Thetford forest, East Anglia

Transforming productive coniferous woodland with forest health and drought risks

Thetford forest, managed by Forestry England (FE), is the largest pine plantation in England. The fact that it was established in a relatively short period of time, just over 100 years ago, almost exclusively with Scots and later Corsican pine shapes the forest today and underlies many of the issues threatening its future thriving.

This site visit will feature large-scale underplanting as a way to transform even-aged coniferous monocultures. We will visit sites at different stages of the underplanting process to showcase and discuss operational considerations of species choice, site preparation and ongoing management of the underplanted sites; explaining what the main catalyst for larger scale underplanting was, why underplanting was chosen as the main method, and what the main operational considerations and ways to addressed them have been.

We plan to visit Forest Research (FR) operational trial testing growth of a wide range of tree species in the open and understory conditions. Chris Reynolds (FR) will walk us through the design, goals and the first outcomes of this trial.

FE foresters promise to share a comprehensive picture of their rationale, evidence, practical considerations and long-term plans and look forward to discussing principles and application of CCF in the context of forest health, soil, climate and herbivore pressures.

Meeting point (to be confirmed): Santon Downham Forestry England – parking lot. 

The tour will take place in the main block of Thetford forest, further details to be confirmed. 

What to bring

PPE Boots suitable for rough ground and waterproofs. For biosecurity, please ensure that your footwear is clean before arrival.

Lunch and drink: Bring your own food and drink for lunch and snacks.

Finish

By around 4.00pm

Booking

Essential. To allow for good discussion and facilitate logistics, the meeting will be limited to 30 people. There will be a waiting list if numbers exceed this so please let us know if you cannot make it. To book, please follow this link. 

CCFG visit to Achray Forest Aberfoyle managed by Forestry and Land Scotland

CCF opportunities and challenges for amenity, conservation and production

The Achray Face above Aberfoyle is an extremely popular area for forest recreation with walking and cycling trails, a visitor centre and Go-Ape attraction and has long been identified as potential for management under CCF. It is also one of the trial areas of the pan-European SUPERB project. However, the Region is now facing significant challenges to this plan in particular a high proportion of larch and windblow along with the high visitor numbers and access.

The forest also supports mature oak woodland which has been managed in the past and there is potential for future intervention both for timber and to encourage natural regeneration.

Away from the main recreation area circa 60ha have been as identified as potential for management under CCF. This area offers an opportunity to realise the benefits of CCF for softwood sawlog production in the future.

The visit will be a chance to enjoy the forest, explore these challenges and discuss options with the local forest team. After an introduction in the Lodge we will undertake two walking tours through Achray forest. The first is in the mature conifer and oak forest of the high recreation area above the Lodge and the second a quieter area of conifer forest at Braeval at the east of the forest.

The visit details

We will gather at the Lodge (9:30am for 10:00am) and have a half hour introduction to the area from the local team and Forest Research who are leading on the SUPERB project

Minibuses will be used for transport to and within the forest. They will leave from the Lodge at 10.30am

Two walks (2.4 miles and 1.2 miles) on forest roads and paths with some downhill and uphill sections. Expect to walk into some of the stands for the discussion. Lunch will be taken in the forest.

CCFG’s Chair, Bill Mason, has died

It is with great regret that we have to inform you that our Chair, Bill Mason, has passed away unexpectedly over the weekend. Bill has been Chair for over 10 years, and has provided kind and gentle but firm leadership to the Committee on the work of CCFG. 

Chris Tracey, Scotland Coordinator, writes: It is difficult to find the words for the loss of such a lovely man, a real gentleman and true forester to his core. He is a great loss to forestry as a whole as well as obviously to ourselves. Our deepest sympathy extends to his family.

 

Following the webinar on 23rd May with Victoria Stokes talking about an experiment in underplanting in conifers at Clocaenog Forest, a recording has now been made available on  YouTube which you can view using this link.  

 

CCFG will be hosting their next webinar – Underplanting of conifers in Britain – with Victoria Stokes – on Thursday 23rd May 2024 4-5pm.

