The Importance of Woodland Management: Wood For The Trees, Film #2: Jan2020

The second in a series looking at the future of our forests in the UK. Tom Barnes meets Dougal Driver, the head of Grown In Britain, to discuss how - and why - we manage British forests. Grown in Britain is an organisation that encourages responsible woodland management, and certifies woodland products. Dougal explains that successful woodland management ensures that the forest is productive, as well as delivering biodiversity, carbon capture and water management benefits. He says that just as a gardener thins carrots, a woodland can be 'thinned' to produce quality timber.
Tom Barnes manages Vastern Timber, a family firm that has worked with British-grown timber since 1904. In this series ' Wood for the Trees' he wants to learn more about the future of British forests, and the risks and opportunities ahead.
00:00 The Importance of Woodland Management
01:11 Dougal Driver from Grown in Britain
01:22 What is Woodland Management?
01:57 Why is it important to manage woodland?
02:55 Different types of woodlands need different management strategies
03:53 Planning the forests of the future
04:15 Importance of well managed timber for sustainable construction, biodivesity and our health and wellbeing
05:04 Woodland Management in the UK now
06:47 The future of Woodland Managent in UK, hopes and fears, Biosecurity

[@ChrisHollobaugh]

Thank you for your inspiring words. My partner and I are currently living on 3 acres of woodland and are learning about proper management. It's a small plot in the grand scheme, but we hope to make a difference where we can.

[@creatednordestroyed5339]

"Man's touch needs to be light" love that saying

[@woodlandsedge3456]

Like what this guy is saying however he highlighted on under managed woodland it seems he’s right the buzz word ie plant more trees yet we don’t seem to worry about out current crop of veteran trees I work in private woodland trying minimise the damage from grey squirrels as well as the impact of ivy strangling the structure of some accent oaks we need more of a balance and a new look at our outdated management practices

[@creatednordestroyed5339]

Need old trees

[@Gibbons3457]

All this talk about "management" the problem with forests in the UK is that most of them aren't forests, they're timber plantations. Sitka Spruce, Larch, and Douglas Fir are all non-native species that are not the great boon to wildlife the timber industry claim. Animals don't live in planations because they want to; they live there because that's the last place they can cling to. Not one of those species of tree can host the thousands of bugs, birds, bats, and fungi that are specifically adapted to or dependant on native British trees, like oak and ash, and Scotts pine, one of these trees is worth a hundred non-native timber crop. Timber forestry also doesn't produce healthy long-lived forest, it produces a crop that is harvested, dead trees aren't left standing denying the ecosystem vital dead wood, fallen trees are dragged away denying the soil valuable nutrients and denying the ecosystem yet more niches. Also, notice that nowhere in that entire plantation in this video are there any shrubs or other middle story trees like hawthorn, blackthorn, holly, or rowan, there aren't because they are cleared away because this isn't an ecosystem, it's a tree farm and an entire trophic level and entire ecological niche is stripped away. That's what a "managed" forest turns into because forest management is still in the 20th century.

[@WoodForTheTrees]

You might find this film interesting, part 10 of our series shows rewilding at Knepp. Is there hope of finding an appropriate balance that supports nature as well as producing timber for construction? kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJaqqJZng7Fql9k

[@Gibbons3457]

@@WoodForTheTrees I would say yes, there is but it requires us being honest about the situation. Talking about timber plantations like they're what a healthy forest looks like is misleading a greenwashes a currently very disruptive industry. In the UK we need to shift away from non native trees like situation spruce and work on cultivating native timber crops. We also need to take back control of the conversation and challenge the forestry industry when it talks about managing healthy forests. Healthy forests don't need managing by humans, the forests did fine before humans started logging them. We need to make it clear that whilst timber is an essential material especially with climate change that that is not a licence for the forestry industry to turn any and all woodland into a tree crop. They also need to be held to account for how they plant and harvest. No drain peat to grow trees for example. In the end we have to be aware that any industry is going to do its best to greenwash its most ugly and destructive aspects and we cannot let them.

