Coppice scheme gets off to a flying start.
Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. Colonel Geoffrey Sparrow has always been a supporter of our County's trees, and was concerned that Cheshire's level of woodland is only 4% and that there is so much pressure on wildlife habitats from inappropriate development.
Noticing that Parishes and/or schools often have an derelict/underused piece of land which would benefit from improvement, he came up with a plan for a Coppice Planting scheme which would have the benefits of improving these derelict areas, increasing our county's tree cover and giving schoolchildren the chance to get really involved with an ongoing habitat creation and management scheme.
The scheme has taken some time to come together but finally we were delighted that our first coppice is now in the ground at Kingsmead School in Northwich - the children planted around 100 whips (hazel, sweet chestnut, ash and birch, as well as some hedging plants) andas a reward (as part of their forest school session) built fires and toasted marshmallows after the tree planting session.
We will be visiting Middlewich County Primary School next week and the Bollin School in Altrincham the following week.