Click here to download the episode.
My guest for this episode is Mark Krawczyk, a permaculture designer and teacher from Vermont. He is also the co-author, along with Dave Jacke, of forthcoming book Coppice Agroforestry – Perennial Silviculture for the 21st Century.
Mark and I sat down and talked about keyline design and coppice work. Along the way we touch on three species he recommends experimenting with for a beginner to coppice, as well as his tool kit for this woods work. We also spoke about what species coppice well, including both deciduous hardwoods and some evergreens. This is an episode that contains a number of resources, which you’ll find links to below.
If you find value in what you hear in this episode, or any of those in the archives, please make a contribution to the show. You can find out how at www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/support.
There’s quite a lot in this episode for anyone looking to implement keyline design or work the woods. If you’re interested in getting started below you’ll find links to the specialty stores Mark mentioned for Yeoman plow shanks, as well as places in the U.S. and abroad where you can find the various coppice species, as well as some of the specialty tools, including the Woodsman’s Pal. Also, one of my preferred vendors for hand tools, Lee Valley, happens to carry a billhook and froe. I have both on order and will review them when they arrive.
You can reach Mark via email: coppiceagroforestry@gmail.com and learn more about his work at:
Keyline Vermont
Coppice Agroforestry
Three Species for a Beginning Coppicer
- Basswood / Linden (Tilia americana)
- Willow (Salix L.)
- Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)
Mark’s Recommended Tools for Coppice Work
- Chainsaw
- Bowsaw
- Billhook
- Sledgehammer and Wedges
- Froe
Evergreens that Coppice
- Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)
- Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria araucana)
- Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida)
- Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum)
- Pinyon Pine (Spp. unknown)
- Juniper (Spp. unknown)
Resources:
Keyline Design Plow Shanks
Coppice Species Sources
Willow
- Dunbar Gardens (USA)
- Bluestem Nursery (Canada)
- Willow Works (UK)
Basswood / Linden
- Cold Stream Farm (USA)
- Barcham (UK)
Black Locust
Specialty Tools for Coppice
Morris Tools (ToolNut.co.uk)
Woodsman’s Pal
Lee Valley Bill hook
Lee Valley Froe
Are you practicing keyline design? Working the woods? Have questions after this episode? Let me know:
E-mail: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Phone: 717-827-6266
Facebook: Facebook.com/ThePermaculturePodcast
Twitter: @permaculturecst
The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
(Episode: MarkKrawczyk)
[…] Keyline Design and Coppice Agroforestry with Mark Krawczyk […]
[…] Permaculture Podcast interviews Mark Krawczyk on keyline design and coppice work. The blog post lists recommended tools and species […]
Great info on a very useful topic. Your notes with each podcast add tremendously to their value to your listeners – in this case the links to some sources for the trees mentioned in the interview are particularly valuable.
On rolling the ground down after use of the keyline plow to make it easier for farmers to run their hay mowers over the ground – this reminds me of a problem that has arisen from the shift away from sickle-bar hay mowers to disk mowers: the widespread practice of mowing hay too close to the ground. Hitting a rock or rise in the ground with a sickle-bar mower would require stopping to repair the mower (usually a quick fix), but the disk mowers, as the joke goes, allows farmers to ‘level the field’ as they mow – allowing the grasses to be cut very close to the ground without the risk of time-consuming stops. As most interested in eco-farming methods know, this close cutting can result in dieback of some of the grasses in the hayfield, and will SIGNIFICANTLY increase the amount of time it takes for the field to recover and be ready to harvest again.
Due to costs of machinery, fuel, and time, many farmers understandably aim to gather the most volume of hay per pass over each field, but this practice is much harder on the ecology of the hayfield, and reduces quality of the hay produced.
So – maybe one solution on hayfields that have been ‘keylined’ is to raise the mowing height!
It gets much colder in New England, USA than in merry olde England – but there is a tradition in New England of farming in the summer (with an empasis on pastoralism, including making hay for winter), logging in winter, and sugaring in the early spring.
Logging in winter in this high-rainfall area minimizes damage to soils, and to other vegetation, including trees not being harvested.