Does anyone have experience of what area you would need to plant for copicing in order to be self-sufficent in fire wood for domestic heating/hot water (and with what planting density)?

Some traditional british woodland species (particularly Ash) burn well, encourage native flora and fauna, and grow reasonable quickly when copiced, but I know that some of the fast-growing willow and poplar hybrids now available offset poorer burning qualities with their speed of growth. What species have you grown, and with what success?

Bob

Thanks for your reply.

For starters, although there is a field behind our house that we'd love to buy, that may not be possible so this is a hypothetical query at present. That said;

The field is in Somerset (England), is gently south-east sloping, the highest point being no more than about 50m elevation. As such it can catch the wind, depending on direction. The field has been grazed for some time by the look of it (by sheep). There is a fairly shallow topsoil with a medium to heavy clay subsoil (couldn't tell you the PH).

The stove in question is a refurbished Rayburn running one radiator and domestic hot water, currently burning coal. Although it only runs one rad. it warms and dries the whole house.

Logs of about 2.5"-3" diameter would probably be ideal (any less and they would burn too quickly, any more and they wouldn't fit the fire box).

Although they primary aim would be self-sufficiency, the ideal would be to create a native woodland to encourage biodiversity - the main planting being for fuel, rotation copiced, but some trees (Holly, Oak, etc) left to grow.

The species that seem to grow most readily in the immediate area are Ash, Willow (though mainly on the lower ground), Oak, and Elm (but only until Dutch Elm Disease gets it).

I hope that give you a rough idea?

Somerset = apples and willow! There are a couple of places that have visitor centres for willow growing. They might be able to help. I know that willow is one of the species that is commercially grown for wood fuel under the short rotation coppicing system, but as its for self sufficiency, a longer rotation would proabably suitable.

Don't forget the forum mantra: insulate, Insulate, INSULATE, so that you need to burn less fuel to get the same temperature

was a fairly long runinng thread on here a short while ago with lots of arguments for and against the traditional coppice .sorry i cant provide a link.
I favour a mixed traditional native coppice as although you can theoretically get a better yeild by chosing fast growing species there are many additional benefits to having a more diverse native planting ( eg.conservation, grants from the forestry comission and a beautiful place to be in and work). It depends on how focused you are on maximum firewood yield and how much other things are important to you.
what people have said about chosing the right species for the site is absolutely true. designing a woodland is an exciting thing to do. I designed a and planted a mixed coppice a few years ago and took into account not just providing fuel but usefull smallwood timber for crafts and other uses, diversity of habitat such as food plants for birs and plenty of edge habitat, nice glades to spend time in and fruit sand nuts chestnuts hazels crab apples and damsons.
Having said that what i would realy recomend that you consider buying an existing wood you caould almost certianly buy a wood neglected woodland possibly an old copppice woodland for significantly less than the price of a piece of decent pasture and you would have many tons of stored wood. Whilst you miss out on the fun of designing it yourself you save many years of waiting and you can be fairly sure the species growing in it are appropriate ones for the site. You will also have the intrest of discovering what is there already, i have been managing an 8 acre woodland for 5 years and it is still full of supprises, it would take decades for a diverse woodland ecosystem to establish itself in a new plantation. Bringing neglected woodland back into use has many benefits and nearly all the old coppice woodlands are neglected. The main advantage is that you will have firewood imdeately, it will be 10 years or more before you get a significant yeild for a new planting and even willow will take 4 or 5 before it really gets going.
As to area needed this is a hard one but i think that cutting half an acre a year of mixed native species ash, willow, alder, hazel, a few oaks will give you plenty for a family that is not too extravagent (will put on jumpers), in a modest house, withreasonable insulation. this could be carried out over a 10-15 year period depending on species, log size etc. so 5 to 8 acres. This is not intensive cropping would alllow you wood for other uses maybe allowing some trees to grow to standards leaving some wood/ brash for habitat etc. i think you could probably do it with mainly the faster growing willo, alder ,ash off 3 or four acres cutting either a slightly smaller area ( but not really any smaller than a third of an acre or shading will affect regrowth) or cutting every 8 years (i wouldn't recomend much less as the cannopy doesnt close for five years or so which will probably mean the brambles are still impenatrable).

Thanks all for your comments and thoughts.

Buying a piece of established/neglected woodland would certainly be ideal, although nothing can beat having woods at the 'bottom of the garden'!

As to the time it takes for biodiversity to develop, in this case it would benefit from existing trees and cover bordering the field, so to some extent I suspect the process would have a head start, though I do accept the principle.

The figures on area needed are really useful - once again, thanks all.

Really useful to me to read this as well - been in a place in Somerset (near Oakhill) for 6 months now, about 4 acres woodland and 4 acres other stuff; and it sounds like I should be ok on the self-sufficiency front, which is just as well as the lpg boiler will be going in a few weeks, to be replaced by a dunsley highlander 10.

