Black Locust Coppicing project and blog post

I have started documenting the coppicing of Black Locusts on the property. About 6 or 7 years ago we planted 300 seedlings in a few different locations, and there are native stands in some locations as well.

Black Locust Coppicing

I hope to be able to reach those of us who want more details about the process at a micro level and show the progress of a single trunk as well as the whole stand.

Part 2, firewood is cut, stacked, and measured! I go into the details and hypotheses in the post:

Black Locust Coppicing, Part 2

Please keep updating on this project, Ezra, especially the regrowth and yields.
I'm hoping to coppice at least 1/2 acre of self-seeded black locust.

Please do keep updating this as things progress!  I've got several black locust going on my small property as well that I'm considering coppicing.  

After surveying Plot's B and C which are the ones that were planted 6-7 years ago, I have decided not to harvest anything from them this year, as the few that are of harvestable size are just beginning to set good amounts of seed. These areas do not have any native Black Locusts present, so I will leave these as permanent standards and wait possibly a few more years to start harvesting from these sections.

My next update will be as soon as the sprouts are large enough to count and photograph, somewhere around 2 months from now I suspect.

Sprouts are just starting to break through the bark on the Black Locust stumps. I'm going to give it another few weeks before documenting to make sure that every stump has a chance to represent itself fairly. At this point only 25% of stumps have any visible sprouts.

Black Locust Coppicing, Part 3

Part 3 of the Black Locust Coppicing project is posted. It's not much, just counting sprouts per stump. I was slightly surprised to find no obvious correlation between number of sprouts per trunk and trunk age or diameter, but in retrospect I don't think the sheer number of sprouts is really where the correlation will be. It would make more sense that it would be in total above-ground biomass production. I hope to see that when taking measurements in the fall. At this stage in mid-May, most sprouts are still very small, some still barely poking through the bark, and some are up to 2 feet tall already. That also seems to have no correlation with any other characteristics.

I will be thinning down to something like 3 sprouts per trunk during summer, not sure if that really needs a post but I guess I can get a better count on total sprouts since they will be up high enough to see.

I have been doing something similar, though not documenting it at all. I live in a similar zone and region to you, and had a few mature black locusts on the property when I moved here about 10 years ago. I felled two of them for firewood, and then neglected that part of the yard the following summer. Dozens of sprouts came up all over the area. There were multiple stems sprouting out of the stumps, but the main growth came from the roots all over the place. That was ten years ago. Now I have probably twenty trees over 4 inches in diameter, and another 50 trees that are slightly less than that.

This past winter I felled seven or eight of the biggest ones, about five or six inches diameter, and now there are plenty of stems poking up everywhere. The total area this is taking up is probably a 50X50 foot square, but it is thick with locusts.

I believe your optimism about getting higher yields in the future is accurate. It parallels my experience.

T S Rodriguez wrote:I have been doing something similar, though not documenting it at all. I live in a similar zone and region to you, and had a few mature black locusts on the property when I moved here about 10 years ago. I felled two of them for firewood, and then neglected that part of the yard the following summer. Dozens of sprouts came up all over the area. There were multiple stems sprouting out of the stumps, but the main growth came from the roots all over the place. That was ten years ago. Now I have probably twenty trees over 4 inches in diameter, and another 50 trees that are slightly less than that.

This past winter I felled seven or eight of the biggest ones, about five or six inches diameter, and now there are plenty of stems poking up everywhere. The total area this is taking up is probably a 50X50 foot square, but it is thick with locusts.

I believe your optimism about getting higher yields in the future is accurate. It parallels my experience.

Mine is a very similar story. I cut two 75+-year old Black Locusts about 12-13 years ago. They were 60+ feet tall and close to 36" diameter. The stumps did not sprout at all, but instead the whole yard sprouted the next year from the roots, to a very wide radius, into a thicket that was too dense to walk through. It was amazing. I think a lot of people have had these same experiences, but I don't find much in the way of literature about it so I felt like I should document the process into micro-detail. Mark Krawczyk's book Coppice Agroforestry (wonderful book) and these forums are the best sources of any kind of explanation about what to expect, and considering we all talk about Black Locust as being the miracle tree that it is, I'd like to be able to point to something concrete and visual as to what these trees can do. I know the science says most people prefer a story to a spreadsheet, but for me, data is king.

