CCFG News
Welcome to the CCFG news section. Here we post news items relating to CCFG and any upcoming events. This page will be updated regularly, so please check back from time to time to keep abreast of CCFG news.
NEWS RELEASE (08/12/2011) The Management of Irregular Forests. This new book, first published in France in 2010, is now available in English. The book presents the approach to irregular silviculture developed by a group of leading French foresters and the network of research stands they have developed to monitor this type of silviculture. The network was established twenty years ago and has now collected data over fifteen years that detail the biological, economic and environmental development of stands spanning the range of species mixtures and regions across France. The network has expanded further with research stands in England, Belgium, Luxemburg and Ireland. Five new research stands in Ireland will be set up before the next growing season and plans for further espansion in Wales are underway.
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NEWS RELEASE (07/11/2011) WSAP bowled over by Cee...questration! The Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development with responsibility for forestry in Wales, John Griffiths AM, planted a Welsh oak last Thursday to illustrate the principle of carbon sequestration and the benefit in planting new trees in Wales to capture atmospheric carbon and turn it into useful material for substitution; all this being done simply by photosynthesis using the sun’s energy.
The occasion was one of the three annual meetings of the Woodland Strategy Advisory Panel (WSAP) where our chairman, Phil Morgan, represents the group.
Water, another important ingredient required to oil the wheels of sequestration, was in such overabundance on the day that the photo opportunities pointed to reasons why our new thirst for sequestration in Wales has taken so much urgency.
What we do with our forests when we have planted the 100,000 hectares we plan to establish over the next 20 years is in question. And even more importantly what do we do with the ones we already have? We already have 303,500 hectares of woods and forests or about 14.3% of the land in Wales. Tree planting has very definite limits; additionality cannot be toped when we have reached the point of optimal land-use potential or equilibrium. There is only a very limited amount of land still to be planted with trees in Wales for additional sequestration so there may be more value in concentrating on improving the established resource. This drive for new planting may be a convenient distraction being promoted by a profession struggling to wean itself from a culture of controlling species and production cycles. Very encouragingly there were real signs during the visit to a move towards integrated systems where we gain benefits from using natural processes. There is definitely a desire to explore ways to adopt close to nature forest principles so that we grow better timber more cost effectively and provide the sort of environmental safeguards that will mitigate the effects of the rains that nearly washed the Minister away, while also increasing niche spaces for wildlife to develop greater complexity and increasing our carbon storage capacities.
The economic benefits to the Welsh economy from an increase in the production of higher quality timber will be as a result of silvicultural change. This has been recognised by the Wales Government and the Forestry Commission in Wales are now embarking on a journey. It is clearly obvious that they are not used to growing trees in this way and are in the midst of a cultural upheaval that will require guiding and encouragement. So long as they stick to the objectives clearly defined in the Woodlands for Wales policy document, and learn to think in terms of improving the growing stock, our forests will become more productive and more resilient.
Convincing a profession such as foresters that change is a good thing is hard enough. It is a different issue when convincing the public because they are the owners of the forest and are not concerned with the technical arguments their managers can argue endlessly about. Conveying the right image is all important, and if that message is wrong, it can undo the best of plans. So, if we want to make an argument for forests being guardians of carbon, we have to be clear about what we are saying and to convey the idea in the best possible way. Somehow “come and see our carbon clearfell” or “come, let me show you how we clearfell the carbon” does not go down too well at all. However, “come walk with me in our forest which is here for ever and see how the trees produce the wood to build and heat your homes and are homes for wildlife and how they keep our rivers clean” is much better but much too long and sounds like a cracked record… “Come to the Carbon Forest” has the right ring to it.
NEWS RELEASE (06/10/2011) Mostyn Estate, North Wales. The CCFG Wales field visit was held on 5th October by kind invitation of the Mostyn Estate. Phil Davies, one of our most loyal members, offered to arrange the visit to show the group around the estate as this year’s CCFG Wales field visit. His father, Richard Davies, the estate forester provided an outstanding insight into how the woodlands are an integral part of the estate and of the local economy, intertwining the social and the economic history of this fascinating place through a mix of hard headed business and philanthropy and a firm belief in the benefits of continuous cover.
NEWS RELEASE (15/09/2011) Country Diary and correspondence in The Guardian newspaper. Jim Perring in Country_Diary, Saturday 20 August, the Guardian, draws upon strong poetic resonances in response to disruption to the landscape caused by clear-felling above Llanddewi Brefi in upland Wales. Alec Dauncey echoes the poetic theme in his letter_to_the_editor published in the Guardian on Sunday 21 August.
NEWS RELEASE (1/09/2011) CCFG have responded to The Independent Forestry Panel and made the case for an integrated silvicultural approach to the management of English woodlands. The submission to the panel can be seen on CCFG - The Independent Forestry Panel.
