Woodland and felling

In short

• No permission, no felling. In the UK and Ireland most felling outside gardens needs a felling licence; in the US and Canada the rules are set by state and province. Ask before you cut.
• Cut less than the woodland grows: roughly 4–6 m³ per hectare a year in good broadleaved woodland.
• Cut the poor trees first: crooked, diseased and suppressed. The best trees stay to grow and seed.
• Cut coppice in winter, low and at a slant, so the stool regrows.
• Never work alone with a chainsaw, and look up before you start: dead branches kill quietly.

What's inside

Chapters

1. Get to know your woodland
2. Permission, paperwork and the law
3. How much you may cut
4. Which trees for firewood
5. Coppice: the woodland that grows back
6. When to fell
7. Extraction and haulage
8. Dangers in the woodland
9. Regeneration and planting
10. Buying, inheritance and shared ownership
11. More than wood
12. Common mistakes
13. Printable checklist

Worksheets

• Woodland inventory
• Woodland firewood calculator
• Licence and felling record
• Woodland calendar
• Ten-year felling plan
• Woodland kit and contacts