Do you leave every new stem (water sprout) untouched, or do you remove all but the 3 or so largest ones?  If I coppice, I want 3 new large trunks, not 50 skinnies.

Gary Numan wrote:Do you leave every new stem (water sprout) untouched, or do you remove all but the 3 or so largest ones?  If I coppice, I want 3 new large trunks, not 50 skinnies.

I was just finishing up a response and got this. Yes I do intend to thin each stump to maybe 3 sprouts, more or less. For myself I do want skinnies so that I can continue to process with hand tools only. I have no desire to use a chainsaw any more than is necessary, and after about 4-5" diameter, handsaws become tedious work. I feel that maybe 3 sprouts per trunk will be right in that range that I'm looking for.

Again, thank you for doing this and sharing your updates here!  I think producing this detailed sort of documentation is going to be a valuable resource for many.

David Huang wrote:Again, thank you for doing this and sharing your updates here!  I think producing this detailed sort of documentation is going to be a valuable resource for many.

I'm happy to feel like it's going to be useful. To drive this point home - the dearth of information available on this topic - if you google any combination of the words 'black locust coppicing' or 'black locust coppice' (and I mean any combination) or even just 'locust coppice', my tiny little blog that has averaged about 1 view per day for the last decade is in the top 5 results. I'm staggered by this because it proves my point that if my itsy bitsy blog is ranking that high for this search, there needs to be more documentation available.

To anyone who is having trouble finding enough information about any topic, here's the lesson: document it yourself. There are others out there who want to know what you want to know.

Black Locust Coppicing, Part 4

Mid-summer update on the coppice - everything going well, some deer damage (which I have always found strange given the thorniness of Black Locust).

Black Locust Coppicing, Part 5

Part 5, thinning sprouts one year after initial coppice. Seems to be going very well from my point of view. The thinnings won't be useful for much besides a brush pile or possibly a small experimental hugel bed to see definitively whether or not young sapwood will rot. Some of the larger thinnings will be location stakes for small grapes, roses, etc. to prevent trampling and also to prevent purchasing more t-posts just for silly things like that. I thinned to 2 sprouts on most stools, as it seemed that each stool had 2 that were far and away larger and healthier than the rest. Given the first year's growth, and looking at the growth rings from the cut stumps, I'm optimistic that my coppicing interval may be as few as 4 years apart. Time will tell!

Again, thank you for doing this and sharing your findings!

Hello! Thank you for taking on this project! I'm a new member here due to your postings, and I just finished planting 400 seedlings today on my property. Please keep the updates coming, I'm fully invested!

Welcome to Permies!

Bruno Sumner wrote:Hello! Thank you for taking on this project! I'm a new member here due to your postings, and I just finished planting 400 seedlings today on my property. Please keep the updates coming, I'm fully invested!

Wow! Welcome to Permies, you may have found your people!

In the coming weeks I will update on the planted stands (8 years now I think, I will confirm before I post on those), which I am coppicing from starting this year. All my posts so far have been on Plot A which is a native self-seeded stand downhill from where I cut the large old trees down (I think 15 years ago now - time is hard). There are numerous 100+ year old black locusts around that area which I have no interest in felling, so the self-seeded stand grows larger every year and will yield another plot in another couple years.

Black Locust Coppicing - Part 6

Part 6 - General update for late summer 2024. For such a horrendous agricultural year, this project is going swimmingly. All good things. I did leave a couple things out to add into another post this fall, including - a few cut poles from Plot A, beginning to cut poles from Plot B. I think for now I will continue to just cut up poles into firewood for ease of measurement and use, but at some point I will want to save some poles for use as poles. If anyone could help me figure out how to approximate cords of wood from poles on the ground to maintain data integrity I would appreciate that.