NEWS RELEASE (24/06/11) CCFG can even arrange for the weather! An excellent CCFG Technical Meeting was held on Thurs 23 June in spectacular Wythop, Winlatter Forest Park and Dodd Wood, all around Bassenthwaite Lake in North Cumbria. The Forestry Commission hosted a meeting attended by 45 people to look at the technical and silvicultural issues of transformation to multifunctional, close to nature forestry, in an area of Britain that exemplifies the multiple demands placed upon forestry. The impressive turnout demonstrated the thirst for knowledge for practical solutions and for a greater understanding of the benefits of integrating multiple objectives of management. The vision of massive high quality trees, harvested with minimal impact to the environment, sequestrating carbon while providing the greatest multiplicity of habitats for wildlife, on a cycle track overlooking one of the great iconic landscapes of Britain will stay with all those who attended. We left thinking that all British forests should aspire to this new vision.
NEWS RELEASE (3/08/10) CCFG visit to Romania: During July 12 members of the CCFG and 2 students who were funded by Woodland Heritage visited the Timisoara district of Romania where they were guests of Romanian colleagues from ProSilva Europe. By all accounts the visit was very stimulating and equally enjoyable, and we are looking forward to reading more about it in the next issue of the CCFG newsletter which is due out in the late autumn.
NEWS RELEASE (24/06/10) Winners of the Woodland Heritage Student Bursary
We are pleased to announce that Claire Wightman, who is studying for her HND in forestry at Inverness College, and Saskia Wischnewski, who is studying for a BSc in Marine Biology at Aberdeen University, have each been awarded £500 bursaries to enable them to go on the CCFG study visit to Romania this July. We are looking forward to hearing more about their trip in the next edition of the CCFG Newsleter.
NEWS RELEASE (18/05/2010) Timber Harvesting Workshop a great success. During May CCFG ran a 2 day workshop on Timber Harvesting with Professor Hanns Höefle of Göttingen University. The course, which was held in the beautiful Stourhead Estate, included both seminars and visits to local estates for field demonstrations. Articles and downloads from the course will be available in the 'Resources' secion of this website shortly.
NEWS RELEASE (01/03/2010) CCFG Events Programme for 2010. This year 2 special events have been arranged: a 2 day workshop on timber harvesting which will take place in Wiltshire in May, and a visit to Romania in July. In addition we shall have our 3 technical site visits: one in Norfolk, looking at transformation of even aged ash/oak stands to irregular stands; one in the Central Lowlands of Scotland exploring the issues of managing CCF woodlands in semi-urban environments, and there will be a site visit in Wales in October, details to be released. For more information go to the events page.
NEWS RELEASE (21/12/2009): Light Shed on Continuous Cover Transcripts of all the talks given at the Scientific Meeting, 'Understanding Daylight in the Context of Continuous Cover Forestry', which was held on 29th September at Westonbirt Arboretum, are now available on our 'Resources' page.
NEWS RELEASE (14/10/2009): CCFG Cymru held a very successful field meeting at Coed Bryn Arau Duon in Wales attended by over 20 people from all over Britain. Phil Morgan and Huw Denman have managed the forest for 10 years and have gradually changed the even-aged plantation into a stable forest with developing irregular stands. By concentrating their efforts on continuous quality improvement to the infrastructure and to the growing stock they have shown that transformation is an economically viable option which will lead to increasing benefits as the forest matures. Very useful and constructive discussion took place; some devil's advocates provided a contrast between toilet-paper plantations, to satisfy large scale markets, and quality woodlands managed for integrated multiple benefits. The rationale for cost effective support for transformation from public funds was demonstrated through the work to the forest during the course of the visit. The meeting was attended by woodland owners, managers, timber buyers, students, The Woodland Trust, The Forestry Commission in Wales and Forest Research.
NEWS RELEASE (29/09/2009): CCFG held a very successful conference attended by over 40 delegates who were presented with valuable information about the properties of light and how light interacts with the other factors affecting the growth of trees; new modelling and surveying techniques point the way ahead with the use of modern technology. The field demonstrations provided a clear demonstration of the variability of light conditions under changing skies due to weather patterns and seasonality and how variation can be contrived and manipulated within different stand structures in forest conditions. The summing-up and conclusions provided the opportunity to identify the need and direction for further research. Phil Morgan, chairman of CCFG said: Science provides us with the necessary arguments to support our assertions that continuous cover forestry is an effective means of managing woodlands in Britain; putting science into practice is our challenge for the future. CCFG gratefully acknowledge the help of Woodland Heritage in supporting the event.
NEWS RELEASE (24/09/2009): The chairman of CCFG, Philippe Morgan, attended the ProSilva Europe conference in Logarska Dolina, Slovenia, along with Rik Pakenham and Jim Ralph, held in commemoration of the signing of the declaration of Robanov Kot 20 years ago, marking the founding of the organisation that promotes greater understanding of Close to Nature forest management in Europe. ProSilva now has 24 national member organisations adhering to the group; Rodney Helliwell is one of the original signatories to the declaration and CCFG one of the original national groups. CCFG gratefully acknowledge the help of Woodland Heritage in attending this important event.
NEWS RELEASE (4/09/2009): Despite torrential rain the Scottish visit to Glenmore was very well attended, and provoked much interest in the issues of converting older stands of Scots Pine to CCF, and managing a Forest Park to satisfy the conflicting demands of commercial use, biodiversity and recreation.
