News

Helping Adapt Woods for Climate Change

Through our Grants for Resilient Woodlands, the RFS has approved the planting of 108,000 trees, incorporating 48 species of broadleaves and 16 species of conifers.

By Wendy Necar · November 7, 2022

The grants, which include restocking, are delivered in partnership with Trainhugger and GreentheUK and are open to RFS and RSFS members. Applicants must demonstrate how the woods are being adapted for climate change through species choice, diversity or planting design. Find out more here;

Our grants are just one way the RFS is helping forestry to face future challenges:

  • Our Managing for Resilience Report features 10 sites facing up to the challenges of climate change;
  • Later this month our Alternative Conifer Species training course with Chris Reynolds will introduce participants to species they may not have considered which may have a future in UK forestry;
  • We offer bursaries to help students and non students research aspects of forestry. They open for applications in January;
  • Four papers on forest resilience by Jonathan Spencer MBE, former Head of Planning and Environment for Forestry England and co-author Alison Field can be viewed online. They explain the ecological basis of forest resilience, how history has shaped species composition and forest ecology and propose changes to forestry policy and practice to increase resilience. They were first published in the Quarterly Journal of Forestry;
  • With extreme weather events likely to increase in the future this case study shares experiences of mosaic planting in a woodland at medium risk from windthrow;
  • We have published 15 papers on alternative tree species which land managers may consider suitable for current local site conditions and the projected climate. They were written by the late Dr Peter Savill and his co-authors Drs Scott Wilson, Bill Mason and Richard Jinks. They were first published in the QJF and are available here;
  • Our QJF magazine, carries research papers on topics related to Climate change. October’s QJF included an article by Thomas Ovenden, Mike Perks and Alistair Jump entitled ‘How Resilient are Planted UK Forests to Drought’
  • If you are ever asked what the difference is between deforestation and harvesting, our YouTube with Jen Turner spells it out!