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.
