Officers soundly managed area of woodland (5)
I believe the answer is:
copse
'officers soundly managed area of woodland' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'officers soundly' is the wordplay.
'officers' becomes 'cops' (cop is a kind of officer).
'soundly' becomes 'e' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cops'+'e'='COPSE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for copse that I've seen before include "Dense thicket of trees" , "Harvested woodland" , "Clump of small trees for regular cropping" , "Small thicket" , "Dense growth of shrubs or trees" .)