Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes

Wherever I go in the county I see neglected coppices.

Hazel woods with oak standards were once the normal forest crop of southern Britain.

For many hundreds of years, even back to Roman times, they supplied the wood for boats, ploughs, hurdles, houses, barrels, mugs and even First World War aeroplanes.

Now we use pine, spruce and fir '“ and, of course, metal and plastic. That's fine. The world we know could not exist without it. What I'm on about is that many ancient coppice woods are still there but no longer managed properly.

The hazel has grown too tall to allow all those wildlife goodies to exist any more. They have been shaded out. Look at my pictures of wood anemones, taken in the nature reserve around my home. Volunteers have cut the hazel coppice to let the light in so the flowers swarm in spring.

It is so beautiful here. The hazel will be cut every eight years as a renewable crop. People buy the poles or stems for garden material. The wind flowers are happy with that.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette April 2