Uploaded April 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
The beavers are still going strong and I noticed that they had started a new small dam near one of the willows I have turned into a very tall coppice or very low pollard (??). They had cut several of the poles they could reach so I decided to harvest the rest before they got them all. It was a beautiful warm day but the water was icy cold from snowmelt.
I decided to take one of the stems from this willow and try and establish another pollard next to the summer pasture shelter for more shade on hot days. Several years ago I had build a temporary shade structure out of live willow poles and they had rooted in on their own. The cows stripped them of live bark so all but one did not survive, but it proved to me how easy it is to root even very large willow cuttings. The process of planting this new pollard is very quick and dirty, I just drive a hole with a shale bar and shove the pointed willow rod into the ground somewhere around 16". I hope to establish the "head" of the pollard at around 6' off the ground, and the rod has two branches forking at that point. If it roots and grows successfully, I will allow those two branches to grow on for the year and then cut them next spring to start the pollard.
The beavers are still going strong and I noticed that they had started a new small dam near one of the willows I have turned into a very tall coppice or very low pollard (??). They had cut several of the poles they could reach so I decided to harvest the rest before they got them all. It was a beautiful warm day but the water was icy cold from snowmelt.
I decided to take one of the stems from this willow and try and establish another pollard next to the summer pasture shelter for more shade on hot days. Several years ago I had build a temporary shade structure out of live willow poles and they had rooted in on their own. The cows stripped them of live bark so all but one did not survive, but it proved to me how easy it is to root even very large willow cuttings. The process of planting this new pollard is very quick and dirty, I just drive a hole with a shale bar and shove the pointed willow rod into the ground somewhere around 16". I hope to establish the "head" of the pollard at around 6' off the ground, and the rod has two branches forking at that point. If it roots and grows successfully, I will allow those two branches to grow on for the year and then cut them next spring to start the pollard.
