Mystery woodsman - hunt goes on

CAPTAIN Coppice – Suffolk's nature-loving superhero – is today facing legal action if he fails to come out of hiding.

Pleas to get the phantom woodchopper to reveal his identity have proved fruitless and the face behind the mystery remains unknown.

There has been just one clue to who he is – a man in his 50s accompanied by a black labrador dog –after he was spotted by a walker.

The captain became the subject of a hunt yesterday after Mid Suffolk district council revealed someone had been secretly cutting down trees at Needham Lake nature reserve

He has struck twice – anonymously helping countryside staff by chopping down trees and leaving the branches in a tidy pile.

The captain is doing a professional job, only cutting down trees which need to be felled and leaving no signs of malice.

The trees were between ten and 15 years old and approximately 25ft high.

Dave Hughes, the council's countryside officer, said the whole council is baffled Captain Coppice's work and is desperate to track him down.

He said: "We have just one clue, that he is a man in his 50s who was accompanied by a black labrador. And we can tell he is using a pruning saw.

"Someone came forward to say they had spoken to him and he said the trees had suckered and needed thinning or they would take over the site.

"He obviously knows what he's doing and doing it for the right reasons.

"Whether we take legal action depends on the response.

"We don't want people to think it's justified to go to any site and do work without it being approved but it's a last resort.

"If he doesn't come forward, sooner or later we will find him.

"What we really want is to work with him."

Are you Captin Coppice? Do you know Captain Coppice's real identity? Has he struck elsewhere? Contact The Evening Star newsdesk on 01473 324789.