from your trees by coppicing?
Come and join James for a day of traditional woodland management and learn all about the art of coppicing in the beautiful native woods at Denmark Farm nature reserve.
And when we’re not outside with our tools we’ll be warm and snug in the farm enjoying a hearty lunch of Welsh cawl (traditional lamb stew) served with local Hafod cheese and freshly baked bread. Good winter fuel for woodspeople.
James has worked in and around woodlands for many years, having previously managed the largest community woodland in Wales. This course is ideal for anyone who has access to woodland and wants to learn some skills to manage it better for wildlife and for coppice products such as firewood and greenwood crafts.
This course costs just £25 per person.
The day will include:-
- Tree identification
- Coppicing
- Snedding & High Pruning
- Ideas for craft projects using coppiced wood
- Creating wildlife habitat piles and windrows
- Using hand tools safely in the woodland
- Making bean poles and pea sticks
The future of woodlands relies on effective management, just as a garden needs constant maintenance and care to thrive. Trees must be thinned to grow well and invasive species like bramble have to be managed so that they don’t dominate other plants.
So what is coppicing? Well it’s is an ancient form of woodland management, that involves repetitive felling of the same stump, near to ground level, and allowing the shoots to regrow from that main stump. Coppicing creates a variety of micro-habitats within a woodland which become homes for specialised wildlife such as dormice and butterflies.
Coppicing also produces loads of useful timber products that are still used today. Woodlands that have a reason to be managed, perhaps for timber, firewood, access or green woodworking, are more likely to receive love and attention long into their future, and indeed those woodlands that we have today have survived precisely because they have had an economic value to the local community, “the wood that pays is the wood that stays.”
Tools and gloves will be provided. Please wear warm, waterproof clothes and appropriate boots. Wellies can be provided if required.
The course is suitable for anyone aged 16 or over with a passion to learn more about traditional woodland management.
This event is run by The woodland Classroom and cannot be booked directly through Denmark Farm.