Currently my best guess on how to estimate cords of wood with poles on the ground is to:

-Have at least 12 poles to be able to make a decent measurable stack
-Limb them into straight poles
-Arrange them in an alternating fashion - one with thick end to the right, one with thick end to the left etc. - so that they form a fairly measurable rectangle
-Continue stacking in this fashion, stopping at a number of poles that makes the nicest rectangular prism
-Measure said rectangular prism so that I can use cubic inches to approximate cords

Anyone with anything to add or different to try?

There's this method for estimating volume for individual trees:
https://www.montana.edu/extension/forestry/projectlearningtree/activitybooklets/Estimating%20Individual%20Tree%20Volume.pdf
But your method will probably be easier as you'll have a lot of smaller trunks rather than a few big trunks.

Black Locust Coppicing, Part 7

I bucked the few stems that I coppiced last year and laid on the ground all year. Fungus occurred within a year on the smaller twigs! I think the brush could be used for hugels based on this result.

Thanks for the update, Ezra! It's coming along nicely.

I have been on permies for many years but I rarely post.

Thanks for this info. I am very interested in starting some coppice yards. I want to do black locust for firewood, willow for weaving projects, Hazel for some wood projects and mulberry for sheep/goat fodder.  Please keep the info coming it is much appreciated.

Good work, looking forward to the ongoing results!  I’ve planted out 40 or so black locust trees in my pasture with plans to pollard them and use the trimmings for animal fodder during dry spells, with any leftover woody material to be used for biochar production.  Haven’t quite figured out the best pruning method yet, given locust’s propensity for sucker growth.  

I’ve got some older trees I have pruned for nice posts.  A manual pole saw has worked well for pruning, but I have to be careful with the cuts not to strip the bark off the tree when cutting through the branch.

Gary Numan wrote:Do you leave every new stem (water sprout) untouched, or do you remove all but the 3 or so largest ones?  If I coppice, I want 3 new large trunks, not 50 skinnies.

My understanding is that it's not just "if" but also "when". I recently read that Black Locust doesn't have a strong tendency to "grow straight". If one's goal is straight wood for posts or roundwood timber framing, it would be good to have the stand quite dense during the early growth, and thin later.

Of course, then you've got a bunch of skinnies thinned out to leave those 3 key trunks than need to be put to use. Coppice Agroforestry
( https://permies.com/wiki/203188/Coppice-Agroforestry-Tending-Trees-Product - for reviews) has a chapter on all the different uses coppice products were used for traditionally.

Coppicing for firewood was considered one of the lowest standard uses, reserved for damaged or poorly shaped wood that had no higher purpose.

Thank you Ezra for documenting your experiences with this process!

There will be more updates to come, I have just been having a rough go for the past couple months and wasn't able to coppice as much as I wanted to this year, as well as haven't really felt up to making blog posts just yet. Thankfully due to the nature of trees all those stems will just be a little bigger next year so I haven't lost anything in the wait.

Bob - The four you listed are also planted here, the locusts are by far the first to come to coppicing size (we do have some native mulberries here that I wouldn't dare coppice because they have the sweetest berries). I don't have enough of the others for much except small crafts, the focus was on the locusts to reforest and provide bulk fuel. It's good to hear someone else had the same thoughts in planning!

Gray - For overhead pruning of larger branches it's generally recommended to do a 3 cut drop. One small (less than 1/3 diameter) undercut about 4-6" away from the final desired cut, then cut the limb off by cutting through about 1-2" further from the trunk than the undercut, then a cleaning cut as close as you can comfortably get to the branch collar without damaging it. This way when you drop the branch it drops straight down rather than hinging and swinging, and the cleaning cut has almost no weight on it so it can come off cleanly without ripping bark.

Jay -  Although I know fuel is the lowest end use of wood by quite a few measures - profitability, lifespan, usability, usefulness, etc. - it is the highest on the survival priority list. Before I can think about using coppice for higher uses I have to take care of my basic human needs first, hence this project. I've been at this self-sufficiency journey for almost 20 years now and I'm still so early in the process it might be disheartening if I wasn't so bent on continuing the path. I will enjoy the time when the woodshed is full and I still have poles left over, but that time isn't coming any time soon. Thanks for everything you do here and thanks for your input on my work! Truly appreciated.