Snow, wind, hail, torrential rain and cold, cold days… It’s been a tough season for the Wye Coppice crew, including the trainees (a baptism of extreme weather for them). With the sun just peeping through the clouds, the team got together this April to look back on a host of achievements (despite the challenging elements) and discuss our future plans.

Since Autumn 2023, Wye Coppice has:

•    Cut seven coppice coups in Monmouthshire and SE Wales for Natural Resources Wales
•    Cut three coups for the Forestry Commission at Dymock, Gloucestershire
•    Cut two coups for the Forestry Commission at Leigh Woods, Bristol
•    Carried out felling for natural flood management at Cinderford, for Severn Rivers Trust
•    Thinned half a hectare for the Forest of Avon Trust
•    Felled diseased ash at Goblin Combe, Bristol, to keep paths safe
•    Carried out essential management on at least two hectares for other clients
•    Overall brought more than 6 hectares of woodland into management (between 8 and 9 football pitches’ worth)
•    Planted up 3.75ha of new woodland
•    Produced 1,000 hedging stakes and 1,000 binders for hedgelaying
•    Supplied customers from forest schools to film production companies, waterway managers to artists with coppice products from beanpoles to fascines
•    Hit off the charcoal season with 250 bags to retailers in the region

We think the hardworking team should be rightly proud of their efforts – especially the newbies, who have stuck out the wettest season since our inception, and learnt the ropes along the way. Keeping up your morale in a physically demanding job with wind and rain coming at you at 90 degrees is a real achievement. They got a well deserved lunch in a nice warm Chepstow café before we headed outside to take a team photo in the sunshine…

And then it hailed on us! Typical for a day in the life of Wye Coppice.

In other news, we looked forward to the work of the (hopefully warmer and drier) months ahead, including some larger timber processing, community events and more charcoal making. We might even stop for a barbecue at some point.

We also said bon voyage to two of the team who are spending their summer on far-flung adventures. Louis is heading off to Canada to work in a lumber mill; Joe C. is cycling from Athens to Helsinki, then if he has any energy left he might carry on and meet up with Louis in Canada. Simon, meanwhile, is running the London Marathon this Saturday, raising funds for charity. We wish him all the best with that and salute all this energy!

We will be back with more exciting news soon!