Last weekend the Good Woods team headed to Cumbria to deliver training and advice to local woodlands owners from the Grange and Meathop Woodlanders Group.
In 2013 the Good Woods project delivered support to 235 land owners to help create a clear vision for the sustainable management of 10,900 hectares of woodland in the south east and east of England. With support from Defra, B&Q and the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust we have been able to join forces with Cumbria Woodlands and expand the impact of the project to the North of England. Since spring 2014 we have carried out advisory visits via professional foresters to 47 forest holdings across Cumbria.
Reading your woodland – training with Cumbria Woodlands
Using a clinometer to measure tree height
Last weekend the Good Woods team headed to Cumbria to deliver training and advice to local woodlands owners from the Grange and Meathop Woodlanders Group. The morning session covered the basics of woodland management and a guide to using myForest. Presentations also covered how to realise the productive potential of your woodland, advice on engaging with stakeholders and an update on forestry grants and support. The afternoon workshop looked at resilient woodlands (protecting your habitat against pests, diseases and climate change) and took the participants out into a woodland to see how all of this works in practice!
Ruth and Steve, the owners of a mixed semi-ancient woodland in south Cumbria found the workshop very valuable and commented that it was:
“…thought provoking, practical and very relevant for us. Friendly, informal and knowledgeable presentations with some brilliant links and advice.”
By engaging with private and community woodland owners and managers, Good Woods is helping to create a productive and sustainable vision for UK woodlands. This not only helps to reverse the alarming decline in woodland plants, butterflies and bird numbers but also boosts the productivity and profitability of our woodlands, their ecosystem service delivery and goes some way to achieving the government’s ambition to bring two thirds of our woodlands back into active management by 2018.
Good Woods is a partnership between Sylva Foundation, sustainability charity Bioregional and the business community.
