Creating a Polewood Economy
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- Опубліковано 2 січ 2025
- There's money to be made in them thar hills, by coppicing wood!
Learn all about creating a polewood economy with Mark Krawczyk.
Purchase the book here: www.valleyclayplain.com/product/coppice-agroforestry-book/
Sign up for Mark's online Coppice Agroforestry Course here - www.regenerati...
I discovered coppicing by accident. I was clearing a part of my property and cut down a lot of small pecan, privet hedge, bradford pear, and mimosa trees. My life got directed elsewhere for a while and by the time I circled back to that field, I discovered that nearly every tree that I had cut down had survived and pulled a hydra on me (cut off one head and several more take its place). It was not what I wanted, but it was useful none the less since I run a small wood stove for heat and material between 4'" to 6" diameter is ideal for it. Now, as long as I manage it properly, I can have an endless supply of firewood to keep me warm in the winters.
That's really cool. A hidden resource you did not know you had!
awesome stuff bro! Just remember, it would be good for you to destroy the privet and bradford pear, even the mimosa, because they are all extremely invasive in North America, I'm just saying this as a guy who learned his lesson from cutting the invasive caragana on my neighbor's property her in Alberta that invasive shrubs/trees are hell to control over time if they do that hydra thing you mentioned. I intensely recommend you root-rip and replace all the non-natives with some pecan and any other native shrub of your choosing, but for permaculture reasons I suggest staghorn sumac. Much love from a permaculture enjoyer in Alberta!
you seem to have a game plan to keep the invasive from doing their thing, just felt like warning you of the coom-scented plague that is the Bradford pear tree. You must be aware though, because how co=ould you NOT smell that? lol
That is so cool!
@@noahrafter-lanigan2409I love your suggestion of staghorn sumac.
The local council cut down a beautiful locust tree beside our house. In few months it's taken its revenge making dozens of stalks to grow everywhere, up to 15 metres from the stump. Seeing how fast they grow made me seeing them as a sustainable way to obtain poles for me to use in the veggie garden.
Also, I am starting a living fence driving willow branches into the ground, which develop roots and leaves in few months.
as a kid I used to make palisade forts with polewood. also woven polewood rafters inside multi story igloos on top of the snow piles that the adults would leave behind after clearing the roads. piles would compact enough that I could cut blocks from inside and hollow out the hill to make towers on top but it got to high so I made pole wood ladders and floors inside and snow block battlements and spiral staircases around the parameter. the drawbridge was sketchy. old wheel rim pulleys with (you guessed it) polewood axles and decommissioned broom handles. would defend these fortresses with polewood spears and bows strung with discarded baler twine.
Great share! Thanks.
I want to see this!
Excellent charcoal material and natural hedge barrier for wild live and windbreakers, next to that the redistribution off minerals and natural fertilisers also high seek material for mushroom growers
I coppiced a couple maple trees and they provide all the branches my rabbits can eat. I do it to invasive Mimosa trees (silk trees) and they send out a new 6 to 10 foot stalk each year that I use as kindling and for small cooking fires.
Am looking for mimosa trees in my country. I'm interested in making that anti-depressant tea.
@TaLeng2023 Indeed the Mimosa flowers are known for that relaxing tea. But you want to test a small bit first because it seems that about 25% of people get a reaction in their throat from drinking it. Not deadly or harmful, just very unpleasant.
@@thatguychris5654 I think I saw FeralForaging discuss that. Thanks for reminding me. Am yet to find a mimosa tree tho. I see trees with similar leaves and flowers on the streets but the trunk seem different.
I just returned from Rwanda where Eucalyptus is literally coppiced for profit across the nation. I asked many people about coppicing and they had never heard of the term. Interestingly, the division of who is allowed to harvest what (large trunks vs. small trunks, vs branches and dead growth followed what your book said about England circa 1600. I also saw several folks hand milling wood for construction. Primary uses was firewood, building materials, and charcoal. The roofing in the country is pitched like it's a snowy environment and everyone of them were made from roundwood
That's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing. There's a market for coppice wood, people just may not know it yet.
@@permaculture_institute_na I'm from South Africa, there is a big market for 75mm to 125mm (3" to 5") fencing posts, and coppicing eucalyptus is big business. I've got a small timber lot, where we use coppicing for fencing poles
Pitched roof to shed rain??
So glad to see that this exists in the USA! Thank you so much for this posting.
Our pleasure! Hopefully we'll see a resurgence
I made my greenhouse frame and porch railings with popular saplings, they grow like weeds on my property so may as well use them.
Definitely! Use what you have.
