Editing Coppicing (section)

== Practice ==
The shoots (or ''[[Basal shoot|suckers]]'') may be used either in their young state for interweaving in [[Wattle (construction)|wattle]] fencing (as is the practice with coppiced [[willow]]s and [[hazel]]), or the new shoots may be allowed to grow into large poles, as was often the custom with trees such as oaks or [[ash (tree)|ashes]] and sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa). This creates long, straight poles which do not have the bends and forks of naturally grown trees. Coppicing may be practised to encourage specific growth patterns, as with [[cinnamon]] trees which are grown for their bark.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

(Note that the use of the term 'suckers' above is incompatible with an accurate understanding of how coppice works. Coppice stems grow from epicormic buds developed from groups of cells called bud precursors in the cambium under the bark on cut stem bases. Epicormic buds develop and grow when the upper parts of the stem (which normally produce inhibitory plant hormone analogues) are removed. Suckers refers to shoots growing from roots  in response to felling to ground as seen in wild cherry or gean (Prunus avium) and aspen (Populus tremula) but also has been adopted in horticulture to refer to a competing shoot sprouting from a rootstock below the interface with the scion. Such shoots (if not removed) can grow more vigorously then the grafted material which can fail and die).{{cn|date=December 2024}}

Another, more complicated system is called ''compound coppice''. Here some of the standards would be left, some harvested. Some of the coppice would be allowed to grow into new standards and some regenerated coppice would be there. Thus there would be three age classes.<ref>''Silviculture Concepts and Applications'', Ralph D. Nyland 2002 p. 563</ref> Coppiced [[hardwood]]s were used extensively in carriage and [[shipbuilding]], and they are still sometimes grown for making wooden buildings and furniture.{{cn|date=June 2024}} 

Compound coppice is a term used for when two or more different species are grown in the same cant and cut on different cycles. Example: Hazel-ash coppice with hazel cut at 7 years and ash in the same area cut at 21 years (every third cut, all stools in the cant are cut). But note that under coppice with standards (for instance oak standards over hazel) the oak was cut under a much longer cycle. With hazel-ash under oak standards you now have 3 cycles superimposed. However, a range of ages of standards was managed-for to allow for continuity of oak production for timber (shipbuilding especially) and this was sometimes legislated for. It is commonly written that there should be 12 standards per acre. BUT this '12 per acre' includes (as an average over the whole wood) maybe 1 mature oak per acre, a couple of young standards and several waivers with a larger number of seedlings/saplings whose genesis was sporadic and occurred when oak mast years coincided with coppice cuts - planting being relatively rare until perhaps the 16th century. Coppice can be complicated, which is likely why large areas of one species (hazel, sweet chestnut) with no standards is called 'simple coppice'.{{cn|date=December 2024}}

'''Waivers:''' (also 'wavers') Young oak trees (older than seedlings or saplings) that may become standards in due turn. Or may be cut before becoming standards. If you can get both hands around it at breast height but can't get 4 Sussex fence rails out of the first 10’, it's a waiver.{{cn|date=December 2024}}

[[File:Coppice2.png|thumb|right|350px|Diagram illustrating the coppicing cycle over a 7- to 20-year period]]

[[Withy|Withies]] for [[wicker]]-work are grown in coppices of various willow species, principally [[Salix viminalis|osier]].{{cn|date=June 2024}}

In France, sweet chestnut trees are coppiced for use as canes and ''bâtons'' for the martial art [[Canne de combat]] (also known as ''Bâton français'').{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Some ''[[Eucalyptus]]'' species are coppiced in a number of countries, including Australia, North America, Uganda, and Sudan.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Matthews |first1=John D. |title=Silvicultural systems |date=1989 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford [England] |isbn=978-0198594918 |pages=71, 202, 205}}</ref><ref name='dpi.vic.gov.au/Trees&NativeVege-FarmFor-ManagCoppiceEuc'> {{cite web|url=http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/forestry/private-land-forestry/pruning-thinning-harvesting/managing-coppice-in-eucalypt-plantations |title=Managing coppice in Eucalypt plantations |access-date=2008-04-17 |last=Hamilton |first=Liz |date=June 2000 |work=Trees & Native Vegetation: Farm Forestry |publisher=Department of Primary Industries, Victoria, Australia }}</ref>

The [[Shorea robusta|Sal]] tree is coppiced in India,<ref>{{cite web |date=3 February 2003 |title=coppice on sal tree (Shorea robusta) – 2714050 |url=http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=2714050 |access-date=29 April 2014}}</ref> and the ''[[Moringa oleifera]]'' tree is coppiced in many countries, including India.

