Coppicing for firewood

[Wood Doctor]

Greetings to all fellow woodsmen/ladies,This is my first post on this site and I am thrilled and impressed with the content I have read, and the level of expertise you all show.                                                                               My question falls on the practice of coppicing. I have witnessed it and read some about it; and with the proper species,(chesnut oak) is it feasable to stimulate regrowth for firewood? I know ash is also a species that coppices well. I have a stand of chestnut oak 'bout 10 acres, that looks like it coppiced after the last cutting about 50 years ago. It doesn't grade out for timber so I am going to possibly cut it for fire/fuel wood. Any info or ideas? Thanks ~m~

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum Wood Doctor.  I never realized that one would intentionally promote second growth, root, or stump sprouted trees.  Anything new is interesting to learn about.

[beenthere]

Welcome Wood Doctor.

What wood(s) do you Doctor?

[bandmiller2]

Welcome Doc,around here in the northeast red [alis swamp] maple tends to clump kind handy for firewood as you usally don't have to split it.Never heard of anyone doing it  on purpose though. Frank C.

[WDH]

You are going to get coppice sprouts on most hardwood stumps anyway unless you spray the cambium on the stump with herbicide.

[Onthesauk]

Welcome!

Seems like there was a thread here about it sometime the last year.  Think it is commonly done in Europe, maybe Sweden?  Might do a search.

[Ron Wenrich]

I was on a board that had a forester from Germany come on occasionally.  He talked about managing the different levels of the forest.  Something we don't even think about in this country.  They manage the overstory, the middle level, and the lower level of the forests.  We tend to think only of the overstory.

They do coppice for firewood.  But, when you do that, you have to work with very shade tolerant species that are dense and do well in the understory.  They were working with ironwood.  Their rotation was every 20 years for firewood.  That seems like a decent rotation.  He showed one location that had coppice ironwood in the understory and 36" white oak in the overstory.  Different management scheme.

What you are seeing is stump sprouts that have turned into a clump of trees.  Chestnut oak is a good one for that.  I've seen it in many types of hardwoods.  The previous cut was probably a heavy cut.  The problem with stump sprouts is that the butt is usually deformed with excessive sweep.  That will kill any future veneer value.  As the stump rots, it introduces heartrot to the existing trees in the clump.  They don't all get it, but that avenue is open.

Your stand should have some decent trees that weren't stump sprouts.  You might consider leaving them as future timber trees.  You could try to coppice in areas.  But, if you are trying to do that, then you would want to have areas of heavy cutting. 

Time of year may also be a factor.  Not all stands have trees that come from stump sprouts.  That leads me to believe that the time of year of the cutting may be a factor.  I would think that trees cut in late spring to early summer would have a better chance of clumping rather than trees cut in the dead of winter.   

If you use the German method, beech would be a good coppice candidate. 

[KBforester]

It was done quite a lot in Europe, and I've done some in the North East (with red oak,red maple and aspen). Doing it with aspen is pretty well documented because of the wildlife value. I don't know anything about chestnut oak, but I'm assuming its like most oaks and sprouts pretty well.

Time of year does matter. DORMANT SEASON is the key. The tree stores all of its excess sugars/energy in its roots during the winter. Think of it like charging a battery. If the leaves fall off the battery is charged. Come spring the root system will be healthy and want to send energy to the rest of the tree. Since there will be no tree left it will stimulate growth in the form of sprouts. Also, make the cuts clean, and low to the ground. Higher stumps don't yield good results. If you ever did want to manage some timber in with the firewood, you need to favor one sprout per stump very early on... ideally from a stump that wasn't very big/old to begin with.

• Cut in the dormant season
• cut your stumps low (but not flush)

Also, sprouting stump sprouts from older stump sprouts can potentially yeild less successful results. But it should take several cycles of cutting for that to make a difference. Because in theory you could have a 30 year old sprout and a 300 year old root system. Oh, and keep an eye on the deer if you've got them.

[John Mc]

I've also hear that if you make your cut for coppicing at a bit of a slant, rather than parallel to the ground, it helps slow down the onset of rot in the stump... the water runs off. However, I have no experience in coppicing, just heard a talk about it.

[Wood Doctor]

Fellow Members! What Woody do? Your responses have all coinsided so closely to my request, shining light on it well. Deer may present a problem as we have  pretty natural growth with lots of diversity. Thank you again for your welcomes and wisdom and humor...~m~

[Wood Doctor]

Welcome!

Seems like there was a thread here about it sometime the last year.  Think it is commonly done in Europe, maybe Sweden?  Might do a search.

Dear Onthesauk, A interesting fact and somewhat majestic recurance that you may be familiar with out your way is, in the Redwood Stands of the PNW. In Richard Preston's, "The Wild Trees" he talks of the Fairy Rings, growths of root sproutings that form a ring out of the 1,000 year or more, old root systems of harvested or fire damaged giants, that over time grow into ringed stands  they call "Cathedrals". Facinating read for all tree huggers, sawers or woodchucks like me! ~m~