1

COPPICE SILVICULTURE:COPPICE SILVICULTURE:SOME ALTERNATIVES AND APPLICATIONSSOME ALTERNATIVES AND APPLICATIONS

Ralph D. NylandDepartment of Forest and Natural Resources Management

SUNY College of Environmental Scienceand Forestry

Syracuse, NY 13210

Nyland – 2009

All rights reservedUse of all or parts of these class notes prohibited

without express consent of Ralph D. Nyland

Background reading:

Chapter 9, in Nyland, R.D. 2002. Silviculture: Concepts and Applications. Waveland Press. Long Grove. IL. 2ed.

Sources cited:

Aldrich 1963

ArborGen, LCC. 2009. FlexStand System Guide. ArborGen LCC, Summerville SC.

Christersson, L., L. Sennerby-Forsse, and L. Zsuffa. 1993. The role and significance of woody biomass plantations in Swedish agriculture. For. Chron, 69(6):687-693.

Fowells, H.A. 1965. Silvics of Forest Trees of the United States. US For. Serv. Agric Handbk. 271.

Hammill and Moran 1986

Hawley, R.C. 1937. The Practice of Silviculture. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. NY. 3ed.

Hawley, R.C., and D.M. Smith 1954. The Practice of Silviculture. Wiley. NY. 6ed.

Matthews, J.D. 1991. Silvicultural systems. Oxford Univ. Press., Oxford.

Patton, D.R. 1992. Wildlife Habitat Relationships in Forested Ecosystems. Timber Press. Portland, OR.

Porter, W.F. 1987. Integrating wildlife management with even-aged timber systems. Pp. 319-337. in Managing Northern Hardwoods. R.D. Nyland, (Ed.). SUNY Coll. Environ. Sci,. and For., Fac. For. Misc. Publ No. 13 (ESF 87-02) Soc. Sm. For. Publ. No. 87-03.

2

Aspen silviculture …

…with attention to wildlife (grouse) habitat management

Consider an example …

Natural ranges foraspen and ruffed grouse overlap …

3

… feeding on catkinsand buds

US Forest Service

Grouse benefit fromaspen stands at differentstages of development …

… and using dense stands for cover and other life essentials

4

… also, aspen stands mayhave high volumes ofgood fiber suitable to many uses

… and we can regenerate them over large areas readily by coppice methods

5

But note this …

- while good sites produce high volumes

- poor sites and overmature stands havelimited commodity potential

Overmature and decadent poor for commodities …

… also not necessarily great for ruffed grouse

6

Best conditions for grouse ...

So what agefor 5000/acre

This stand has high potential as grouse habitat ...

7

What agefor 20 feet tall

6 ft

12 ft

18 ft

8

Note this …

… how habitat quality shifts with stand age

Porter 1987

... about half a century

9

Also an interspersion of condition classes best …

Porter 1987 … with different conditions in close proximity

… interspersion of requisite conditions over space and time

10

And close proximity means …

… within 500 feet

Not a goalwith aspen ≤ 500 ft

... a balance of ageclasses across the landscape

Adapted from Patton 1992

11

Stacy McNulty 2000 ... establishing different age classes in close proximity

… but not likely to this extreme

12

… probably more like this

... well suited to mechanized harvesting

13

... and fiber production goals

US Forest Service… clearfelling the copse to establish a new age class

14

US Forest Service

… relying on root suckers to restock the stand

US Forest Service

… with this outcome (after 11 years)

15

… but how to know when to call a stand mature

The culmination of m.a.i.

16

Porter 1986

A reasonable match …

... within the maximumtargeted time

Peak m.a.i.

