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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2011)
Applegater Spring 2011 19 Coppice? BY SAnDY ShAffeR, APPLegAte fiRe PLAn Coppice: from late Middle Eng- shoots each spring, but I observed that lish, 1375-1425 “copies” – cutover area the madrone and the black oak stopped overgrown with brush, from “colpare,” re-sprouting within a few years— if I to cut (Late Latin). Noun: 1) a thicket, had let one sapling remain. (If I didn’t, grove or growth of small trees. 2) a forest they re-sprouted for upwards of a decade originating mainly from shoots or root before running out of steam.) The white suckers rather than seed. Syn: Copse. oaks, however, are still sending up a load I think I first read the word copse of shoots each spring. in Winnie the Pooh, so many, many years My most successful example of ago (my hubby says I should have added coppice has been with some black oaks. in even one more “many”!) I first started After twelve years, we have three beauti- using coppice as a vegetation management fully shaped young oaks that stand at tool a dozen years ago, but at the time least 20 feet tall alongside the driveway, I had no idea that I was coppicing! We and the colors each fall are spectacular. I had thinned the trees on our homesite must have chosen exactly the best sprouts and were building our retirement home. (see Steve’s graphic, below), as other black I saw the copious numbers of oak and oaks I’ve coppiced have not developed as madrone shoots that grew back from the quickly. stumps that we’d cut the year before, and I have not used this coppice tech- wondered what to do with them. The Fire nique strictly for firewood production, as Chief definitely wouldn’t approve of all Steve’s article below discusses. However, those ladder fuels so near the homesite! as trees mature and fill out and I find So, I cut all of the shoots down except that my stands aren’t quite as open as I’d the straightest and tallest, and let those like (for fire resilience), I know that I can saplings grow. Over the years I had to remove a good-sized madrone or oak and continue to cut out the re-occurring use it for firewood, and have another tree back in a few years. And, I’ve lately taken to managing our southern exposure oak woodlands using coppice as well. They were thinned of brush (almost all— we left a few wildlife habitat islands) ten years ago, but some of the suppressed trees still have not released and started growing. So, I’m removing them to let the more dominant trees bloom, again knowing that I’ll have some choices to make in the coming years. Some folks might grumble about the maintenance involved in cutting trees that will re-sprout each spring, and that’s valid. (I’ve pointed this out in past articles on maintaining a defensible space.) I am fortunate to be able to keep up with the work. A pair of 30” long-handled loppers makes it easy for me to cover my defensible space circle annually, and I rotate through the rest of the acres every few years, doing a lop-and-scatter. For me, coppice has been a management tool that allows a lot of flexibility and creativity. Figure 1. Coppice of Pacific madrone in Southwest Oregon. The parent trees were topkilled by wildfire. The landowner thinned the sprouts. The remaining sprouts will be al- lowed to grow and then harvested for firewood. Sandy Shaffer 541-899-9541 Coppice this! BY StePhen fitzgeRALD, OSu extenSiOn SeRviCe Coppice is the culturing of stump sprouts that develop on hardwood stumps (and some conifers) after cutting. Coppice management of hardwoods is a silvicul- tural system that is seldom used by family forest owners, but it has great potential for those interested in promoting hardwoods in their forest for diversity or to use for firewood (see Figure 1) or sawtimber, de- pending on species and its marketability. Coppice is one of the oldest methods for regenerating forests. Species that coppice well include aspen, bigleaf maple, alder, oaks, myrtle, cottonwood and Pacific madrone. Redwood is an important com- mercial conifer that coppices well. In fact, most of the second-growth redwood trees that are harvested today developed from sprouts from the old-growth stumps. Once hardwoods are cut, the stump erupts with a profusion of sprouts that arise from dormant buds on the top, side and root collar of the stump. The sprouts grow rapidly because they have the advantage of using the parent root system and carbohydrate stores. The benefits of culturing trees from sprouts is that you don’t have to spend money plant- ing them, and sprout growth is often faster than the same species planted as a bare-root or plug seedling. Typically, hardwoods are killed to favor more desirable conifers, such as Douglas-fir. However, you may want to consider promoting hardwoods in areas lacking conifers or in areas not capable of supporting conifers. How to cultivate and manage sprouts If you are already conducting a tim- ber harvest in an area, here is a rundown of how to coppice (propagate) hardwood trees from stump sprouts: • After five years or when they reach 18 to 20 feet, select one to three of Figure 2. Select sprouts from the lower portion the straightest stems to leave and flag of the stump or from sprouts originating from them. Cut away all the other sprouts. roots. Sprouts to leave should be selected from the lower portion of the stump or from sprouts that originate from roots (Figure 2). The reason for this is that if you select sprouts from the top of the stump, the stump eventually rots and the sprout can break out as they mature. • The one to three remaining sprouts can be thinned again, if needed, a few years later, leaving the best sprout. The remaining sprouts can be pruned to • Cut down hardwood tree, creating a produce clear wood (Figure 3). low stump. • Let stump sprout. Hundreds of sprouts will erupt depending on tree species and size of stump. Let the sprouts compete with each other for several years (five years or so). Most hard- woods need this kind of “training” to help produce straight stems. Let them compete and grow tall enough so that you get at least an 18- to 20- foot straight stem on the best sprouts within the clump. • Allow sprouts to grow to the desired diameter, then cut, harvest and start over. Stephen Fitzgerald stephen.fitzgerald@oregonstate.edu Stephen Fitzgerald is the eastern Or- egon silviculture & wildland fire education specialist for the Oregon State University Extension Service. stephen.fitzgerald@or- egonstate.edu Figure 3. This bigleaf maple tree originated from a center sprout. The other sprouts helped train this residual sprout and then they were cut away. This tree could now be pruned up further (to the fork) to produce clear, high-value sawtimber.
