Transcript Managing Risk: actively making the English forestry sector

Conifers for Colleges
Ian Gambles
Director
Forestry Commission England
Royal Forestry Society
5th November 2014
What I am going to cover
• The conifer challenge…
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Pests and diseases
Climate change
Anti-conifer sentiment
Loss of silvicultural skills
• … and what we can all do about it
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Conifers for Colleges
All Woodland In England
1/3rd conifer
2/3rd broadleaf
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Conifers for Colleges
Broadleaf woodland in England
5 species make up 77% of the total
Phytophthora alni
Acute Oak Decline
Chestnut Blight
Grey Squirrel
Oak processionary moth
Chalara
Deer
Drought
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Conifers for Colleges
Conifer woodland in England
6 species makes up 89% of the total
Lappet moth
Dothistroma DNB
Phytophthora
ramorum
Spruce aphid
Drought
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Conifers for Colleges
Multiplying pests and diseases
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18/07/2015
Conifers for Colleges
Climate change and silviculture
Current origins
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Future origins?
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Is what we are planting now adapted to known climate change?
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Anti-conifer sentiment
• Right to protect and restore ancient woodland
• Understandable that the mistakes of a
previous generation are not forgotten
• BUT
• Contemporary certified afforestation is far
beyond outdated perceptions – and creates
places of beauty, biodiversity, recreational and
direct production value
• English timber production and processing
contributes £2.1 billion GVA
• With rising pressure on land use and land
values, uneconomic woodland is at long-term
risk
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Conifers for Colleges
An alarming table
• New conifer planting (thousands of hectares):
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England
UK
2010
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2011
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2012
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2013
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2014
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Conifers for Colleges
An alarming table
• New conifer planting (thousands of hectares):
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England
UK
2010
0
0.5
2011
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1.8
2012
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3.5
2013
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1.9
2014
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2.2
Conifers for Colleges
The skills challenge
• “Rediscovery” of silviculture relies entirely on
skilled foresters to carry it through – but the
workforce is ageing
• Secondary education – English woodland
culture missing from the curriculum; focus
only on global deforestation issues
• Further and higher education – loss of
institutions and courses, drift from forestry to
broader environmental disciplines
• But together we can tackle this…
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Conifers for Colleges
Tackling pests and diseases
• A top ministerial priority:
• Continuing control action and surveying to
limit spread of phytophthora ramorum
• Forest Research programmes working on
dothistroma, pine tree lappet moth etc
• More investment in import controls –
significant interceptions recently
• Systems improvement – plant health risk
register, increasing sector and stakeholder
understanding and co-operation
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Conifers for Colleges
Planting for the future on the PFE
Previous planting
Current planting
2010-11:
2013-14:
“Big 6” – 88%
“Big 4” – 68%
Alternative conifers: 2%
Alternative conifers: 17%
Broadleaves: 10%
Broadleaves: 15%
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Conifers for Colleges
Research and information
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Conifers for Colleges
Supporting conifers
• What the Commission is doing:
• Public Forest Estate supplies 58% of English
softwood. We planted 4.5 million conifers
last season.
• Forest Research programmes working on
timber quality for alternative species – and
our improved Sitka yields +25%
• Woodland creation grants will continue to
support conifer planting
• Above all – supporting the sector’s own
initiatives: Grown in Britain, Roots to
Prosperity, Woodland Carbon Code etc
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Conifers for Colleges
Skills – lots of good news
• Apprenticeships on the rise:
• Forestry Trailblazer announced this week
• Forestry Skills Initiative
• FC apprenticeships
• Working with schools
• Forests for the Future – KS2
• RFS Teaching Trees
• Herefordshire Hub
• HE & FE – on the way back?
• Reading, Birmingham, ICF, RFS…
• …and Conifers for Colleges
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It’s not the trees – it’s the people
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