Have your say on community tree nurseries
“Community tree nurseries are invaluable,” says Jackie Shallcross, a project lead for Trees Outside Woodlands at The Tree Council. “They produce high-quality tree stock often growing species which are local or rare.” Run almost-entirely by volunteers, these enterprises are a focus of the Trees Outside Woodlands project, a partnership between the Department for Environment, Food […]
Feed into a Forestry Sector Skills Plan for England
To enable forestry to thrive we need many more people and a variety of new skills and knowledge. Over the past year a steering team of key forestry organisations has been working to set the strategic direction for sector skills. Together they aim to create a sector skills plan – a ten-year vision for the […]
Understanding and supporting public access to woodlands
Are you a woodland owner, manager or forestry professional with views and experiences you could share with researchers about public access to woodlands? If so, you are invited to take part in the latest British Woodlands Survey exploring all aspects of public access to woodlands. This important new research in the respected national survey is […]
Help improve the new Plant Health Information service
The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) is developing a new ‘Plant Health Information service’ to enable users to search for up-to date information about plant imports, biosecurity risk and trade requirements. This new service will provide specific answers to questions such as: Is this plant prohibited from the country I am importing […]
Is your forest fit for climate change?
Led by researchers at the University of Freiburg in Germany, the EU Horizon 2020 project RESONATE aims to enhance the resilience of European forests and their value chains. As part of the project, a survey has been published to investigate the possible adaptation measures for forests and related value chains in Europe and hopes to […]
Help design Woodland Condition Assessment guides and training
Woodland Condition Assessments (WCA) are used to assess the ecological condition of woodlands and can inform management decisions to benefit biodiversity and access grants/other support. To make make WCA more accessible, the charity Field Studies Council is working on a project with the Forestry Commission and other partners to produce training courses, guides and a […]
CPD Survey 2021 – Results
As the professional body for the forestry sector it’s vital that we understand the development needs of our members. Continuing Professional Development is more important than ever as growing pressure is put on our sector by the dual climate and nature crisis and the ongoing skills shortage. In autumn 2021 we asked all Institute members […]
Policy Roundup – November 2021
Our monthly policy and research blog updates you on the latest work at the Institute and how you can get involved. Institute News Our Position Paper on the Forestry Skills Shortage Last month we launched a campaign on the forestry skills crisis that was covered in October’s Policy Roundup. We want to keep the momentum […]
Northern Ireland Peatland Strategy – help shape our response
The Institute is planning to respond to the NI Peatland Strategy consultation currently open and we would like to invite comments from all members across the UK. Read the consultation and send your thoughts to Jemima Cooper, the Institute’s Senior Policy & Research Officer, by 20 August. Peatland sites for timber production and forestry in […]
Forestry workforce research – skills survey
Lantra, with the support of the Forestry Commission, Natural Resources Wales, the Welsh Government and Confor, have commissioned a study to review the level of skills and training at this pivotal moment within forestry. As the government commits to higher levels of new planting and markets for timber increase, it is vital that we understand […]
