Coppicing
Encyclopedia
Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many tree
s make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level. In subsequent growth years, many new shoot
s will emerge, and, after a number of years the coppiced tree, or stool, is ready to be harvested, and the cycle begins again. (The noun "coppice" means a growth of small trees or a forest coming from shoots or suckers.)
Typically a coppiced woodland
is harvested in sections or coups on a rotation. In this way, a crop is available each year somewhere in the woodland. Coppicing has the effect of providing a rich variety of habitats, as the woodland always has a range of different-aged coppice growing in it, which is beneficial for biodiversity
. The cycle length depends upon the species cut, the local custom, and the use to which the product is put. Birch
can be coppiced for faggots (bundles of brushwood) on a three or four year cycle, whereas oak
can be coppiced over a fifty-year cycle for poles or firewood.
Coppicing maintains trees at a juvenile stage, and a regularly coppiced tree will never die of old age—some coppice stools may therefore reach immense ages. The age of a stool may be estimated from its diameter, and some are so large—perhaps as much as 5.4 metres (17.7165354330709 ft) across—that they are thought to have been continuously coppiced for centuries.
Coppiced stems are characteristically curved at the base. This curve occurs as the competing stems grow out from the stool in the early stages of the cycle, then up towards the sky as the canopy closes. The curve may allow the identification of coppice timber
in archaeological sites—timber in the Sweet Track
in Somerset
(built in the winter of 3807 and 3806 BC
) has been identified as coppiced lime
.
iron
production in England, most woods in ironmaking regions were managed as coppices, usually being cut on a cycle of about 16 years. In this way, fuel could be provided for that industry, in principle, forever. This was regulated by a statute of Henry VIII
, which required woods to be enclosed after cutting (to prevent browsing by animals) and 12 standels (standards or mature uncut trees) to be left in each acre, to be grown into timber. The variation of coppicing known as coppice with standards (scattered individual stems allowed to grow on through several coppice cycles) has been commonly used throughout the British Isles as a means of giving greater flexibility in the resulting forest product
from any one area. Not only does the woodland provide the small material from the coppice but also a range of larger timber for jobs like house building, bridge repair, cart making and so on.
The shoots (or sucker
s) may be used either in their young state for interweaving in wattle
fencing (as is the practice with coppiced willow
s and hazel
) or the new shoots may be allowed to grow into large poles, as was often the custom with trees such as oaks or ashes. This creates long, straight poles which do not have the bends and forks of naturally grown trees. Coppicing may be practiced to encourage specific growth patterns, as with cinnamon
trees which are grown for their bark.
Coppiced hardwood
s were extensively used in carriage and shipbuilding, and they are still sometimes grown for making wooden buildings and furniture.
, beech
, ash or oak, grown amongst oak or sometimes ash or beech
standards. In wet areas alder
and willows were used. These coppices provided wood for many purposes, especially charcoal
which before coal was economically significant in metal smelting
. A minority of these woods are still operated for coppice today, often by conservation organisations
, producing material for hurdle
-making, thatching
spars, local charcoal-burning or other crafts. The only remaining large-scale commercial coppice crop in England is sweet chestnut
which is grown in parts of Sussex
and Kent
. Much of this was established as plantations in the 19th century for hop-pole production (hop-poles are used to support the hop
plant while growing hops
) and is nowadays cut on a 12 to 18 year cycle for splitting and binding into cleft chestnut paling fence, or on a 20 to 35 year cycle for cleft post-and-rail fencing, or for sawing into small lengths to be finger-jointed for architectural use. Other material goes to make farm fencing and to be chipped for modern wood-fired heating systems.
In north-west England, coppice-with-standards has been the norm, the standards often of oak with relatively little simple coppice. After World War II
, a great deal was planted up with conifers or became neglected. Coppice working almost died out, though a few men continued in the woods. A small, and growing, number of people make a living wholly or partly by working coppices in the area today.