... melding fiber production using coppicemethods, with maintenance of goodhabitat for ruffed grouse

17

Now back to a consideration of coppice silviculture …

… in general

… as well as making it suitable for coppicingaspen with wildlife habitat management

Coppice system advantages …

SIMPLE …

- certain regeneration- high level volume production- short rotations, with quick payoffs

(e.g., volume and grouse with aspen)- cutting area any size and shape- species composition predictable- few health risks with short rotations

18

A good scheme forfiber production …

… and grouse habitatmanagement

Coppice system disadvantages …

- small diameter products (mostly)

- useful with few species (hardwoods)

- frequent site disturbance with short rotations

- yields little sawtimber

- aesthetically unpleasant (the reproduction method)

- grazing / browsing must be excluded

- shoots arising after late summer cutting susceptible

to frost damage

19

... and if by sprouting, you must deal with the clumps

Consider an alternative …

20

Coppice with standards …

… selected trees (perhaps of seed origin)left to grow to large size

Consider an alternative …

… keep selected trees at uniform and wide spacing

STANDARD STANDARD STANDARD

START

An alternative …

21

Coppice with standards …

… selected trees (perhaps of seed origin)left to grow to large size

… with coppice growth maintainedbeneath them

… leaving only the standards

Like this after the cutting …… then coppice the rest

22

STANDARD STANDARD STANDARD

START

An alternative …Leading to a 2-aged stand

… as the coppice shoots develop

From: Matthews 1991

.. or like this with oaks

23

… coppice withstandards

… in aspen

… a two-aged stand

24

CUT ALL EXCEPT SELECTED NEW STANDARDS

Second entry …

… as a new age class develops by coppice growth

STANDARD STANDARD STANDARD

Same process repeated through time…

… perhaps implemented assuggested by ArgorGenwith its FlexStand strategy

Or as a new approach for coppice-with-standards …

ArborGen FlexStand Schematic

(Standard)(Coppice)

ArborGen 2009

25

… something like this

… repeated indefinitely

From Hawley 1935To get this …

Or have standards of multiple ages …

… go first to coppice with standards

… each time keeping some of the old standards,plus adding new standards from the understory growth

26

Called COMPOUND COPPICECOMPOUND COPPICE …

… producing an uneven-aged stand

An alternative …

COMPOUND COPPICE

27

Hawley and Smith 1954 … like this from above

Coppice with standards …

Silvicultural requirement (historic) …

- the STANDARDS should be fast-growing species… may mean shade-intolerant ones

- the coppice UNDERWOOD may need to be at least moderately shade tolerant

28

Or …

... like this toimprove lightin the understory

Or …

… keep the standards at only

rather wide spacing

29

To increase the number of standards …

- retain existing standards as a seed source

… if old enough to produce seed

- clean to keep young potential standards free to grow

- beat up the stand (reinforcement planting)

… but plant large seedlings as a wide spacing

- thin selected coppice clumps to a single stem

… and keep the favored sprout for multiple

rotations as a seed source

... periodically establishingsome new trees to becomefuture standards

30

... or deciding how to convert sprout clumps to single-stem standardsfor the future

… or with some speciesjust accepting a fewsprout clumps oflow origin

Now an entirely different kind of coppice system …

…… for BIOMASS PRODUCTIONfor BIOMASS PRODUCTION

31

Christersson et al. 1993

Note the advantage of willow …

… as a mini-rotation biomass crop

When planted at close spacing …

... and managed for mini-rotation periods

32

T.A. Volk

... started fromunrooted cuttings

33

Swedish double-row planting method …D. Robison

... with the shrub willows producingmultiple vigorous sprouts after the1st-year cutting

Coppiced after the firstyear to promote vigoroussprouting from the stools …

34

... like this

... and rapid growth

35

… regenerating the copse at the culmination of m.a.i. for biomassNissen 2001

But when to end the rotation ...

… with a harvester like this one

36

The cutter head …

Producing chips like this for biofuels …

37

... and cuttinglow stools

... they will sprout again for another rotation

38

... providing repeated crops at short rotations

... woody biomass(at least 10 dry tons/ac/yr)

39

… if it had antlers, I’d do something

After Nissen 2010

Should we clone it …