Coppicing is a technique of cutting trees when they’re dormant (in Winter) so the root systems don’t die and several new shoots start growing in the Spring. Think intensive pruning. Well-managed coppice woodlands produce an incredible amount of biomass, as the trees keep growing back from stronger and stronger root systems. Coppiced trees rarely die from old age and can live for a thousand years.

Coppicing was widely done throughout Europe prior to the use of fossil fuels. By roughly 1000AD the forests of Britain had been decimated. Resorting to coppicing practices the people of that land were able to sustainably provide for their needs of fuel and material.

While heating oil will predictably be available next year, how accessible will it be? Will it’s price spike twice what it did last year? While fossil fuels are available now, they are not being replenished. They will run out if they don’t become prohibitively expensive first. We need to develop regenerative sources of energy. Coppicing is promising as part of a renewable energy solution.

Check out our coppice image gallery.