How much land should be planted to create a coppice forest in ESL?
Initial research showed two scales of coppice forestry. The small scale is more labor intensive, and the crop is used in specialty products (charcoal, tent or plant stakes, other small wood products). The large scale requires an industrial approach to establishing, managing and harvesting the forest in order to achieve the level of productivity for economically viable energy production. Large scale, monocultural (single tree species) coppice forests are only now being evaluated; the viability of this industrial scale is dependent on successfully addressing concerns about weed control (weeds compete with the trees for critical nutrients and have a serious impact on tree growth) and disease control. Both scales of wood forestry could be evaluated; smaller areas (15 acres) could be developed for sourcing a specialty product such as charcoal, while larger areas (60 acres) could be managed for fuel source.
