This is a return visit to the Forestry Commission’s North Cumbria Forests, previously visited by CCFG in 2014 during the National conference. The area has a long history of conifers, particularly Douglas fir, under CCF management and we will revisit two forests Wythop and Dodd Wood. We will see a variety of CCF thinning regimes and underplanting. We will look at mixed species broadleaf CCF management and on Dodd Wood visit a site where large Douglas fir overstorey and first thinning of the understorey have been carried out by high lead extraction. We will have the benefit of both local staff with many years’ knowledge of the sites and Forest Research during our visit. Detailed information on each site to be visited will be available.

The 30^th anniversary conference of ProSilva will be held from 11-14 September 2019 in Radlje ob Dravi, Slovenia on the theme of “Reconnecting forestry science and practice: networking knowledge”.

The 2019 Scottish CCFG field visit will be hosted by Forest Enterprise Scotland around Craigvinean, Dunkeld. We plan to build the programme around looking at examples of different types of thinning interventions in the developing regeneration e.g. early interventions, the management of more advanced natural regeneration of conifer and broadleaf, crown thinning. More details will be available in due course.

An opportunity to see and discuss some mature research species trials (established as an understorey) and more recent underplanting in diseased and thinned Corsican pine using a far wider range of species than traditionally used in this area. The various underplanting techniques used and the options for future management will make for interesting discussions. More details will be available in due course.