Happy Birthday

Mark Antcliff – Woodland Officer, and Rachel Pickering – Natural Environment Team Leader

Forestry Commission England owns/manages considerable land holdings within and around the North York Moors and therefore has had and continues to have a major impact on the landscape and the natural and historic environment of the area.

This year the Forestry Commission is marking its centenary. Timber was a crucial resource in the First World War, relying on imports meant vulnerability and risk. Afterwards the amount of land producing timber in Britain was down to 4%, so the 1919 Forestry Act was passed setting up the original Forestry Commission to plant and manage public woodland and to assist private woodland. The Commission was to drive organised afforestation in order to build up a secure timber reserve.

Ever since then the objectives and priorities of the Commission have adapted to changing governmental policy and shifting environmental and social concerns. Its current mission is increasing the value of woodlands to society and the environment, the majority of its current holdings are mixed multi-purpose forests. As of 2018 10% of Britain is woodland cover.

In the North York Moors…

Woodlands cover 22% of the North York Moors National Park and Forestry England (previously known as Forest Enterprise and part of the Forestry Commission) manages 60% of these. So understandably we like to work closely together to achieve the best for both organisations. We do loads of great conservation projects together and here are a few:

Ancient Woodland Restoration
Forestry England manage approximately 45% of the National Park’s Ancient Woodland Sites which have been planted with conifers since World War 2 (known as Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites – PAWS). They are committed to restoring these sites back to nature-filled native woodland and we help to ensure that this can happen in a timely fashion through our comments on their individual Forest Design Plans which direct forestry management based on the qualities of the different forests. On difficult sites funding can be given through partnership projects like This Exploited Land of Iron to avoid delays and help facilitate management.

Veteran Trees
Forestry England manages a hugely important area of veteran trees at the Deer Park near Helmsley. The National Park Authority and Natural England work together with volunteers to help monitor and manage these amazing natural ancient monuments which support populations of insects, fungi and bats.

North Yorkshire Turtle Dove Project
Volunteers survey forest and farmland for these critically endangered birds and this partnership project will raise awareness at both organisations’ Visitor Centres (Dalby and Sutton Bank) as well as providing more flower seeds and water in key locations. The forests in the south east corner are particularly important for these birds.

Beaver Trial
The National Park have given Forestry England £20,000 towards the setting up and monitoring costs of their exciting Beaver Release Trial in Cropton Forest which will be underway shortly. It will be fascinating to see how much impact the beavers can have on the management of water with the forest.

So Happy Birthday to our friends in Forestry England and the Forestry Commission who are celebrating their 100 years. To celebrate the centenary a new artwork was commissioned – the Nissan Hut by Rachel Whiteread is situated within our own Dalby Forest.

If you want to find out more about each element of the Forestry Commission, have a look at these links:
Forestry Commission England
Forestry England
Forest Research

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