Sweet Chestnut is a great Coppice Tree

The featured species of the month is Sweet Chestnut or European Chestnut. Similar of course to the blighted American Chestnut, but the Sweet variety flourishes in the UK and Europe and is often lauded for exterior cladding and for all manner of bushcraft work. The Chestnut is also a prime species for Coppice Forestry and I have a discussion about that silvicultural practice too.  In fact I talk about the differences between Coppicing, Pollarding, and the Japanese slightly similar Daisugi technique.

I also take a field trip to Pittsburgh to look at the last drive-able wooden paved street.  I talk about the Nicholson Paver and wonder about its application to modern landscape architecture.  Certainly our technology has improved to create a better wooden cobble and perhaps not a street for driving but for pedestrian malls or even park paths.