Coppice woodland in winter

Coppice woodland in February, Ashwellthorpe Wood, Norfolk UK. Coppice-with-standards is a traditional woodland management technque. \Standard\" trees - here, Ash, Fraxinus excelsior, are left to grow, and the remaining coppice trees - usually ash or hazel, Corylus avellana - are cut to the ground every 10 years or so. This provides a supply of \"small wood\" for tool handles, hurdles and fencing. A large wood is divided into a series of areas ( coups ) that are cut in different years, thus ensuring a continuous supply of small wood products.The picture shows a coup which was cut in the previous winter. The coppiced stools have produced new twiggy growth in the intervening summer. This new growth is very attractive to large herbivores such as deer when it begins to produce leaves in spring. In this coup deer are excluded by means of electric fencing."