We've been doing some gorse coppicing and removal of sapling trees this week. Every winter we cut down all of the tree saplings we find growing on the heath and treat the stumps to stop regeneration. We find large numbers every year and without this work the open heath would become woodland within a few years. This is important not only for maintaining the character of the course and the valuable heathland habitats but also for turf quality. Allowing trees to grow would create shade and limit air movement which would have a serious impact on our ability to grow the finer grasses.
We do lots of gorse coppicing every winter, our aim is to coppice most of the gorse on a 10 to 12 year cycle. If coppiced regularly the gorse plants recover quickly and produce dense growth which looks atractive and is good for wildlife. Neglected gorse gets leggy, unsightly, full of bramble and has reduced value for wildlife.
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| Andrew cutting down yet another sycamore |
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| Neil coppicing gorse on the 5th hole |
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| Antony feeding the chipper - this machine really speeds up the coppicing process and reduces the need for fires on the course. |
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