does anyone coppice trees for firewood anymore?

[John Ackerly]

A freelance reporter has called me a couple times wanting to do a story on someone who coppices wood to heat their home in the US. I know this is still really common in Europe and lots of trees have been planted for that purpose over the centuries. Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots when cut. Does anyone on this list do that, or know someone that does? Thanks,

John

 

[mellow]

I do it out on the farm, but like wikipedia says "Birch can be coppiced for faggots (bundles of brushwood) on a three or four year cycle, whereas oak can be coppiced over a fifty-year cycle for poles or firewood"

Not really expecting to see that new Oak in my burning lifetime.

 

[madrone]

No help from me, but this is something I've wondered about myself. I'm in an urban area, so my scrounged firewood is always from downed or removed trees. If I had acreage, I'd be interested in coppicing. Not sure how much forest you need to make that work, though. Might be more than most people have?

 

[begreen]

Because of clear cutting in our area, many places look like a coppice. Mostly of alder and soft-maple. This picture is from merry ole England, but it resembles a lot of younger woods out here.

 

[jimbom]

Every oak tree cut here sends up sprouts. I have some black oak that must have been cut fifty years ago and are back as a ring of fair size trees. My approach is to select the best size sprout and remove the rest if I want the tree to continue. With oak, you are talking about decades to get any decent size. It is not a managed effort.

Coppice is the new thing I learned today. I can take the rest of the day off. One thing new each day is my goal.

I used to learn more and more about less and less. Finally I knew everything about nothing.

So these days I learn less and less about more and more. Finally I will know nothing about everything.

Around here, it is about cutting sprouts and clearing brush. So small size wood is left to return to the soil.

 

[Danno77]

Odd timing, as I was just thinking about this yesterday. My timber has a lot of old growth with too minimal new growth in a couple of places that I'd like to see some. I was thinking about introducing some trees in that area that needs new growth and the frustrating part is finding a spot for them. I always go back to the thought that where there currently is a tree or a stump is the perfect place for a new tree. If I put a tree in between, then it is too close, lol.

Wouldn't it be nice if out of all my old stumps a new tree sprouted? And there we have the topic at hand. Some of my walnuts do this on their own. That's about it, but I attributed that to their likeness to weeds. Impossible to kill, it seems at times.

 

[bluedogz]

I do the same with a coupleof black locusts on my property, but never called it "coppicing" instead of "getting those damn trees out of the way."

"Coppicing" makes it sound a lot nicer, though.

 

[Kenster]

I have hundreds of new growth trees back in my woods. They typically are weak and spindly and can barely stand up on their own even when up to three inch diameter. They are way overly tall for their girth from trying hard to reach sunshine beneath the old growth canopy. Maybe with the die off from our prolonged and extreme drought, these youngsters will have a chance to grow tall and strong.

 

[bogydave]

It works for birch.
Birch in my yard started dying in the tops so I cut the trees while they were still good for firewood.
The side shoot grew pretty fast. I pruned several side shoots & let some grow.
They grew pretty fast. I have a few I did 20 years ago, the stumps have rotted away & look like nice trees.
Not doing it "for firewood", I like having the trees & not having to remove the stumps, "less work".
(Got my foot wet pulling of my shoe to get some size reference. Things I do for the forum )

 

[CountryBoy19]

BL does this well too... as a matter of fact, too well... it will send up suckers through the ground as far out as the roots reach.

But it is a benefit if you keep the non-desirable ones trimmed back... BL is a great firewood and grows exceptionally fast, especially from established root-stock.

 

[Dune]

This seems like a good practice to...practice.

 

[Wood Duck]

How much more firewood per acre per year would coppicing yield compared to a more standard approach? I suspect it could be more, but you'd still need a few acres to keep yourself supplied. If you have four acres of woods managed the usual way for North America you can probably cut four cords a year (an acre a year is supposed to be a reasonable yield in most areas of North America), which is about enough for most people. I bet you'd need two acres of coppice to supply the same for cords of wood. That means coppicing would be necessary/beneficial only if you have between two and four acres. I am just guessing at the numbers, but I suspect one reason coppicing isn't common in North America is that either you have enough land for cutting and don't need to coppice to increase yield, or you don't have land. There aren't too many people who could be self sufficient in firewood only if they coppiced their trees. Another reason must be that in Europe knowledge of coppicing and how it works is a lot more common than here in North America. Here we tend to manage for timber or not manage much at all.