Withies
for wicker
-work are grown in coppices of various willow
species, principally osier.
In France, chestnut trees are coppiced for use as canes and bâtons for the martial arts of the same name.
Some Eucalyptus
species are coppiced in a number of countries.
The Sal tree is coppiced in India.
Sometimes former coppice is converted to high-forest woodland by the practice of singling. All but one of the regrowing stems are cut, leaving the remaining one to grow as if it were a maiden (uncut) tree.
The boundaries of coppice coups were sometimes marked by cutting certain trees as pollard
s or stubs.
, anemone
and primrose
to grow vigorously. Often brambles grow around the stools, encouraging insects, or various small mammals that can use the brambles as protection from larger predators. Woodpiles (if left in the coppice) encourage insects such as beetles to come into an area. The open area is then colonised by many animals such as Nightingale
, European Nightjar
and fritillary butterflies
. As the coup grows, the canopy closes and it becomes unsuitable for these animals again—but in an actively managed coppice there is always another recently cut coup nearby, and the populations therefore move around, following the coppice management.
However, most British coppices have not been managed in this way for many decades. The coppice stems have grown tall (the coppice is said to be overstood), forming a heavily shaded woodland of many closely spaced stems with little ground vegetation. The open-woodland animals survive in small numbers along woodland rides or not at all, and many of these once-common species have become rare. Overstood coppice is a habitat of relatively low biodiversity — it does not support the open-woodland species, but neither does it support many of the characteristic species of high forest
, because it lacks many high-forest features such as substantial dead-wood, clearings and stems of varied ages. Suitable conservation management of these abandoned coppices may be to re-start coppice management, or in some cases it may be more appropriate to use singling and selective clearance to establish a high-forest structure.
s or blown over by the wind. Some trees, such as lime, may produce a line of coppice shoots from a fallen trunk, and sometimes these develop into a line of mature trees.
Artificial coppice may therefore be seen as a somewhat distorted equivalent to natural habitats which no longer occur, in the absence of now extinct or rare animals.
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level. In subsequent growth years, many new shoot
Shoot
Shoots are new plant growth, they can include stems, flowering stems with flower buds, and leaves. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop...
s will emerge, and, after a number of years the coppiced tree, or stool, is ready to be harvested, and the cycle begins again. (The noun "coppice" means a growth of small trees or a forest coming from shoots or suckers.)
Typically a coppiced woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
is harvested in sections or coups on a rotation. In this way, a crop is available each year somewhere in the woodland. Coppicing has the effect of providing a rich variety of habitats, as the woodland always has a range of different-aged coppice growing in it, which is beneficial for biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
. The cycle length depends upon the species cut, the local custom, and the use to which the product is put. Birch
Birch
Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...
can be coppiced for faggots (bundles of brushwood) on a three or four year cycle, whereas oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
can be coppiced over a fifty-year cycle for poles or firewood.
Coppicing maintains trees at a juvenile stage, and a regularly coppiced tree will never die of old age—some coppice stools may therefore reach immense ages. The age of a stool may be estimated from its diameter, and some are so large—perhaps as much as 5.4 metres (17.7165354330709 ft) across—that they are thought to have been continuously coppiced for centuries.
Coppiced stems are characteristically curved at the base. This curve occurs as the competing stems grow out from the stool in the early stages of the cycle, then up towards the sky as the canopy closes. The curve may allow the identification of coppice timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
in archaeological sites—timber in the Sweet Track
Sweet Track
The Sweet Track is an ancient causeway in the Somerset Levels, England. It was built in 3807 or 3806 BC and has been claimed to be the oldest road in the world. It was the oldest timber trackway discovered in Northern Europe until the 2009 discovery of a 6,000 year-old trackway in Belmarsh Prison...
in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
(built in the winter of 3807 and 3806 BC
39th century BC
-Events:* The Post Track, an ancient causeway in the Somerset Levels, England, is built, ca. 3838 BC. It is one of the oldest engineered roads discovered in Northern Europe....
