In article ,
Kate Morgan wrote:

Holly is even more prone to theft than Christmas trees, but it
could be grown safely in the middle of a wood :-) You could
almost certainly get advice from a suitable conservation charity,
and the management work is FAR easy than you imagine! The point
is that there is almost none, short of getting the trees to the
point that they can shade out the undergrowth - woodland (and
coppicing is really just that) is the natural ecology of most of
the UK.

That is very encouraging Nick, I will give it some thought and maybe as
Sacha suggests I could find someone who would be interested in helping me
:-)

I think that you will be able to, especially if you ask some of the
conservation organisations. Coppiced woodland is a threatened
ecology. Your biggest problem will be if you have a bad deer
problem, in getting the trees above deer height. I have asked my
brother (who is a forester) for confirmation of what I have said,
but I don't think I am exaggerating the low hassle after the initial
hurdle. And coppicing needs to be done only every couple of decades,
depending on the tree, and my understanding is that people will pay
you to do it for the firewood.

The main key is don't expect it necessarily to be neat or pretty,
because that DOES take effort. When coppiced, most people will
just leave the small branches in heaps, but they rot fast enough,
and that's what happens in natural woodland.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.