The Annual Work Trip To University of Oxford's Harcourt Arboretum

Cutting Down Silver Birch

Six members of the team and Ben, the student volunteer, spent the morning at the University of Oxford's Harcourt Arboretum cutting down the silver birch, chestnut and hazel that will be used to create the wooden plant supports on the herbaceous border and a new border edge on the lakeside broadwalk respectively. 

Dragging Out The Birch

Splitting in to two groups, one group spent the first few hours working in the silver birch coppice and the other in the sweet chestnut coppice. In the birch coppice the trees that would make the best plant supports were selected, cut down and dragged out to a clearing to be processed. Cutting the tree in to two pieces, the thick, lower part of the trunk that is not needed is put in to a pile that will be chipped or used to create a wood pile wildlife habitat, and the thinner, top halves, which will be used to create the plant supports, placed in to a pile for delivery to the college at a later date. (The stump or stool left in the ground contain dormant buds that will grow, creating new, replacement birch trees.)  In the chestnut coppice the other group were selecting wood that would make good sized stakes to hold the hazel edging.

Processing The Birch

Processed Silver Birch

Silver Birch Coppice

Silver Birch Stumps or Stools

Sweet Chestnut For Stakes

Processed Hazel Rods

After tea break their attention turned from silver birch and chestnut to a small hazel coppice. Selecting the longest, straightest stems, these were cut down and dragged out for processing. Using billhooks the branches and side shoots were removed to leave a clean rod perfect for creating a wooden edge, for last year's coppicing see blog entry 2nd February 2017 'Coppicing Hazel And Silver Birch'

 Hazel Coppice