) has been identified as coppiced lime
Tilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...
.
History
In the days of charcoalCharcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
production in England, most woods in ironmaking regions were managed as coppices, usually being cut on a cycle of about 16 years. In this way, fuel could be provided for that industry, in principle, forever. This was regulated by a statute of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, which required woods to be enclosed after cutting (to prevent browsing by animals) and 12 standels (standards or mature uncut trees) to be left in each acre, to be grown into timber. The variation of coppicing known as coppice with standards (scattered individual stems allowed to grow on through several coppice cycles) has been commonly used throughout the British Isles as a means of giving greater flexibility in the resulting forest product
Forest product
A forest product is any material derived from a forest for commercial use, such as lumber, paper, or forage for livestock. Wood, by far the dominant commercial forest product, is used for many industrial purposes, such as the finished structural materials used for the construction of buildings, or...
from any one area. Not only does the woodland provide the small material from the coppice but also a range of larger timber for jobs like house building, bridge repair, cart making and so on.
The shoots (or sucker
Basal shoot
A basal shoot, root sprout, adventitious shoot, water sprout or sucker is a shoot or cane which grows from a bud at the base of a tree or shrub or from its roots. This shoot then becomes, or takes the form of, a singular plant. A plant that produces suckers is referred to as surculose...
s) may be used either in their young state for interweaving in wattle
Wattle and daub
Wattle and daub is a composite building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw...
fencing (as is the practice with coppiced willow
Willow
Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...
s and hazel
Hazel
The hazels are a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae, though some botanists split the hazels into a separate family Corylaceae.They have simple, rounded leaves with double-serrate margins...
) or the new shoots may be allowed to grow into large poles, as was often the custom with trees such as oaks or ashes. This creates long, straight poles which do not have the bends and forks of naturally grown trees. Coppicing may be practiced to encourage specific growth patterns, as with cinnamon
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...
trees which are grown for their bark.
Coppiced hardwood
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...
s were extensively used in carriage and shipbuilding, and they are still sometimes grown for making wooden buildings and furniture.
Current practice
In southern Britain, coppice was traditionally hazel, hornbeamHornbeam
Hornbeams are relatively small hardwood trees in the genus Carpinus . Though some botanists grouped them with the hazels and hop-hornbeams in a segregate family, Corylaceae, modern botanists place the hornbeams in the birch subfamily Coryloideae...
, beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
, ash or oak, grown amongst oak or sometimes ash or beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
standards. In wet areas alder
Alder
Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...
and willows were used. These coppices provided wood for many purposes, especially charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
which before coal was economically significant in metal smelting
Smelting
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
. A minority of these woods are still operated for coppice today, often by conservation organisations
Conservation in the United Kingdom
This page gives an overview of the complex structure of environmental and cultural conservation in the United Kingdom.With the advent of devolved government for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and of evolving regional government for England, the responsibilities for environment and...
, producing material for hurdle
Hurdles (agricultural)
Hurdles are a form of rural crafts. They are lightweight portable fencing structures that are used to enclose animals such as sheep . In England & Wales they have often been woven from ash tree, willow or hazel withies, and made windproof with wattle, and so called 'wattle hurdles'. There are...
-making, thatching
Thatching
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge , rushes, or heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates...
spars, local charcoal-burning or other crafts. The only remaining large-scale commercial coppice crop in England is sweet chestnut
Sweet Chestnut
Castanea sativa is a species of the flowering plant family Fagaceae, the tree and its edible seeds are referred to by several common names such Sweet Chestnut or Marron. Originally native to southeastern Europe and Asia Minor, it is now widely dispersed throughout Europe and parts of Asia, such as...
which is grown in parts of Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
and Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. Much of this was established as plantations in the 19th century for hop-pole production (hop-poles are used to support the hop
Hop (plant)
Humulus, Hop, is a small genus of flowering plants native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The female flowers of H. lupulus are known as hops, and are used as a culinary flavoring and stabilizer, especially in the brewing of beer...
plant while growing hops
Hops
Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine...
