Editing Coppicing (section)

== Wildlife ==
[[File:Ancient coppice of a sweet chestnut DSCF0322.JPG|thumb|Overstood [[sweet chestnut]] coppice stool, [[Banstead|Banstead Woods]], Surrey]]

Coppice management favours a range of wildlife, often of species adapted to open woodland.<ref name="JNCC">{{cite web|last1=Fuller|first1=R J|last2=Warren|first2=M S|title=Coppiced woodlands: their management for wildlife|url=http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/pubs93_Coppicedwoodlands.pdf|website=JNCC|access-date=6 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110909230430/http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/pubs93_Coppicedwoodlands.pdf |archive-date=9 September 2011}}</ref> After cutting, the increased light allows existing woodland-floor vegetation such as [[Common bluebell|bluebell]], [[anemone]] and [[primula vulgaris|primrose]] to grow vigorously. Often [[bramble]]s grow around the stools, encouraging insects, or various small [[mammal]]s that can use the brambles as protection from larger predators. Woodpiles (if left in the coppice) encourage insects such as [[beetle]]s to come into an area. The open area is then colonised by many animals such as [[nightingale]], [[European nightjar]] and [[Argynnini|fritillary butterflies]]. As the coup grows, the canopy closes and it becomes unsuitable for these animals again{{em dash}}but in an actively managed coppice there is always another recently cut coup nearby, and the populations therefore move around, following the coppice management.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

However, most British coppices have not been managed in this way for many decades.<ref name="JNCC" /> The coppice stems have grown tall (the coppice is said to be ''overstood''), forming a heavily shaded woodland of many closely spaced stems with little ground vegetation. The open-woodland animals survive in small numbers along woodland rides or not at all, and many of these once-common species have become rare. Overstood coppice is a habitat of relatively low [[biodiversity]]{{em dash}}it does not support the open-woodland species, but neither does it support many of the characteristic species of [[High forest (woodland)|high forest]], because it lacks many high-forest features such as substantial dead-wood, clearings and stems of varied ages. Suitable conservation management of these abandoned coppices may be to restart coppice management, or in some cases it may be more appropriate to use singling and selective clearance to establish a high-forest structure.{{cn|date=June 2024}}