Very educational, I've picked up a trailer of buckthorne timber and found it to be incredibly hardwood and I used it for garden bed liners and walkways and TP forms, it was free and delivered, a custom logger could deweed acreage and retrieve buckthorne poles of any size for free & getting paid for it, beautiful wood also
Wow, never thought of buckthorn that way! It's strong wood for sure and thorny, but I can see how it has many uses in the garden. Great work!
I just got the idea to use ghetto palms growing around my house to make spindles and stool legs. Chopping a round tenon into it isn't difficult. I will see how it goes. I'm making a 3 legged shave horse with it.
Awesome! Feel free to email us your finished product and we can share it. Info@pina.in
I like working with Tree of Paradise as well. The young saplings definitely have a smell that takes getting used to. It has a wood that dries off white to yellow white when dry. I have made Native American Flutes and Didgeridoos from it for years with excellent results.
Thought this was talking about actual palms for a minute and I thought you were crazy
It warms my heart to see this moving back into public awareness.
What Americans MUST do is go after building code to update it to no longer force people to use stick frame or pole frame construction and allow for alternatives like earthen building.
The federal ban on hemp needs to end as well--we can do dimensional lumber with hemp.
...This birds tweeting in the background are pretty clutch.
This person for president.
The necessary input for hemp makes it a tough sell on prime ag land, food should be grown there instead. I'm curious on the output/acre on hemp vs. Douglas-fir over the typical time scale, necessary inputs/sprays, animal disturbance, soil health etc.
With our VAST forest lands that are largely uninhibited, growing and using lumber is a far better choice imo.
But, I could be proven wrong and would change my mind
@@blakegeissbuhler
Lumber is an awful choice. Lowland rainforests should never be logged. Industrial farming is also horrid and inefficient. The only reason lumber is a primary building material is because of building code and "tradition."
Forests are not a monoculture crop. Doug fir is not renewable--it takes over 100 years for a tree to even enter the "mature" phase and by definition that isn't renewable--they log it at 50 to 80 year intervals which is slowly killing the soil and mycelial substrate.
The whole point of hemp is that it doesn't require "prime land" and most everything people think they know about logging is logging cartel propaganda--not reality.
@@TurboLoveTrainbuilding code isn't the driver..... it's insurance firms & mortgage industry. Both pressure state insurance boards to accept a set of building code guidelines they helped drawup
@@willbass2869
I agree--building code is the tool used--but it's an easier target than insurance and the banks for most people to understand. You don't get elected on the west coast unless the timber (and mining) lobby don't approve your environmental policy.
Twenty-five years ago I made a donation to the Arbor Day foundation, and they sent me ten wet twigs in a bag of 'mystery trees'. I planted them and maintained them carefully over the years. Two of them are Black Locust that have become coppiced somewhat by accident. My wife hated mowing around them because the thorns are insanely sharp, so when a hurricane damaged the young trees I cut them down while I was doing some other storm damage clean-up. However, because of the thorns, and time, I never got around to completely removing the trunk. Before I knew it I had rapid new growth of pole wood. I learned from a local custom carpenter that it a particularly strong and rot resistant wood, and so I kept them. Now I am very intrigued by this perma-culture concept, and noticed that one of your example photos did feature this tree variety. You have given me some food for thought.
Excellent! Great observation. Black Locust is one of the best, like top 3, firewood species, too. It's so dang hard, even chainsaws can struggle with it. And those thorns are like WOW. I have used the poles in the garden for pea trellis', or for a single tomato plant to climb up. They look cool popping up here and there in the garden and birds rest on top of the poles, depositing their little nutrient packets below. On the other hand, they can spread out from the roots, so mowing around the base is pretty essential in controlling their growth. Rock on! Thanks for the comment.
@@permaculture_institute_na I have an organic farm in Maine. I focus on waterfowl for their eggs, and make mobile shelters and yards to protect them from predators. Lots of galvanized poles in the beginning. As the years have passed, I have retained poles from tree varieties that needed pruning from growth or storm damage. I dry them out, strip the bark, and utilize them where appropriate. I recently built one end of an outdoor laundry line with a dried 7/8" diameter 8' maple pole to demonstrate to my wife how much weight they will support. I am getting into this a little late in life, but it has become another valuable resource I have learned to utilize around the farm. So much lost knowledge in this post-industrial technological era dystopia of disposable products and cult-consumerism. Thank you so much for your insight and expertise.