) and is nowadays cut on a 12 to 18 year cycle for splitting and binding into cleft chestnut paling fence, or on a 20 to 35 year cycle for cleft post-and-rail fencing, or for sawing into small lengths to be finger-jointed for architectural use. Other material goes to make farm fencing and to be chipped for modern wood-fired heating systems.
In north-west England, coppice-with-standards has been the norm, the standards often of oak with relatively little simple coppice. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, a great deal was planted up with conifers or became neglected. Coppice working almost died out, though a few men continued in the woods. A small, and growing, number of people make a living wholly or partly by working coppices in the area today.
Withies
Withy
Withy or withe is a strong flexible willow stem that is typically used in thatching and for gardening. An advantage of using this type of material is said to be a greater resistance to woodworm....
for wicker
Wicker
Wicker is hard woven fiber formed into a rigid material, usually used for baskets or furniture. Wicker is often made of material of plant origin, but plastic fibers are also used....
-work are grown in coppices of various willow
Willow
Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...
species, principally osier.
In France, chestnut trees are coppiced for use as canes and bâtons for the martial arts of the same name.
Some Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia...
species are coppiced in a number of countries.
The Sal tree is coppiced in India.
Sometimes former coppice is converted to high-forest woodland by the practice of singling. All but one of the regrowing stems are cut, leaving the remaining one to grow as if it were a maiden (uncut) tree.
The boundaries of coppice coups were sometimes marked by cutting certain trees as pollard
Pollarding
Pollarding is a pruning system in which the upper branches of a tree are removed, promoting a dense head of foliage and branches. It has been common in Great Britain and Europe since medieval times and is practiced today in urban areas worldwide, primarily to maintain trees at a predetermined...
s or stubs.
Wildlife
Coppice management favours a range of wildlife, often of species adapted to open woodland. After cutting, the increased light allows existing woodland-floor vegetation such as bluebellCommon Bluebell
Hyacinthoides non-scripta, commonly known as the common bluebell, is a spring-flowering bulbous perennial plant. -Taxonomy:...
, anemone
Anemone
Anemone , is a genus of about 120 species of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae in the north and south temperate zones...
and primrose
Primula vulgaris
Primula vulgaris is a species of Primula native to western and southern Europe , northwest Africa , and southwest Asia...
to grow vigorously. Often brambles grow around the stools, encouraging insects, or various small mammals that can use the brambles as protection from larger predators. Woodpiles (if left in the coppice) encourage insects such as beetles to come into an area. The open area is then colonised by many animals such as Nightingale
Nightingale
The Nightingale , also known as Rufous and Common Nightingale, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae...
, European Nightjar
European Nightjar
The European Nightjar, or just Nightjar, Caprimulgus europaeus, is the only representative of the nightjar family of birds in most of Europe and temperate Asia.- Habitat and distribution :...
and fritillary butterflies
Argynnini
Argynnini is a tribe of butterflies in the subfamily Heliconiinae, containing some of the fritillaries. This group has also been classified as subtribe Argynnina of the Heliconiini, or even as a distinct subfamily Argynninae in the Nymphalidae...
. As the coup grows, the canopy closes and it becomes unsuitable for these animals again—but in an actively managed coppice there is always another recently cut coup nearby, and the populations therefore move around, following the coppice management.
However, most British coppices have not been managed in this way for many decades. The coppice stems have grown tall (the coppice is said to be overstood), forming a heavily shaded woodland of many closely spaced stems with little ground vegetation. The open-woodland animals survive in small numbers along woodland rides or not at all, and many of these once-common species have become rare. Overstood coppice is a habitat of relatively low biodiversity — it does not support the open-woodland species, but neither does it support many of the characteristic species of high forest
High forest (woodland)
High forest is a term for a woodland or forest with a well-developed natural structure. It is used in both ecology and woodland management, particularly in contrast with even-aged woodland types such as coppice and planted woodland....