In my Somerset land, we have millions of used-to-be-coppiced hazel, lots of ash and loads and loads of alder. Quite a lot of oak, some field maple, holly, mostly in the hedges, hawthornes, far too many elder, and I can't see any beeches, so I'm planting a few of those to remind me of my childhood.

In terms of how much volume I should end up with cut logs, does anybody have a good idea?

- I don't have a really good idea of how much a half acre is, but I can work out how many cubic feet of logs I have drying for the winter.

Martin - I suppose the term 'green with envy' has different connotations in this forum...

The 'paddocky bit' sounds like just the place for a wildlife pond!

The cottage sounds like the perfect 'green' renovation/improvement project!

Greenman,

sorry for the delay in reply, been very busy of late!
Sounds like the piece of land would be ideal to establish a new woodland and if ash is growing prolifically near by, you couldnt go far wrong by using ash as your main coppice tree. However the ultimate tree for coppice is without a doubt sweet chestnut but ash is a close second.
With regard to designing the planting scheme there are a great many factors to consider to get the best out of it, the use of nurse tress such as alder and silver birch to fix nitrogen in the soil and help to bring up the slower growing trees, both of which will also coppice well if needed, but most importantly you need a good mix of natiuve trees to improve the diversity and to clearly mark out each respective coppice cant. As was mentioned by others on here also is the inclusion of food producing trees, these are best placed along the rides (access tracks) as that way they help to divide areas of the woodland up visually as well as making harvesting the fruit easier and creating a beauitiful contrast during the blossoming season.
As for getting a figure for the available tonneage of timber after a harvest, again it all depends on your planting ratio and age of cut so very hard to say, if you have hedges adjoining the woodland, management of them by traditional hedge laying will also provide you with a substantial amount of fuel on a rotation.
I have a similar situation myself, except our house isnt built yet, but the whole house will be run on wood fuel. I have an adjoining woodland of 5 acres(approx 15 years old), very mixed but predominantly ash, alder and oak, we cut the first coppice this winter with a more intensive cut coming up next winter. I should have no problems with being self sufficient in fuel, although this does include laying hedges all around our land, and some wood that i take from jobs, i am only coppicoing 3 of the 5 acres so as to allow the rest to become true woodland and to link to the adjoining ancient woodland.
Once again, feel free to contact me if you need to go into more detail.
bob

The reason i say chestnut is the better option of the two is because it has a broader use than ash whilst still being a vigerous grower, assuming you are not going to use the whole wood for firewood, chestnut is a beautiful wood to work with on your holding for a number things you will find yourself doing, fencing being one. Also i just think its a beautiful tree! To be honest you couldnt go far wrong with either.

Planting ratio for your coppice areas should be fairly close around 2m between trees, possibly closer, although this does throw up extra management issues. The average for the rest of the woodland would be between 2.5m - 3m between trees but mixing it up a bit with some tightly planted clumps and some more scattered, also a percentage of planting faliures (which you will get but hopefully very low) creates a more natural feel to the woodland to develop. Also bear in mind the importance of open spaces within the woodland no matter what size it is, this can either be clearings or access tracks or preferably both.

The reason for the first cut at 15 yrs is purely down to the fact that i have only owned the wood for 18 months and you could make your first cut as early as 7-8 years depending on how well the trees have grown, by the sounds of it you only need small logs for your rayburn. An ideal situation, if land allows, is to have a well worked out rotation that allows you to cut on one rotation for firewood alongside a longer rotation for workable timber.

As for the hedge laying, get on a course or get someone in to get you started, it is a very satisfying, if not knackering, job and a great feeling to know you are working the same way people have done for hundreds of years and with near as damn it the same tools, it is, as i said before, a great way to top up your wood supply, just watch out for that bloody blackthorn.
bob

You really want to cut the whole coppice cant ( area) together, main reasons being any that you leave will potentially shade out the regrowth of those cut and that the extraction of all the cut product is easier if clearing a whole area, plus you can easily remember what was cut and when if all done together.
If you were to go through just cutting what you need, it is really thinning of the woodland and wouldnt perform the same as a well managed coppice.

bob

Yes thank you very much.

If your 'self-sufficiency' includes livestock (and you can be bothered with the paperwork) - then a couple of pigs in an apple orchard works well. You're always pruning fruit trees to sustain fruit production and maintain an open shape suitable for picking + grubbing out exhausted stock. They love beech mast too.

Posted By: greenmanDoes anyone have experience of what area you would need to plant for copicing in order to be self-sufficent in fire wood for domestic heating/hot water (and with what planting density)?

Planted about 2 acres of ash at ultra-high density. This thread had some interesting comments.
http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1519

Dan