Using CCF in Ancient Woodland Restoration
With Adam Thorogood, Coed Cadw (The Woodland Trust Wales)

CCFG will be hosting their first in a series of Webinars on 22nd April 2021 4pm – 5pm to promote the use of Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF).

This online event was hosted by CCFG featuring Adam Thorogood who delivered a 30 minute presentation around the subject matter. This was followed by a question and answer session for participants.

Adam works for Coed Cadw (The Woodland Trust Wales) as a Woodland Outreach Advisor. His core work is to collaborate with woodland owners in order to bring Planted Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS) into management. Where possible this involves transformation to an irregular forest structure and he has found that the objectives of restoration often work in parallel with those of transformation. He is part of the team managing Allt Boeth in the Rheidol valley, where CCF is being used to gradually restore a 22 hectare PAWS to native broadleaves. 

Before working for Coed Cadw, Adam worked for Llais y Goedwig on the StarTree EU-funded research project, looking at silviculture and supply chains for non-timber forest products in Wales, he also worked as a forestry contractor on a number of sites in the Dyfi Valley, Wales, carrying out thinning operations in PAWS and ASNW. He holds an Masters in Forestry from Bangor University and owns a 12 hectare PAWS, Coed Esgair Las, with 6 other partners, where the principles of CCF underpin the management approach.

 

CCFG members may be aware of the recent report on ‘Biodiversity, Forestry and Wood’ published by Confor in July 2020. Unfortunately, this report makes some statements about the potential role of CCF in British forests which are not supported by the evidence. We have therefore prepared a short paper setting out our criticisms of these aspects of the report which can be found here. We hope that you find this paper helpful and please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

 

The Forestry Commission published this guide to help local authorities and landowning businesses achieve net zero greenhouse gases. You can read it here.

Phil Morgan from Sustainable Forest Management and SelectFor discusses in this webinar (delivered in June 2020) silvicultural methodologies, with an emphasis on Continious Cover Forestry (CCF) and Planted Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS). The webinar provides an insight into the concept of CCF and management techniques, for new and current woodland owners. It is also an opportunity to discover and learn how to transform your woodland into one that can provide an income whilst developing into a sustainably thriving woodland for the future. Webinar

Forests in the eastern United States that are structurally complex—meaning the arrangement of vegetation is highly varied—sequester more carbon, according to a new study led by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University. The study demonstrates for the first time that a forest’s structural complexity is a better predictor of carbon sequestration potential than tree species diversity. The discovery may hold implications for the mitigation of climate change. Read the article in full here.

Several Bangor University students recently attended the CCFG Foreign Study Tour to Italy. In advance of a detailed report coming soon in our newsletter, Bangor University have published a short news item.

CCFG Chair, Bill Mason, delivered a talk and presentation at Bangor University at the end of March. To listen to the talk and view the presentation visit the Bangor Forestry Student Union (BFSA) link.

The RSFS Monitor Woods Scheme and its data management programme ‘Canopy’ are designed to provide a unique research and learning resource across the forestry sector and for the wider public. The principle objective is to facilitate access to good practice in forestry and to encourage more and better managed woods to deliver an optimum range of multiple benefits for public and private good.

Simon will use his extensive forestry and environmental knowledge and facilitation skills gained during his career to date in both temperate and tropical forestry to plan, lead and execute a development strategy to promote the adoption of the Monitor Wood Scheme across Scotland’s forest sector; State, Private and Voluntary, with visits to assess and recruit suitable Monitor Woods.

Simon will also be responsible for data management, ensuring appropriate dissemination of information and learning, through provision and maintenance of Canopy, the scheme’s publicly accessible online data resource.

More information about the Monitor Woods Sceme will be appearing on the societies website www.RSFS.org.uk.
Simon can be contacted at monitorwoods@rsfs.org.uk.

In order to continually improve the benefits of membership to the CCFG, committee member Chris Andrews has prepared a very useful map tool which allows you to visually see on a map all of CCFG’s past field visits. Our members have the option of logging in from this page to be taken directly to the reports available for those visits too. You can find the tool on our Events page.