Multipurpose micro-woodlands for today’s householder and gardener.
Allotment Forestry: The growing, management and use of ‘micro’ woodlands, individual trees, hedges and small woodlands to produce all types of wood products.
Introduction
How much of England was woodland at the time of the Domesday Book (1086AD)? Most people believe that the answer is 70-90%. However the actual figure is thought to be only 15%. A 1000-years ago England was almost as sparsely wooded as it is today where around 11% of England is woodland. Land was required for growing food but some woodland was necessary to meet a wide range of essential local needs such as fuel to cook and wood to build fences and houses with. Trees and shrubs however were not only to be found in woodlands, they were also found in ‘micro-woodlands’ as individual trees, hedges and small woodland plots elsewhere in the countryside. Pre-Conquest charters, for example, refer frequently to hazel groves and also, surprisingly often, to single trees, like ‘the white hazel’ and ‘the great hazel-stool’. Likewise there are many allusions in medieval documents to hawthorn in hedges and to scrub on commons, in corners of fields etc, all of which were cut from time to time for fuelwood or fencing.
Allotment Forestry Techniques
It is a feature of micro-woodlands that they have been managed very intensively for wood products as well as for many other products such as leaves and herbage for livestock fodder and bedding and fruits for food, pickles and medicine. As well as the adhoc cutting of materials three main management techniques were common:
Pollarding: The practice of cutting trees at between 5 and 15 feet above ground and leaving them to sprout new shoots from the cut top. Shoots were cut again when they got to a useful size. In mainland Europe more than in the Britain, leafy fodder was cut in the summer and either fed to animals directly or stored much as one would store hay. Pollarding increases the lifespan of trees and as a result the many very ancient trees commonly found, even after the depredations of Dutch Elm disease, is physical evidence that pollarding was widespread in many areas for much of the last 500 years.
Shredding: The regular removal of the side branches of trees for poles or leafy fodder was once a common practice and is known as shredding. Shredding no longer occurs in Britain but it is common elsewhere, especially in peasant based farming systems.
Coppicing: Most British trees and shrubs regrow when cut down, producing a forest of shoot from the cut stump. Man in Britain has made use of this characteristic, called coppicing, for at least 4000 years. Coppicing was the main form of woodland management in the British Isles until well into the 19th Century with long established techniques for using the small sized material for all manner of jobs, the most important of which were as a fuel and for fencing.
Free Wood or New Common Rights
A feature of all the above techniques is that they require only the simplest of tools and if needs be the products yielded can be carried out on the backs of men, women and children. ‘Woodland management’ was then something most rural people could undertake, the key issue being access to the woodland resource. In many parts of England the practice of collecting/cutting wood was so established that people acquired the ‘right’ to do it under particular conditions. Such ‘Common Rights’ allowed free or cheap access to key resources such as grazing land and fuel that helped to ‘prop’ up the lives of a large number of country people.
The existence of common rights and the ample evidence of prosecutions for stealing small quantities of wood show that not only were twigs more valued than today but so were the individual trees and small copses from which people gathered them. These small-scale sources of wood products formed part of a diverse wood economy and were important because they were free or cheaper than purchased items. While most traditional ‘common rights’ have been lost or have lapsed new ‘commoning’ opportunities are developing. All these offer opportunities to access land and collect material as a by-product or perk of the job.
Conservation volunteering: Most towns in England will not be far from a volunteer conservation group that works in woodland during the winter months. Equally across the country, parish councils and other local authorities are keen to encourage local people to look after footpaths and other public amenities in their area. It is common practise for volunteers to take wood home if they need it.
Allotments: Derelict allotments can provide cheap opportunities for people to obtain wood. For a peppercorn annual rent, the typical 10-rod allotment plot will allow you to grow at least 200 hazel plants as coppice. (See details on planting trees on allotment land)
An expanding horizon
In Ipswich we have been promoting Allotment Forestry for some years. In the beginning we thought only of growing beanpoles and peasticks. Subsequently we recognised the need to include basketry materials for use in tighter weaving work in rustic garden items. We felt confident we had explored the possibilities until we visited allotments in Bromley, London where allotment holders had a communal Christmas tree plantation. The range of opportunities for productively using micro-woodlands is great, including: Beanpoles and peasticks, Charcoal, Christmas trees, Basketry, Furniture-making, Walking sticks and other craft materials, even fodder for goats!
The way forward to a sustainable woodland economy
The high cost of land in our towns and cities means that most new urban woodlands will be small. The traditions of allotment scale forestry in the British Countryside shows us how we can manage these micro-woods in a way that helps protect the worlds forests by increasing our reliance on home grown wood and at the same time as improving our own environment. With very little effort we can all be more self reliant in our use of wood products. In doing so we invest time in the care of our environment from which wildlife, neighbours and the planet all benefit. The small size of the ‘woods’ and the expansion of individual opportunities to grow and use wood may seem small and insignificant but it is the only way most people can get direct involvement in caring for woodlands. As a result their importance as an educational tool for promoting the wider development of the woodland industry is considerable. Allotment Forestry allows us to grow a wide variety of forest products at a scale suited to the urban environment and to the people of the urban environment!
Case studies