Black Locust Coppicing, Part 6

Disclaimer: Outside of its native range (in and around the Appalachian Mountain range in Eastern North America) Black Locust – Robinia Pseudoacacia – can become invasive. It is a pioneer species meant to recolonize disturbed ground and compete with grass. If you are outside of its native range please proceed with caution with this species, or consider using a species native to your area that fills the same niche.

Black Locust Coppicing – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, …, Part 7

It is now late summer of 2024, the coppicing project has yet to complete two years of growth, and I already have 1 stem (headline picture) which I am very seriously considering taking this winter. My goal with this project is to maintain a strict hand-tools only harvesting method, and anything much beyond 3″ diameter starts to become burdensome to that goal. This thickness of the base allows for a few decent split-log sized pieces as well as a gradient of sizes down to kindling twigs, without ever having to buck large rounds or split anything. Most of the stems are not close to this and will take at least another year or two to be of useful size, but they are progressing at a pace that would seem to put the average stem harvest at 4 years from coppicing. My initial thought had been that I would be harvesting on a 5-8 year rotation, and as of now it seems it may be closer to 3-5 years.

This project has been a light in the dark, as this year’s weather proved to be worse than the last. If you recall I had written that local farmers had despaired that last year was the worst year in living memory. Now we have broken that record in the very next year. The majority of days since June have been over 90F, with little to no rain. I never even began to irrigate from the pond this year, as the level had already been quickly going down by the time I even considered it. This year was the first year since my gardening journey began 18 years ago that I had a complete 100% failure of Butternut Squash! A true tragedy. Through all this, the locusts just chugged along, not seeming bothered by it one bit. Some of the larger seedlings from our intentional plantings have seeds hanging from successful pollination, I am seeing the new seedlings from last year’s seed crop sprouting to a couple feet tall already, and all of the coppiced stools have healthy stands of growing stems. The feeling of cool dappled shade under the stands of locust definitely helped to temper the disappointment of lost garden produce.

The stands of locust have begun to create their own microclimates, and the environment on and around them has begun to respond accordingly. The cooler temperatures and shade underneath them has allowed for better moisture retention in the soil, letting some mushrooms take hold in the leaf and twig detritus. I spotted some locust treehoppers, which I had never seen before, pretending to be thorns on the stems of young trees. Apparently they do very little if any damage to the trees, attract parasitic wasps that feed on their larvae, and also attract ants that try to defend the larvae so that they can harvest their sweet secretions, and all of this is only possible on this particular species of tree in good health. I have not noticed any locust borer beetle presence in the coppiced trees, although I know for a fact that we do have them here. That may be something that only becomes a problem over a period of years, and since I will be on a fast harvest turnaround maybe they won’t be an issue with this management style. Either way my intended use for the majority of the wood will be as fuel, which would be little affected by borer damage.

The stools that are close together have formed a dense mass of sprouts even after having been thinned this past winter. It is very difficult to even take pictures within them, let alone do any work. If planting for production intentionally, a row system would probably be appreciated for ease of travel and harvest within the coppice. I would think 12-16′ spaced rows would leave plenty of room to bring a tractor/wagon/horse between the rows to pick up and haul back all of the wood. I did indeed harvest a few more trees from this plot this year, I will trim them up and have a measurement of them for my next post, as well as introducing Plot C – seedlings planted elsewhere on the property. A couple more pictures before I go (the last couple are an interesting comparison)…