Sustainability

At One Spark we strongly believe in sustaining our natural environment and when in the woods, wherever possible we utilise existing supplies or dead standing wood.

However we have been trained in various aspects of woodland management and if bushcraft is considered to be the skills necessary to ‘live comfortably outdoors for extended periods’ then a knowledge of woodland management is vital.

Managed woodland provides us with many of our resources such as firewood, building materials, craft materials, charcoal and much more.

More significantly, if managed properly, these resources will be provided consistently over time. Woodland management is a long-term venture. It is not exploitation or deforestation, but a planned and sustainable harvest of renewable resources.

In the UK, particularly in lowland areas where deciduous trees are dominant, coppicing is the most likely management method to be used. This involves the rotational cutting of trees to encourage regeneration.

At One Spark we believe in effective woodland management because of the conservation benefits it has – it opens the woodland canopy allowing more light to reach the ground encouraging additional plant growth, which in turn provides food for insects which in turn are food for birds and mammals. In addition, the increased diversity of structure and age benefits biodiversity by maintaining a wider range of ecological niches than a single age woodland structure.

With coppicing, depending on the intended use of the crop, and the species of tree, this rotation period could be anywhere between 4 and 30 years. An area of managed woodland is divided into areas called ‘coups’ in which all the ‘stools’ will be cut at the same time providing a crop of similar sized wood. This method of woodland management was once prevalent across the country, but as mass production and synthetic materials replaced craftsmanship and wood the need for the materials became less and with it the wide spread management of woodlands.

Hundreds of years ago coppice managed woodlands would have provided building materials for pretty much all dwellings. It would also have provided wood to burn, charcoal to forge metal tools, the handles for those tools and material to build furniture and fencing. 

These days many of these uses remain only in historic demonstrations but in Bushcraft these materials can still be useful, for example in shelter building, tool making, basket making, a variety of green wood working projects and many others.  

Tree and plant identification are undoubtedly keys skills for anyone involved in bushcraft who needs to recognise useful species. Identifying trees which could be coppiced successfully is very important – Hazel, Elm, Ash and Oak are all good coppicing species. Although not very nice to work with themselvs, the brash from Blackthorn and Hawthorn can be used very effectively to make dead hedges to mark out the coups, or if located appropriately laid in place to create a similar barrier. In addition, both burn very well!

Plant identification skills are also useful for conservation aims – identifying ground flora species allows us to record ancient woodland indicator species including Bluebell and Dogs Mercury, both found in many woods, which is a good indicator of the richness of the woodland. This will in turn allow us to monitor for specific species which rely on some of these plants – both trees and ground flora.