Forest bites the dust

[Taybank]

Another O-forest bites the dust.
All those shorter course competitors who enjoyed running on Crieff Hill on Day 3 of JK at Dunkeld will be sad to know that the whole east slope has been clear-felled.

[Red Adder]

It happens. Last Winter I remapped a large area of FC land and with draft courses designed on the Monday had permission for our eventfinalised. On Tuesday the FC admitted that their Recreation and Forestry people don't generally talk much and the tree fellers had previously decided they are going to clear-fell or brash most of the re-mapped area in the month before our event.

Luckily I had a back-up area which has a decent part as yet never used - but guess what - the lumber jacks are taking down part of that too.

[graeme]

Yes, the best bit of Craigmillar Castle got taken down in the week before the first event on it, some of it on the day, and the rest followed soon after.
...and that was an urban area

[greywolf]

The vast majority of GB forests (public & private) are plantations and managed (amongst other things) for timber - almost all will be felled sooner or later. But FC felling shouldn't come as a surprise, their felling schedule is arranged years in advance and is contained within a Forest Design Plan, which you can go and see at the district office. Would have thought anyone who was investing in mapping and planning to use FC land regularly / for important events would take the time to suss out the future harvesting plans...

And before anyone posts a quote about the plans being "on display in the cellar / under the leopard / on alpha centauri" I should say my experience of FC staff from various districts is that they've never refused a request to see a Design Plan, and have been happy to photocopy relevant maps etc

However if you're south of the border you'd better hurry: FCW is already doomed to assimilation into Unnatural Wales, and FC England has two years at the most before it's swallowed by DEFRA (and then you'll all be very sorry )

[Scott]

And before anyone posts a quote about the plans being "on display in the cellar / under the leopard / on alpha centauri"

Indeed, FC England have deviously hidden away the plans for the South-East by, erm, putting them on their website. I expect there are other regions up there are well.

[Clive Coles]

There is something afoot regarding the FC website ~ it's due to be revamped, I suspect in line with the reorganised Regional District boundaries. The East of England has been merged with the South East and much of the London basin. So with luck (Red) the East of England Design Plans will be available to download on the new site .

Design plans are of course only plans ~ driven by the date of planting and species of tree. The dates for thinning and felling are therefore guides, not a committed schedule of activities.

In our plantation forests of the East of England, FC sub~contract the actual felling work. Licences are issued to contractors as and when work is to be undertaken. Commercial factors such as the price of timber at the time, and availability of contractor resources need to be factored into the picture. And of course long spells of wet weather causes work in progress to become bogged down. So where it states on the design plan that harvesting of a block will occur in a specific year activity may be actually be scheduled +/- one year around that year.

Plantation forests are a commercial crop as well as being a recreational area so we have to work around these harvesting schedules. The good news is that FC have a commitment to restock areas that have been felled. That is not a requirement for private estate landowners. So long may FC and the Public Forest Estate (the PFE) survive in England.

The future of FC in England remains uncertain. The current head of FC GB is retiring and is not being replaced.That suggests that something major is likely to happen. What we do know is that FC Wales is being merged with Natural Wales. And we have a new crop of DEFRA ministers following the replacement of the Secretary of State. The Government is we believe still planning to bring a bill before Parliament early next year. We (in the Forest campaign group networks) suspect the most likely outcome will be a creation of some form of Public Trust to manage the PFE in England. That was what the Forestry panel recommended in their report that was published in July.

But there are key issues to be resolved ~ how for example is funding going to be secured if FC is split up (a seems likely) and if the new PFE no longer sits within the Civil Service (reporting in to DEFRA). The new Trust will have to stand on it's own feet and balance it's budget. It will have to raise more money from the Public ~ profits from timber sales are sadly still low.

Access fees are sure to rise what ever governance structure gets proposed in the Bill.

And we have concerns as to who will sit on the board of a Forestry Trust. Will they be appointed by the Government of the day ~ possibly populated by enobled retired politicians and environmental worthies, or will the Board be set up with people with a demonstrable aptitude for managing a multi-functional Forestry Estate.

Still a lot to be sorted out.

[greywolf]

The good news is that FC have a commitment to restock areas that have been felled. That is not a requirement for private estate landowners.

