Hazel Coppicing
Today I expected to be mowing and raking the reed bed at Pulfin Nature Reserve near Beverley, but the ground was too wet to get the mower in, so our work day was redirected to a nearby patch of hazel woodland at Meaux (pronounced ‘mewss’ as in juice). There is very little of this type of woodland in East Yorkshire and it provides a particular open habitat which supports a diverse range of species. It’s been coppiced in the traditional way for hundreds of years. Nowadays, the farmer gets stewardship payments to encourage him to preserve it and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust are carrying out the maintenance in return for the cuttings which can be bundled and used to prevent riverbank erosion elsewhere. It also makes a nice day out for volunteers! It was a bright sunny day and the birds were singing. The woodland floor is carpeted with bluebells which are just coming up. A woodpecker drummed on a tree, before being drowned out by the roar of chainsaws. We started by constructing a simple fr...