For thousands of years coppicing, the practice of cutting trees to ground level to promote vigorous re-growth, has been a common way of managing woodlands in Britain. As well as providing an income from the trees there are wildlife benefits too. In the first few years after coppicing there is an explosion of wildflowers growing on the woodland floor providing habitat for other wildlife. Substantial areas of woodland were worked in order to provide regular supplies of a wide range of products which were used for fuel and hurdle making to name but a few, but as the demand for these products declined many copses were abandoned or converted to non-native plantation forestry. However, in recent times greater environmental concerns and changing lifestyles has lead to a revival of interest in woodland crafts, with many people interested in learning these traditional skills.

Charing Alderbed Meadow, a ‘Local Wildlife Site’, is home to semi-ancient woodland which has been managed by coppicing and will play host to a woodland workshop this Saturday (23^rd) in an event organised by the Kentish Stour Countryside Project with funding from the Charing Playing Fields Association. This free workshop will run from 10am to 2pm and woodsmen will demonstrate traditional woodland skills such as bowl and spoon carving and hurdle making. Voluntary Conservation Officer for the Kentish Stour Countryside Project, Craig Edwards said "Everybody is welcome to what is looking like a very exciting day where people can learn how wood has been traditionally worked for hundreds of years"