These days, coppice products are mainly used for a number of rural craft – in hedgelaying you need stakes and binders (or heatherings), for hurdle-making you need the uprights (zales) and split rods for weaving and gardeners need beanpoles and pea sticks. Each of these is pretty much a minor variation of a stem and seeing which stems best lend themselves to each of the products is an art in itself – it could be hard to tell if you were holding a future beanpole or a really useful hedging stake. In the past, coppicing would also have produced wood for charcoal, green woodworking for furniture or baskets – almost everything used in a household could have come from a coppiced wood. Nowadays, we also see the huge benefit of coppicing to biodiversity and woodland health and I can say it provides great physical and mental exercise too.

To finally complete our shift from the halcyon days of summer to the harsh realities of winter, the past week has also delivered what has become a rite of passage for the trainees – reedmace management in the Monkwood pond.  This always seems to come at the coldest time of the year and true to form as the week approached when we were due to visit, the first cold snap of the year appeared and snow descended. Donning our all-important chest waders and arm-length gloves, we broke the ice and ventured in to clear the encroaching reedmace from the pond, opening it up and improving conditions for great crested newts.  I look forward to returning on sunnier days to see the fruits of our hard-work!