Exploring an Oak and Hazel Coppiced Woodland in West Sussex - Pt 1

[@samt1705]

Lots of love from a budding agroforestry farmer here in India. 💌 This concept of coppicing is quite fascinating! 👍🏼

[@RichardVobes]

That is interesting - do you not do that where you are?

[@lonefoxbushcraft]

Your the most honest guy on youtube Richard❤

[@felixreali7101]

doing this for future generations just shows how good people can be...

[@leefreeston3900]

Absolutely brilliant to see traditional Woodland being worked by a traditional farmer this video will be a Time Capsule.

[@RichardVobes]

Let's hope so! :)

[@leehargreaves7473]

I could watch this fella point his walking-stick and talk forever.

[@RichardVobes]

Ah yes, he is a lovely fella!

[@jamesjohnmoss8130]

My wife had a knee replacement. She was given a stick to help her more about. She very quickly learned to use the same to point at everything, It’s clearly a requirement, once you have a stick!

[@MrGreatplum]

Fascinating- so pleased to see a woodland maintained properly.

[@SidBonkers51]

Brilliant episode Richard , I look forward to part two...

[@gracegood3661]

We have just purchased two and half acres with plan to plant an English wood here in NZ. Thanks so very much for the post and if want to talk with this gentleman again on this topic it would great value. Thanks again.

[@RichardVobes]

Wow! Good for you!

[@GappyPirate]

Nice to see some productive oak standards with hazel coppice.

[@RichardVobes]

Oh yes - lovely to see.

[@johnfoster7996]

Only just found these two videos - wonderful stuff Richard. In another life, back in the 1980s, I coppiced and made charcoal in English Nature woods in Kent.

[@RichardVobes]

Oh wow! How awesome is that!

[@mikepowell8611]

Want to try this with blight resistant American Chestnuts. Oak is dumb Chestnut FTW!

[@georgetimperley8906]

I love oak trees I love the thought of having nearly a hole wood of them

[@RichardVobes]

It would be lovely to own an oak wood. :)

[@realdiggerz6914]

Great video and really interesting.

[@RichardVobes]

Thank you!

[@annosborne7365]

Another good one Richard,

[@Caleb_Evans32]

I've seen so many people on other videos screaming about the trees. "Oh no don't cut down the trees" Most of them don't know anything about forestry.

[@citic101]

very interesting ! thanks

[@RichardVobes]

You are welcome!

[@JakobFischer60]

Come to Germany. We can show you how forests are managed. We have huge areas of old oak and beech trees and earn a fortune by selling the wood all over the world. We are blessed by 70 percent of our country still beeing forest and we also did plant a lot of conifers, but now, the conifer forests are all destroyed by storms and climate change. So we reforest them now with more robust mixtures of broadleafs. The area you showed was maintained very well and narrow trees have to be cut to give space for the others. That is the way to go, but in my opinion the UK need to do reforestation more professional.

[@RichardVobes]

I agree. We need more trees here.

[@pc2753]

Where can I learn more about the German methods? I think we need the forestry industry to put more focus into broadleaf management but there are no courses or qualifications in this in the UK

[@danstadler3752]

The Germans invented Forestry

[@spencersanderson1894]

@@danstadler3752 don’t think Germany was a nation over 6000 years ago so they probably didn’t invent forestry.

[@dungeonmaster6292]

​@@spencersanderson1894 UK has a proud history of woodland management

[@BP-qx7ux]

I would love to know more about the way he is going about thining his woods. He pointed to an area and said there was another year of work there to thin it. Does he bring in loggers? Or does the man who is helping him do all the work?

[@RichardVobes]

I believe it is all manual. I can't see that loggers come in and do it.

[@Unknown-rw2ec]

I live in West Sussex:))

[@michaelwhite8031]

Verrell a very old East Sussex family of Anglo Saxon origin. Did you get any wood for your Essey Richard ?

[@RichardVobes]

I did actually!

[@monkeymanwasd1239]

pigs and goats can be used to deal with the brambles please look up permaculture, early retirement extreme, and the wim hof method

[@RichardVobes]

Sounds intriguing!

[@monkeymanwasd1239]

@@RichardVobes also Allan savory this is good stuff to make videos about if you have any questions please let me know

[@RagingDong]

Do certain amimals eat the shoots? Would pollarding work?

[@RichardVobes]

Deer eat the shoots and the woodland is either fenced off or each sapling is wrapped in a plastic tube to protect it.

[@jacobspranger1267]

Yes and no. I think pollarding is more chop and drop system. Foliage will add macro and micronutrients. Plus the regrowth will again shade the under storage. Coppicing iv read can be more geared towards wood or firewood production. With all of those shoots coming up you select the strongest growers and trim the rest. In 10-15 years or so the 4, 5, or 6 maybe more of those you saved would equal more wood growth then the one tree that had grown for 50+ years.

[@spencersanderson1894]

Pollarding is usually used when livestock is also grazed in the field or there is high numbers of deer in the area. Ash pollards where often used for handles, spears etc. and Coppice is where livestock and deer are kept out, therefore allowing the wood to be cut closer to ground level.

[@bencrawshaw1227]

Seems like a shame to coppice an oak tree. We stopped coppicing oak 100 years ago because there were hardly any trees. In 1900+ we had only 5 % tree cover, we have around 20+ % today.

[@RichardVobes]

I understand he is coppicing hazel in the wood.

[@spencersanderson1894]

And by coppicing he is keeping the tree alive whilst still getting a crop. It isn’t cut every year, maybe every 20 years. There would be more forests if people carried this type of work out.

[@zippitydoodah5693]

The miserable little man with a scruffy sense of style doesn't like those miserable little trees that are a bit scruffy.

[@dungeonmaster6292]

You're scruffy