SilviFuture, a website promoting the use of novel forest species, was featured at this week’s launch of Royal Forestry Society’s Conifers for Colleges project.  Conifers for Colleges highlights the importance of conifers in the UK forestry while promoting research into forest resilience.

Conifers for Colleges provides students attending forestry and woodland management courses, first-hand experience of the tree species that may be needed to ensure that the UK has resilient woodlands and a viable timber industry.  The first trial plots are being planted this autumn at Moulton College, Myerscough College, Plumpton College, Coleg Gwent and Northumberland College.  The data and results will be made freely available to industry via the SilviFuture database so that woodland and forest owners can see what species might grow well on sites comparable to their own. The RFS will also publish the research findings and there will be opportunities for other project partners to do so.

• More about Conifers for Colleges
• More about SilviFuture

Paul Orsi, Sylva, plants a Serbian spruce (Picea omorika) at Moulton College with Phil Tanner, RFS (right)