PRESS RELEASE - JANUARY 2017
The popular and extremely well received course, ‘Irregular Silviculture in the Lowlands: Transformation in Practice’, is to be run again on 2nd and 3rd May 2017 by SelectFor. Based in Stourhead, south Wiltshire, the site visits will return to the fine examples of irregular coniferous and broadleaved stands at Stourhead (Western) Estate and the Rushmore Estate, and will look in detail at the silviculture of transformation and the monitoring of stand structure and performance, with the emphasis on lowland forests. The course will be led by Andy Poore and David Pengelly, both leading exponents of Continuous Cover Forest Management.
“May’s course will be our ninth and it is really encouraging that Irregular Forest Management remains a topic that is generating interest in our industry, both in the UK and further afield”, said Andy Poore. “Some leading forestry organisations have sent multiple delegates to our courses, an encouraging trend that seems to be continuing and which gives real belief that Irregular Silviculture is becoming more understood and applied”.
Each of the courses can accommodate 14 trainees with six of those attending the last course in October supported financially by Woodland Heritage. The national woodland charity is happy to consider bursaries for the fee of £408 (including VAT) on a case by case basis for the course in May, with applications to be sent to enquiries@woodlandheritage.org.uk by Friday, 17th March 2017.
“I really benefitted from attending October’s course and am grateful to Andy Poore and David Pengelly for including me in that course’s cohort as an observer”, said Woodland Heritage’s Development Director, Guy Corbett-Marshall. “The presentations and handouts, when added to the content of the site visits, made an unfamiliar discipline like Irregular Silviculture really accessible for me”.
An important element of the two-day course is the marking exercise in which the trainees, in groups of two, undertake the marking decision process for themselves within a 1ha stand under transformation and interact with two experienced practitioners. On completion of the marking exercise, the trees selected for removal by each group are inputted into a spreadsheet which provides a detailed summary of the silvicultural and economic consequences of each marking; the data is then compared between each pair.
For further information on May’s course visit www.selectfor.com.
Editor’s Notes
Woodland Heritage was established as a charity in 1994 by two cabinet makers keen to ‘put something back’. A membership-based organisation, the charity supports the resilient management of woodlands, the development of the timber supply chain, the furthering of knowledge and skills within the forestry and timber sectors as well as within the general public, and the tackling of threats to the future supply of high quality UK timber. As well as running the popular ‘From Woodland to Workshop’ courses and a Field Weekend each year, Woodland Heritage produces an annual Journal. A current priority for the charity is supporting research into Acute Oak Decline.
SelectFor offers specialist continuous cover consultancy and training services. SelectFor brings together the experience and knowledge of 4 leading practitioners in continuous cover forest management. SelectFor promotes, instigates and contributes to research in various aspects of continuous cover forest management.