Coppicing

Atlantic hazelwoods are different in many ways from the hazelwoods we find elsewhere in Britain. Hazel, especially in England, is usually considered to be mainly managed by coppicing. However all the indications are that Atlantic hazelwoods were not managed by coppicing, and that this approach is not to be recommended in the West Highlands.

Coppicing is a woodland management technique. Areas of species such as hazel, oak, ash and alder are cut down to the ground while still young. The young shoots can have a variety of uses, from charcoal to hurdles and tool shafts. Coppicing species will regrow from the cut stool, producing another crop of young shoots.

However one of the things that make Atlantic hazelwoods special is the enormous range of plants that depend upon a continuity of woodland cover for their survival. This makes it unlikely that "clearfell" coppice was much used in the west of Scotland. Instead it is believed that locals harvested individual stems from the hazel, leaving most of the stems to grow on.

In the 1990s a few coppicing experiments were carried out in Argyll. It is noticable that the regrowth from these experiments has not produced the volume of long straight stems that coppice workers seek. This appears to add weight to the idea that selective harvesting, rather than clearfell coppice was the usual approach to managing Atlantic hazelwoods.