Lots of good nuggets here. I love wondering about ways to use bendy poles, they're endlessly useful. My first thought goes to semi-permanent shelter domes and hoop houses. I often wonder about making one from living willow and hanging a tarp
etting below it. That'd have really cool shifting patterns of light on the tarp as the branches blow in the wind. Then come winter the leaves fall off, allowing in more light to warm the space a bit. I bet it would look really cool after some years as the original saplings grow thicker and merge together. I assume I'd be gathering thinner cuttings every year for baskets and trellises, not quite sure how the long term management of this living shelter would go, nothihg but doing it would really teach me.
I like it, I want to make one of my own too.
Look into the Vikings and their use of wood. Instead of straight trunks only, they would seek out or grow trees into the shape needed to make their boats. If done right it leads to a much stronger shape that would also be more rot resistant.
In theory it should be less work than shaping straight boards and beams.
@@swayback7375 That's cool, thanks :)
@@swayback7375 We don't even have to go as far back as the Vikings. In the age of sail it was quite common to peg/stake and tie trees as they grew to have them grow to the shapes that were needed for keels and other awkward pueces for shipbuilding
This really only stopped when steel ships became the more common option!
It seems like Osage Orange would be a good candidate for coppicing. Especially the thornless varieties.
Go for it, that will coppice for sure, Makes a good hard wood
Watching this video, I know what to do with male mulberry trees in my yard. Pollard them. I really want to plant a few next year to try to get some fruit-bearing mulberry bushes. I used to make beer, and buy Michigan-made mead. I always thought mulberry mead or wine would be great and I don't see why there's not a commercial harvest. PINA looks like a great org. I've been taking the Mossy Earth rewilding course, but they're not in North America. Thank you!
That's one of the best way to get mulberries to fruit. Give it a try, I think your mead will be delicious
I’d really like to see the permies say “this is my yield and this is my gross and net from the enterprise” if you want a pole wood economy demonstrate it, or no farmers will ever listen to you.
Those are good points, viable enterprise is what will get people to adopt these practices.
@@permaculture_institute_na I’m not trying to be mean I’m sorry that was so blunt. I have developed a knee jerk reaction I shouldn’t have to permaculture due to some loud voices in my valley I believe are unintentionally dangerous to beginning farmers. I like what you permies are up to, but I think sometimes you all get excited and explain all these systems you are so inspired about before they’re ready. I want to see all these things work, but ultimately farming is expensive and difficult and I think we need to talk about how we make things work financially to help new farmers think on these things cause ultimately very few new farm businesses last 5 years.
We agree. That's what PINA hopes to do. We hope to showcase solutions that have been studied to show others that an alternative is possible.
I love finding and listening to genuine experts in fields I’ve only just begun explore but already glimpse the depth and importance. Thanks for sharing!
We have a lot more experts where that came from. You may want to check out becoming a member of PINA so you can access dozens of conversations like this.
I've got some big leaf maple (acer macrophillum), that has taken to coppicing. Also, red alder (alnus rubra) seems to work, as well, but it's early days.
Most trees don't mind it really
@@permaculture_institute_na well, the firs don't seem to like it 🤣
Bought a GX commercial big Bear log hog BBC82. Processed upto 5”dai into 5”-11” chunk wood and bags it. Had an acre cleared, skidsteer operator took logs for firewood for a pro rated price, $85/hr. Left with a huge burn pile that needs to be processed.
Managing the forest does take work, perhaps thereʻs a better way?
Imagine buying polewood at home depot, instead of bamboo from Asia 6000+ miles away? Hazelwood is amazingly well-adapted to being coppiced, it keeps them living for centuries, if not for millennia!
Imagine that indeed!
Imagine growing bamboo in the states. It's already starting 😁
@@thatguychris5654 maybe in a farm, but bamboo can't be allowed to spread.
@jeffmeyer9319 you have running and clumping styles of bamboo. For ornamental with little effort, clumping is best. Agreed that for a commercial farm, running type is best, like Moso (also HUGE)
@@jeffmeyer9319aren't there bamboos native to the US?
I want to try this as extra fodder for the cows. There’s another term but I can’t think of it!
Tree hay
Look up Mesquite trees. The cattle will eat the babies so you need to protect them as they establish but they will directly add fodder from the seed pods and leaves (Mesquite is technicaly a giant bean) and the roots go VERY deep and pump nutrients up to the surface so the Mesquite will also fertilize the understory grasses--and provide shade.
Mesquite used to be much more common in north America but the grazing animals ate all the seedlings with prejudice.
Thanks for sharing , Polewood for crafting.
Our pleasure! Thanks to Mark!
Good for fuel also in rock mass heaters, good size for Biochar
Perfect for Rocket stoves and biochar
I wish there's info on what trees can be coppiced in my tropical country but couldn't find any.