Not true. There are cases where exceptions to restocking conditions are granted (to both FC & private owners) but there is an overarching presumption to restock

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-6dfk86

[Clive Coles]

It is true Greywolf, the guideline on the FC website states "A felling licence will normally include conditions that the felled area must be restocked". This guideline applies to all felling applications in both the Private Forest Estate (that is managed by the Forestry Commission itself) and the far larger areas of woodland in England that are either in Private or Charitable Trust hands.

We find however that in East Anglia FC will waive this requirement especially where Natural England become involved and apply pressure.

Very recently further felling licences were issued on Sutton Common (for many years an orienteering area). The area is not FC land ~ it is partly privately owned and partly managed as an amenity area by our local authority.

Natural England are however keen to extend the areas of lowland heather covered heathland in the Sandlings ~ State funding to do this is available through the HLS scheme. So the area is progressively being deforested. Offer a landowner a financial grant and they will take it. Sadly over the last 15 years the restoration of heather heathland has been patchy ~ the deforested areas are now mainly covered by bramble and bracken. I doubt the area will every be used for an orienteering event again.

Where Plantation Forests are managed by the Forestry Commission, in our area at least, restocking does take place following harvesting of the crop. They do what they say they should do on the land that they manage. Perhaps different areas of the Country have other experiences.

[Red Adder]

My experience in dealing with FC over 30 years differs from Greywolf. Whilst they have not tried to mislead the accord between what they propose to do and what actually happens varies - they regularly and significantly change their felling plans according to the vagaries weather and market forces and do not keep any published plans - or those in the hands of the recreation officers, up to date. To my knowledge work on Tunstall, after a wet Summer has not started and I suspect that in fact we could have held our proposed event.

The "plans" for West Harling are similarly unclear with various blocks being marked / scrubbed from the felling plans for this Autumn. The best information seemed to be that I actually gleaned from the FC staff and contractors who did accurately show me on site the blocks / sub blocks that their foreman had instructed them the fell / brash.

[Red Adder]

And don't get me started on Sutton Common. Despite significant local opposition significant tracks of birch and semi-mature oak were chopped down 2 years ago. Nothing has been done since and as Clive says the area is now a pretty non-descript mass of bracken and bramble.

Note these are trees the actual natural climax habitat of the area - Sandlings heathland is a artificial man-made environment of grassland and gorse created by a system of extensive sheep walks. Whilst the various environmental organisations won't admit it previous attempts to re-create theSsandlings have failed as sheep are not currently economically viable when farmed using the traditional ways - you need far more extensive walks than land that is currently available (most of the rest of the old Sandlings is either housing, FC plantation or heavily irrigated cropland). Both the sheep and goats that were tried on Sutton were in tiny herds and failed to help recreate the grassland. What was left was thigh deep heather and young birch which had to cropped manually.

The latest proposal is to use Exmoor ponies. I would agrue strongly that this will not re-create Sandlings grassland - the animals cropping and dunging differs from sheep so the eco-system, whilst apparently similar will not be the same or genuine.

In my view they should either fully and accurately recreate the Sandlings heathlands or allow the natural climax environment to evolve- but sadly I can't see that happening currently.

[aiming off]

I can think of shed loads of areas in the UK that, for all sorts of reasons, are not as good for orienteering as they were 25 years ago.

Desperately trying to think of areas that have improved over this time: so far come up with Greenham Common.

[greywolf]

most british orienteers were better 25 years ago as well...

[madmike]

I can think of shed loads of areas in the UK that, for all sorts of reasons, are not as good for orienteering as they were 25 years ago.

Desperately trying to think of areas that have improved over this time: so far come up with Greenham Common.

Ashridge much more runnable now

[Big Jon]

Most Scottish FC plantations are now runnable where once they were walk. Mind you bits are getting felled now.... but it adds to route choice and course diversity.

[frog]

FC plans can come as a surprise even when you keep in touch with FC. They have generally been good at the Tay office at letting us know what is going on, and we knew about Craig vinean thinning earlier this year which changed our Dalguise courses. When I asked for permission for an event there in November several months ago they didn't mention any more work, or even when Dave P and I were in their office a fortnight ago discussing the event.
Yesterday I found out they plan more extraction work starting today that will run throughout our event, they are kindly stopping for the day of it.
Am now awaiting detailed maps on Monday to see if the event is salvageable, frustrating as I'd taken a week off earlier this month to spend a couple of days there rechecking the damage from thinning and gales.
The Tay FC website has nothing useful like extraction maps on it.