Underplanting is a relatively little-used technique for establishing trees while avoiding the disadvantages of clearfelling and may become increasingly important where a change of species is desirable. This webinar will report results from an underplanting experiment in the long-running CCF trial area at Clocaenog Forest in North Wales. Survival and growth of five different conifer species planted under a mature Sitka spruce overstorey will be compared. Impacts of the subsequent thinning operations and the final overstorey removal on survival of the underplanted seedlings will be presented, and responses of the five species to the removal of the overstorey 9 years after planting will be examined. Some operational “lessons learned” will also be highlighted.

Victoria is a Senior Scientist in the Silviculture and Wood Properties Science Group at Forest Research. She has over 20 years’ experience in carrying out research on management of Britain’s forests to increase resilience to climate change and biotic threats, whilst maintaining productivity. She leads research on Upland Silviculture, focussing on management techniques which increase tree species diversity and stand age structure, such as Continuous Cover Forestry. She has contributed to many collaborative projects and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters.

To book your place please visit this link. 

Fern, a European organisation campaigning to protect forests, has published a report including several case studies of Continuous Cover Forestry and the financial obstacles they faced. To read more, follow this link. 

Following the webinar on 21st March with Danny Alder talking about the biodiversity research project on the Rushmore Estate on the Dorset-Wiltshire border looking at the responses of woodland birds, bats and woodland plants to different stand management, a recording has now been made available on  YouTube which you can view using this link. 

You can also watch Andy Poore’s talk on Applying CCF in Lowland Broadleaved Woods, which also refers to the Rushmore Estate, but was recorded in October 2021. 

Following the webinar on 21st February with Clive Thomas of Soil Association talking about Regenerative Forestry, a recording has now been made available on  YouTube which you can view using this link. 

You can also read Soil Association’s full report on Regenerative Forestry here. 

CCFG will be hosting their next webinar – Biodiversity responses to transformation to irregular high forest – with Danny Alder – on Thursday 21st March 2024 4-5pm.

Danny’s talk will be about the biodiversity research project on the Rushmore Estate on the Dorset-Wiltshire border looking at the responses of woodland birds, bats and woodland plants to different stand management with a particular focus on the introduction of irregular high forest management.

The forest manager at Rushmore is Andy Poore, a founder member of CCFG, who gave a webinar in 2021 – to watch Andy’s talk for more background on this site please see this link. 

Understanding how biodiversity responds to changes in the management of woodlands can be helpful to forest managers, especially in woodlands with a high nature conservation value, and more generally where the aim of forest management is to work with natural processes towards sustainable management. In this study on the Rushmore Estate, in the Cranborne Chase National Landscape, different taxonomic groups were sampled across different stand types. These included 1) traditional coppice and coppice with standards, 2) limited intervention, stands where management had effectively stopped for at least 30 years, 3) Irregular high-forest; a single tree or small group selection system which had been introduced in the 1980’s, and 4) Transitional management where stands were at the early stages of transformation towards irregular high-forest, which had come out of production and were either over-stood coppice or pole-stage, closed canopy. To help understand the responses of the different taxonomic groups it was important to look at how the structure of the woodland varied and relate these structural characteristics to the different species encountered.

The talk will highlight the study methods and main findings, and will discuss the implications of the research which has produced three peer-reviewed papers in Forest Ecology and Management. A summary technical article is due to appear in the spring of 2024 in the Quarterly Journal of Forestry.

Dr Danny Alder undertook this research towards his PhD within the Natural Sciences department at Manchester Metropolitan University. Danny lives in Dorset and is an ecologist working in countryside management. He has a special interest in conservation ecology and research focusing on woodlands and their management.

To book your place please visit this link. 

A two year postdoc position: “Continuous cover forestry – managing for complex forest stand structures” is being advertised at the Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre. This would be a great opportunity for someone with a recent PhD in a forest-related subject. The closing date is 24th February 2024 and for more information visit this link:  https://www.slu.se/en/about-slu/work-at-slu/jobs-vacancies/