The Coppice

The Coppice is a 6.43ha Tender Scheme winner in 1999 adjacent to Forest Hill Golf Club near Botcheston.  Nature conservation is a very strong focus for the site.  However, it has also been designed to yield coppice products for craft use.  The planting is a mixture of broadleaf species such as oak, lime, ash, wild cherry, whitebeam and silver birch.  Hazel accounts for about 20% of the total planting.  The coppiced branches, which will be cut in future years, will be used for furniture making, fencing and charcoal burning.  The gate at the south-east of the site on to the public footpath is made from cleft wood as an illustration of the products which this woodland will yield.

Large areas of rough grassland have been left as hunting territory for barn owls and owl nesting boxes have been erected around the site to encourage this declining species.  Marshland and a pond provide habitats for invertebrates and wetland species.