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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Pollarding

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  • From: uriel@nasalam.org
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Pollarding
  • Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:02:58 -0700

Where I live in the Ozarks many of the Eastern Red Cedar are subject to being bent over by snow or ice and never recover. I've been able save some of them by cutting them off at 6-7 feet so the tops don't pull them over any further. They become like 'umbrella trees' and add an interesting variation in the makeup of the forest. These pollarded cedars are particularly nice in a forest garden where the primary focus is on food-bearing trees since the cedars are great wildlife shelter and contribute to the natural balance of the area.
Uriel

Rebekah Wilce wrote:

Tameson, John et al,

I just learned a little more about this in a permaculture workshop today. A coppice would be a tree cut off at stump level and allowed to grow shoots. A pollard is cut off higher up, at about two meters as Wikipedia has it. Both create a different tree shape than a tree not treated in such a way-- more shoots coming out of the main trunk. This lends itself to easy regular harvesting of shoots to be used as firewood, fencing, stakes, in weaving and sculpture such as with willow, etc. and radically increases the tree's lifespan. It can be done on a 1-25 yr. rotation. Most deciduous hardwoods will coppice, so I would guess they could also be pollarded. In doing a site analysis and assessment as part of the course today, we found an old apple tree that had been coppiced. I believe I understood correctly that the cutting would be in late winter, so probably right around now. Interestingly to me, coppicing was the background of the medieval economy! (This is all from Ethan Roland of AppleSeed Permaculture, who taught the second part of a three-part course today at the Sullivan County Community College in New York.)

Bekah







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