, because it lacks many high-forest features such as substantial dead-wood, clearings and stems of varied ages. Suitable conservation management of these abandoned coppices may be to re-start coppice management, or in some cases it may be more appropriate to use singling and selective clearance to establish a high-forest structure.
Natural coppicing
Coppice and pollard growth is a response of the tree to damage, and such damage can occur naturally as well as from deliberate woodland management. Trees may be browsed or broken by large herbivorous animals, such as cattle or elephants, felled by beaverBeaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
s or blown over by the wind. Some trees, such as lime, may produce a line of coppice shoots from a fallen trunk, and sometimes these develop into a line of mature trees.
Artificial coppice may therefore be seen as a somewhat distorted equivalent to natural habitats which no longer occur, in the absence of now extinct or rare animals.
See also
- Apical dominanceApical dominanceIn plant physiology, apical dominance is the phenomenon whereby the main central stem of the plant is dominant over other side stems; on a branch the main stem of the branch is further dominant over its own side branchlets....
- Basal shootBasal shootA basal shoot, root sprout, adventitious shoot, water sprout or sucker is a shoot or cane which grows from a bud at the base of a tree or shrub or from its roots. This shoot then becomes, or takes the form of, a singular plant. A plant that produces suckers is referred to as surculose...
- BodgingBodgingBodging is a traditional wood-turning craft, using green wood to create cylindrical wooden woodturning via a traditional wooden-bed, polelathe, most commonly chair legs and stretcher poles, historically for the Windsor chair manufacturing industry.-Etymology:The origins of the term are obscure...
- Crown sproutingCrown sproutingCrown sprouting is the ability of a plant to regenerate its shoot system after destruction by activating dormant vegetative structures to produce regrowth from the root crown . These dormant structures take the form of lignotubers or basal epicormic buds...
- Epicormic shootEpicormic shootAn epicormic shoot is a shoot growing from an epicormic bud which lies underneath the bark of a trunk, stem, or branch of a plant.-Epicormic buds:...
- Even aged timber management
- Fire ecologyFire ecologyFire ecology is concerned with the processes linking the natural incidence of fire in an ecosystem and the ecological effects of this fire. Many ecosystems, such as the North American prairie and chaparral ecosystems, and the South African savanna, have evolved with fire as a natural and necessary...
- LignotuberLignotuberA lignotuber is a starchy swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem by fire. The crown contains buds from which new stems may sprout, and a sufficient store of nutrients to support a period of growth in the absence of...
- Mallee (habit)Mallee (habit)Mallee is the growth habit of certain eucalypt species that grow with multiple stems springing from an underground lignotuber, usually to a height of no more than ten metres...
- Pruning fruit treesPruning fruit treesPruning fruit trees is a technique that is employed by arboriculture to control growth, remove dead or diseased wood, and stimulate the formation of flowers and fruit buds. Pruning often means cutting branches back to laterals or back to the main stem using proper pruning techniques. It may also...
- Short rotation coppiceShort rotation coppiceShort Rotation Coppice is coppice grown as an energy crop. This woody solid biomass can be used in applications such as district heating, electric power generating stations, alone or in combination with other fuels.- Species used :...
- Shredding (tree pruning technique)Shredding (tree pruning technique)Shredding is a method of tree pruning by which all side branches are removed on a systematic basis.In some countries this can be used for animal fodder.Other woodland management techniques include pollarding and coppicing....
- Coarse woody debrisCoarse woody debrisCoarse woody debris is a term used in English-speaking countries for fallen dead trees and the remains of large branches on the ground in forests. Some prefer the term coarse woody habitat . A dead standing tree is known as a snag and provides many of the same functions as coarse woody debris...
- the coppiced parts of trees