What is Silviculture? (January 2003)

Silviculture involves managing and manipulating a forest with a view to harvesting forest products for human use. In Australia this has a fairly narrow application. Silviculture here seeks to promote certain desirable forest tree species, often at the expense of others. It may entail selective thinning, removal, planting, pruning and other techniques to maximise the yield of the desirable species without a lot of attention to the needs of other species of plants or animals or consideration of biodiversity. In the case of native eucalypt hardwoods the range of uses tends to be fairly narrow, being primarily pulpwood and structural timber though much more thought and recognition is now being given to potential for furniture. Other hardwoods here like rainforest species are hardly "managed" at all primarily due to the time it takes for most species to mature. Europe on the other hand carries out all the processes mentioned above but in addition uses pollarding and coppicing as important tools.
Because hardwood trees (non-coniferous) will usually resprout when cut, old growth forests of some species are lopped in a way that preserves the trunk or rootstock but provides usable timber. Pollarding started in forests that were used for grazing by stock. It entailed cutting timber from the tree trunk above the reach of animals. The tree sprouted a new head, which was allowed to grow and form new usable timber before being cut again in a cycle that may only be a few years but could be fifteen or more depending on the species and the use it is put to. See comment below.
Coppicing follows the same principles but usually entails leaving only a stump. Coppicing is a very ancient form of forest management, which is still being used in some areas today. There is some evidence that trees in Britain may have been coppiced some 3000 years BC to provide poles for corduroy crossings over peat bogs. It is quite labour intensive and selective which is why it lost some of its popularity in a world where mass production and mechanisation hold sway. Coppicing is useful for a wide variety of furniture and artefacts where only a relatively small cross section of timber is required.
In Britain, trees that respond well to coppicing include ash, alder, birch, chestnut, hazel, lime, oak, sycamore and willow. Early uses for coppiced poles included wicker- work involved in making wattle hurdles (temporary fence panels for livestock), baskets, tool handles, and furniture items where steam bent components were needed. Some thin rods or poles could be use in the round and the thicker ones "riven" with wedges and mallet or froe.  See drawing. The Froe was driven into the end grain of a billet or pole with a mallet and then levered  with the handle to split the billet. This was called riving. See drawing. 
A froe is a thick straight bladed bar with a handle through one end.
Riving a pole wedged in a brake with a froe.


Coppiced timber may also be used for charcoal burning, pulpwood, firewood and even as mining props. Many Australian Eucalypts coppice readily, indeed some grow naturally in a coppice form (mallees). However thin poles of Eucalypt don't appear to be of much use or at least techniques haven't been developed to utilise them so it is unlikely that coppicing or pollarding as  timer management processes will be employed here any time soon. Part of that I suppose is that we don't employ a lot of the rural crafts that are still practiced in Europe. We don't have much need for riven laths or bent wood. If we use lattice we want to use the mass-produced treated pine stuff, which is very flimsy and doesn't last well despite being treated. It is interesting to speculate though on whether our needs and approaches might change as timber becomes scarcer. It is encouraging that  research is  being undertaken in processing our hardwoods, particularly Eucalypts to find more worthy uses and reduce wastage. 
One could be forgiven for thinking that we have been very wasteful of our timber resources in the past and have undervalued it to an irresponsible degree. Our forest management is evolving rapidly now with all sorts of planting schemes under way, particularly in Tasmania where very large tracts have been planted by private companies. There is also a growing emphasis on the research mentioned before but there also needs to be a change in the behaviour of the end user. You still see wastage on major building sites, but of course individuals are now starting to feel the pinch because of increased cost of timber. We are now probably paying a more realistic price for what is after all a limited resource.

Left picture Sweet Chestnut coppice UK
Picture Copyright1997Groundwork/Ecosaurus Internet Service// www.4seasons.org.uk/centres/ bishop/coppice/spring.asp

Right Picture Pollarded beech - Bratley 
Winter in early times, saw browse cut for the deer. To prevent deer and ponies grazing the regrowth (future years supply of browse), the trees were pollarded - cut 6-10 feet from the ground. Game Keepers were permitted to retain the cut wood after deer had stripped it, but inevitably this concession was abused and there were accusations of excessive pollarding. In addition, the misshapen trees provided poor timber and that practice was made illegal in Britain in 1698. A modern version of the practice is common today in Australia where Wilga and Kurrajong are cut for stock feed during drought times.

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