The traditional management of ancient woodlands was coppice with standards. Coppice consists of cutting trees, such as hazel, at the base and using them for poles. They regrow so can be recut, say 5-30 years later. The standards are trees, often oaks, grown for timber, such as the frames of houses. So they are felled when they are about a century old. These woods need to exclude grazers who would damage the regrowing coppice and sapling standards.
An alternative is wood pasture: a mix of cutting for wood and grazing. The key is pollarding. Again the branches are cut repeatedly for timber, firewood or feeding to stock, but this is done out of reach of the grazers so at 2-3 meters.
Because pollarded trees were kept for branches, rather than felled, the trees in wood pasture are far older. Some of these are many hundreds of years old.
These ancient trees, with dead branches, hollows and holes, are famous for their rich community of invertebrates, fungi, lichen and bats
They used to be viewed as an ecologically important, culturally interesting, but artificial habitat. With increased consideration about the role of grazers in ancient landscapes the discussion is whether wood pasture resembles elements of the primaeval landscape.
Thanks to Jonathan Spencer for discussions.
Filmed: Barn Hoppitt, Epping Forest, UK
