With the dawn of another year, it’s remarkable to realise that the Finemere Wood Volunteer Work Party is now into its thirteenth year. Over time, we move around the wood, cutting back areas in rotation. Eventually, we return to areas previously cleared. The return to these sites is a measure of the group’s longevity.

We revisit an area last cleared ten years ago, where the hazel coppices have developed long, upright stems, blackthorn and hawthorn have formed dense, interwoven thickets, and birch stands straight and prominent. Several of the woodland workers were present for the first clearance. Although time has added a few wrinkles and grey hairs to the mix, they still show up with boundless energy.

Few tasks are as satisfying as completely clearing an area of vegetation. Brutal though the work may appear, it brings a renewed vitality to the wood. Light will reach the woodland floor, allowing species adapted to open conditions to thrive; the coppiced hazel stools will, in turn, provide shelter and protection for invertebrates and small mammals alike. Over time, hazel, blackthorn, and other species will regenerate, and the canopy will gradually close over once again; the wildlife will move on to a more recently coppiced area.

I had remembered this area as only a third of its actual size, imagining it could be cleared in a single day. The woodland workers gave it their all, yet even they recognised it would be a long task. Felling a coppiced hazel, with its many stems, is slow and exacting, each stem taken carefully in turn. 

The work demands constant judgment, unfolding like the solution to an intricate puzzle. Blackthorn and hawthorn, by contrast, require full protective gear to withstand their sharp thorns, as the tangled stems are cut and hauled apart. Birch responds to a well-placed felling cut, falling in a controlled motion and landing precisely where intended.

Huge piles of cut vegetation and trees are heaped into mounds, much of it stacked onto one or two dead hedges. There, the wood will slowly decay, returning valuable nutrients to the soil. We light a small fire, which provides warmth and comfort on what is a cold, grey day, and offers entertainment for those who cannot resist the draw of the flames. Long hazel whips are gathered by a volunteer to use in a hedge-laying project in his home village.

The heavens open and the promised heavy rain comes tumbling down. We make a hasty retreat to the shelter of our cars. Behind us, the woodland waits; the workers will return.

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