As Rob Yorke previewed yesterday, we will have a stand this weekend, as usual, at the CLA Game Fair - this year held at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire. I'm there today and am looking forward to it - especially as I am taking part in a GWCT debate on game shooting's contribution to conservation.
While I am taking part in the debate, my boss, Mike Clarke, will be hosting a reception on our stand, showcasing our work on woodland management. Mike will be arguing that it is possible to achieve sustainable game management, nature conservation and boost local rural economies through sound woodland management. A pilot project, begun in the East Midlands in 2009, has been exploring how this might work on the ground, with some startling success. RSPB, the Forestry Commission, and forestry agents have been working together to encourage and advise woodland owners to take up English Woodland Grant Scheme options to help declining woodland wildlife by improving woodland structure - which also suits pheasants, and helps to stimulate local timber and woodfuel production. The East Midlands is a useful area to carry out a pilot like this as woodland birds, butterflies, and other wildlife in trouble are still present, so its efficacy can be tested before expanding it to other woodland wildlife hotspots in future.
The Forestry Commission and RSPB jointly developed prescriptions for a specific, targeted Woodland Improvement Grant to address identified biodiversity declines, which contributes 80% of standard costs for delivering prescriptions like: uneconomic thinning to open the tree canopy to let light into the wood and encourage native understory and ground layer vegetation; as well as coppice, ride and edge enhancement. We now jointly employ a Woodland Biodiversity Adviser, Jacqui, who works with forestry agents and owners to target grants and advice. She also works with organisations like Butterfly Conservation, the Bat Conservation Trust and Plantlife to ensure that what works for birds works for other wildlife too, and pleasingly it generally does! This is not about providing a short term fix, but is aimed at stimulating appropriate woodland management into the future by restoring under-managed woodland so that it can pay for itself going forward, benefiting both wildlife and the local economy.
Woodlands across Britain were managed for thousands of years for timber, firewood, charcoal and other products, but changed dramatically as cheaper imports drove down prices over recent decades. They became more uniform, crowded and dark, and native understory and ground flora were suppressed; a process exacerbated by a burgeoning deer population. The woodland chapter in the State of Nature report makes depressing reading, but this pilot gives me real hope that woodland managers now have the opportunity to make a huge difference. Since 2009, the East Midlands pilot work has secured grant support to more than 8,000 ha of woodland, producing almost ½ million tonnes of wood, which is worth over £12 million as wood fuel, and is being harvested by local contractors and sold into local markets. In the 3 year period preceding the pilot scheme, just 120,000 tonnes of wood was harvested in the area, which illustrates the catalytic power of a good grant scheme!
This type of project has highlighted lessons that are applicable right across the country. It shows what can be achieved with collaboration. It shows that, with the right incentives in place, it is possible to improve management for wildlife while running a commercial enterprise: doing for woods what Hope Farm has done for wildlife on conventional arable farms.
Next week I'll give you a flavour of the GWCT debate and will also return to the topic of public forests and their future. In the meantime, enjoy the heat and don't forget your factor 50 sunblock.
Just one point about woodland management without getting into details. We recently had an example locally, a year or so ago, of major felling and timber extraction being carried out in a Forestry Commission woodland area right in the middle of May that is at the height of the nesting period. The timing of timber operations in woodlands is important for wildlife but to avoid the Spring/early Summer time is something woodland owners don't always consider or appreciate.
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