About Stansted Forest

For hundreds of years sweet chestnut has been traditionally managed in Stansted Forest.
At one time hundreds of thousands of fencing stakes were produced every year and gave employment to numerous coppice workers. The areas to be worked would be cut in the winter when the sap is down. In spring dozens of new shoots appear around the base of the cut stools and grow vigorously sometimes to six or seven feet in the first season. The area would be ready to cut again fourteen to sixteen years later.
 

 " A perfect example of modern woodland management, I would say" Richard Williamson, 2011

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Conservation and wildlife

 Alongside commercial benefits, an attractive patchwork of different ages of coppice builds up to create a pleasing subtly changing landscape.Wildlife benefits as spring flowers such as wood anemone and primrose bloom in profusion on newly cut areas and foxgloves make a show in years two and three. Butterflies and other insects thrive in the newly created glades and birds find nest sites as the re-growth reaches a thicket stage. 

Later when the canopy closes and less light reaches the woodland floor fungi find the damp conditions more suitable and specialist insects make use of the area.