Sometimes former coppice is converted to [[High forest (woodland)|high-forest woodland]] by the practice of singling. All but one of the regrowing stems are cut, leaving the remaining one to grow as if it were a maiden (uncut) tree.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

The boundaries of coppice coups were sometimes marked by cutting certain trees as [[pollarding|pollards]] or stubs.

=== United Kingdom ===
[[File:Felled chestnut coppice at Flexham Park.JPG|thumb|Recently felled chestnut coppice near [[Petworth]] in West Sussex]]
[[File:Coldfall_Woods_01_MG_3569.jpg|thumb|Old hornbeam coppice stools left uncut for at least 100 years, [[Coldfall Wood]], London]]

In [[southern Britain]], coppice was traditionally [[Corylus avellana|hazel]], [[Carpinus betulus|hornbeam]], [[Acer campestre|field maple]], [[Fraxinus excelsior|ash]], [[Castanea sativa|sweet chestnut]], occasionally [[sallow]], [[elm]], [[Tilia cordata|small-leafed lime]] and rarely [[Quercus robur|oak]] or [[Fagus sylvatica|beech]], grown among [[Quercus robur|pedunculate]] or [[Quercus petraea|sessile]] oak, [[Fraxinus excelsior|ash]] or [[Fagus sylvatica|beech]] standards. In wet areas [[alder]] and [[willow]]s were used.<ref name=Rackham>{{cite book |title=Ancient Woodland; its history, vegetation and uses in England|last=Rackham |first=Oliver |year=2003 |publisher=Castlepoint Press |isbn=1-897604-27-0|edition=New }}</ref> A small, and growing, number of people make a living wholly or partly by working coppices in the area today,<ref>[http://www.coppiceapprentice.org.uk/ The Bill Hogarth MBE Memorial Apprenticeship Trust] Retrieved 17 June 2014</ref> at places such as at the [[Weald and Downland Living Museum]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Coppicing at the Museum |date=27 January 2023 |url=https://www.wealddown.co.uk/museum-news/coppicing-at-the-museum/ |website=[[Weald and Downland Living Museum]] |access-date=January 31, 2023 }}</ref>

Coppices provided wood for many purposes, especially [[charcoal]] before coal was economically significant in metal [[smelting]]. A minority of these woods are still operated for coppice today, often by [[Conservation in the United Kingdom|conservation organisations]], producing material for [[Hurdles (agricultural)|hurdle]]-making, [[thatching]] spars, local charcoal-burning or other crafts. The only remaining large-scale commercial coppice crop in England is [[sweet chestnut]] which is grown in parts of [[Sussex]] and [[Kent]].<ref name="JNCC" /> Much of this was established as [[plantation]]s in the 19th century for hop-pole production (hop-poles are used to support the [[Humulus lupulus|hop]] plant while growing [[hops]]) and is nowadays cut on a 12 to 18-year cycle for splitting and binding into cleft chestnut [[Palisade|paling fence]], or on a 20- to 35-year cycle for cleft post-and-rail fencing, or for sawing into small lengths to be [[Finger joint|finger-jointed]] for architectural use. Other material goes to make farm fencing and to be chipped for modern wood-fired heating systems.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

In [[northwest England]], coppice-with-standards has been the norm,{{When|date=May 2016}} the standards often of oak with relatively little simple coppice. After [[World War II]], a great deal was planted up with conifers or became neglected. Coppice-working almost died out, though a few men continued in the woods.