[@thomasnichol5127]

@@Gibbons3457 I've never quite understood this claim that coniferous forests don't have wildlife. England's largest man made forest isn't too far from me and I can tell you it's full of wildlife, including some rare and protected species. In fact, it's home to half of the country's red squirrel population. Clearly not the barren landscape that some people would have you believe.

[@Gos1234567]

@@thomasnichol5127 big difference between a natural coniferous forest and a timber plantation.Go into a sitka spruce plantation (if you can,some of those trees are only a few feet apart) and there are completley dead and silent,eerie places

[@thomasnichol5127]

@@Gos1234567 I don’t think you have read my previous comment. I have spent plenty of time in Sitka spruce plantations. The trees are a lot more than a few feet apart (this is the result of proper forest management) and they support lots of wildlife, including protected species that struggle to survive in other environments. Yes a poorly managed plantation is often not a healthy environment, but it would be a mistake to assume that these minority poor examples represent all plantations.

[@pwinter]

#NewPresenterCountryfile

[@StreetBoi69uk]

Of course we are ravaged by pests and diseases in monoculture timber plantations like this one. Particularly when the species planted are highly inappropriate for the bioregion. This is not a managed woodland, it is a plantation. We would have greater resilience for species like Ash and Elm if there was more genetic diversity due to greater numbers of plantings of these trees, instead of spruce, scots pine, douglas fir and larch. Also, no one is visiting such plantations for health and wellbeing, nor do they produce the best quality timber. It is all about maximising profit with no thought to the greater good. I hope in another episode you visit someone doing real woodland management, such as Ben Law.

[@WoodForTheTrees]

Thanks for commenting. It seems we disagree on the defining boundary of 'managed woodland' and 'plantation', which might depend on how you look at it. But certainly the woodland shown in this film contributes to its local community's health and wellbeing. During the few hours it took to make this film, we had to stop many times as walkers and joggers (noisily) visited this woodland for recreation, health and wellbeing. There was even a bootcamp fitness club! Perhaps you'd like to see our 6th film, about Hillyfield Woodland Farm kzbin.info/www/bejne/naatgI19a6qEmMk or our 7th, about woodland creation on a farm in Somerset, kzbin.info/www/bejne/ganGmHWwaJKJe5I which offer a different perspective.

[@StreetBoi69uk]

@@WoodForTheTrees Thank you for your kind and measured response. I am looking forward to seeing your whole series and really admire the work that you are doing. I love this emphasis on the importance of woodlands, but I really dislike the greenwashing that comes through plantation owners. Of course, I infer from your comment that the situation is not black and white, and that there are still benefits to these plantations. However, there are also costs (pesticide use, reduced genetic diversity). I hope we will go all out on the most appropriate and best solution across the country in the future, however that may look.

[@spijkerpoes]

@@StreetBoi69uk Oops I was just about to write your comment😁 As I also was surprised.. I was taught forestry in the early 90ties and 'integrated woodland management' was all the rage. About combining nature, production, natural rejuvenation, and recreation - whilst being self-sufficient in the timber market. Nothing at all came from it, after a certain Henk Bleker privatized the forestry service. Here in Holland we now only make an awful lot of milk. Timber even firewood, well heck, about everything we need, we import.. Nature reserves are struggling from pollution and pressure to be built up. Only the natura 2000 areas are safe from development. God knows for how long still.

[@charlesworth11]

Leave r woodlands alone ! :( meany

[@elliottblaauw4575]

mitigating the effects of climate change not its causes surely

[@mojohn825]

The more carbon dioxide the stronger and healthier plants and trees will be.

[@sevatorion7975]

Definitely

[@Gibbons3457]

This is not true at all. Or to put it another way. This is so reductive as to be false.

[@sevatorion7975]

@@Gibbons3457 He's being fucking sarcastic.

[@Gibbons3457]

@@sevatorion7975 What gives that away sherlock.