Email me at Homesteadinhawaii@gmail.com, I live in the tropics and can help, my youtube channel under the same name has a lot of this content, almost any nitrogen fixer or junk tree can be coppiced for starters.
Roland Gunderson (forgive the spelling) wrote a book, round wood design.
Not a bad read.
That's a good book. Thanks for the suggestion
Roald Gundersen
This is very interesting. How could I find potential buyers ahead of time here in the Monterrey Bay Area?
Thanks!!
Wondering if Yuapon can be utilized like this.
Itʻs more of a shrub but there should be no reason why not, youʻll just get smaller branches
I did not expect Ryan Reynolds to be narrating.
It's an older, wiser Ryan Reynolds.
😂
@@TurboLoveTrainperfect! How funny are you folk in the permaculture world???😂
Bradford pears are a rather common invasive tree in the us. I feel like they would be great for this. They can be used rootstock for more desirable pears, for fire/smoking wood etc .
You can make/buy a lathe for you pole needs or you can grow pole wood
True
How well would this work w Popple(poplar)?
You should not coppice People, even if they’re popular.
Love it!!
It should work just fine, why not try one and see how it goes?
works well with yellow poplar aka tuliip poplar. I thinned one down to a single leader and got a 14’ pole in less than a year. They grow fast.
Pollard instead of coppicing, then run stock underneath. Beef under trees.
Could you possibly rephrase that for civilian consumption? I'm familiar with some of the terms but others are not, thank you
@GreenCanvasInteriorscape Coppicing is cutting a tree down, and letting the stump produce lots of new shoots. Good for producing a supply of poles or firewood. Pollarding is similar but the tree is cut higher up, leaving a very tall stump.. The new shoots are too high for stock to be able to eat them. Also useful for producing a shaded area with the ground fairly unobstructed.
Are you based near Santa Rosa?
We are North America wide, the speaker in the video is from Vermont, we do know so folks in Santa rosa too if you need connections
@@permaculture_institute_na that’s great. I have family nearby with a plot of land. Definitely will be in touch when I get a chance to visit and grow some stuff over there
@@permaculture_institute_na thank you
I wonder how this would work with native persimmons.
Bet it would work
If anyone in Canada wants a good tree for this try Manitoba maple.
Thanks for the tip!
Manitoba maple is aka box elder.
Live fence, coppiced top, could be a good privacy fence haha
Definitely
Great stuff
Highly recommend Mark’s book
Mark is a wealth of knowledge
Nice. Here in the UK we have a remnant of a coppice tradition that was probably the dominant use of woodlands across the lowlands of England and Wales and was well established in Scotland and Ireland and dates back at least 3000 years. Unfortunately since World War 1, the overwhelming emphasis on managing woodlands has been on 'forestry' and coppiced ancient woodlands are still losing biodiversity as the original coppice loses more and more stools as canopy cover expands. Hazel features strongly in traditional coppicing with other species like oak (Quercus robur and Q. petraea often for tanbark as well as small timber knees and poles), sweet chestnut (still viable), alder and ash. Oak, ash, crack willow, poplar, hornbeam got pollarded and stob-cuts were a thing, especially on field and woodland boundaries. Osiers for basketry are still kind of viable and are different.
The knobbly end of a pollard trunk (and the trunk) was traditionally called the 'bolling'.
It's sad that such time honored traditions so easily get put on the wayside but here we are, aiming to reintroduce them to make them viable again
We no longer need lots of firewood for cooking, so timber for construction is now more useful.
@@johnbaker1256 I rarely cook on wood, but all my heating is wood. I'm in a 1950s semi-bungalow on an ex-Council Estate and fly below the radar 'cos I use properly prepared fuelwood. This comes from 50-year derelict hazel coppice in an ancient woodland, being restored to rotation. Vids on my channel if you're interested.
I prefer pollarding -lol.
Well, when your name ends in Pollard, it makes sense
I see what you did there
Coppicing is amazing for many reasons, but remember that sometimes "solutions looking for a problem" is not the right logic.
I agree, but I'd love to know how you think that applies to this video
I'm not sure that's what's happening here, can you expand.
It's the thing to do.
that it is
Huh. Interesting.
It's something that's worth looking into deeper
"And uh.. uh.. umm. uah, uh, umm.. like uhh umm.."
Sometimes you need to gather your thoughts
Nothing new under the sun.
No it is not, but sometimes people need to be reminded
Coppicing has been around since the Bronze Age, possibly even further back than that.
yeah. U just proved that ignorance is valued more that inspiration i
How so?
Booss ? Whuuut?