Always on
This project successfully funded on 25th May 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Avill and Porlock Vale Coppice Group Start Up
Minehead, Somerset, United Kingdom
Aim
To enable the group to get going so that neglected woodland in the area can be managed for biodiversity, abundance and the community.
There are many small broadleaved woodlands around England that do not receive the attention they deserve. Whether this is because they are too small and fragmented or because there are no markets for the material coming out of them. Once upon a time many of them would have been managed as Coppice by local communities who would have relied upon them for fuel, food, clothing, shelter and tools.
Coppice unlike other forms of woodland management involves the cutting back of Hazel, Oak, Sweet Chestnut and other species to their base on a rotation. Hazel which is often the most widespread is often cut on a 7-to-10-year rotation.
Coppice mimics the actions of the large Herbivores of old (Elephants and Aurochs) which would have battered their way through such woods. By cutting this coppice back on such a rotation, light is allowed back into the understory allowing ground flora to emerge which in turn creates habitat for fauna.
Provided the areas are fenced off, new shoots will emerge from the coppice stools and will close over the canopy over the course of the rotation. The fencing can be removed after a few years, allowing larger animals to return into the area.
Many of these coppice trees co-evolved with these processes. Hazel, for example lives for 70 years on its own, but through coppice management it can live for 300 years.
The beauty of coppice is that once it's in management it is easy to maintain using simple hand tools which is why it was practiced for generations by communities and why it should be again.
Some taller trees (Standards) can also be grown above the coppice which can be harvested on longer rotations of 30-60 years+ which can enable a wider variety of products to be produced whilst still benefitting biodiversity and allowing sufficient light for the coppice and understory beneath.
Managing woodland through Coppice with Standards can thus benefit biodiversity whilst producing useful material which can help to create local, short and circular supply chains, which help to reduce our reliance on transport and globalised supply chains, reducing the carbon footprint of our communities.
This group of volunteers is dedicated to taking neglected, small and fragmented woodlands into management in the Avill and Porlock Vale area of Exmoor. The goal is for the products of the coppice element to be made available to the local community at affordable prices.
Keltings Copse Limited (a for-profit) is temporarily providing a legal structure for the group until such time that we create our own legal entity. They will put in place tenancy agreements with landowners for the land we manage and will offer rents comparable to grassland once government subsidy can be obtained for the management of the land. They will benefit from some support in managing the standards and taller trees, which they will largely manufacture into board games. The combination of their income generated from this and the government subsidies will enable them to volunteer their time to the group to organise all the activities, manage the health and safety and procure everything needed. They will not derive any profit from the coppice produce. The coppice produce will be reserved for the community, where it is not used as wood chip and biochar that are kept in the woods.
It is difficult to have a well-managed volunteer group without support from such a business, and it is difficult for woodland businesses to survive without some volunteer support. And as described above it can be difficult for the biodiversity in woodland to thrive without some management. So, this arrangement is a win-win-win in our view.
Initially the group is focussed on managing Hazel coppice for a supply of wood which can be used for fuel. The group intends to offer an affordable annual subscription for a share of the wood harvested. We will supply the shares in vented bags which we will drop off at people’s homes where the wood can then season under a shelter. Volunteers involved will obtain free shares of the wood.
In the meantime, of tenancy agreements and government subsidy being put in place and Keltings Copse putting in place their manufacturing operations, the group needs some initial support with Temporary Deer Fencing, Insurance, PPE, Pole Saws and Vented Bags with which to start this community service.
Some rewards/wood shares are available for residents of the West Somerset part of Exmoor and Minehead. However, they are limited for now and it will not be possible for us to meet our funding objectives through them alone. As such smaller donation would be welcome too.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made