Welcome! This blogspot gives you the chance to have your say as part of the 5 Year Review of the Sefton Coast Woodlands Forest Plan. To aid this process, please keep all discussion focused on the 5 Year Review. Any inappropriate or abusive posts will be removed.
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No consolidated woodland management contracts have been issued, but larger scale contracts at Formby Point and on the National Nature Reserve have seen some economy of scale.
The National Trust, Sefton Council and Natural England (then English Nature) (the National Nature Reserves) have received official woodland certification for areas of the Sefton Coast Woodlands spanning 290.30 hectares. Assessed to UK Woodland Assurance standard, it is anticipated that certification will bring a wide range of benefits to the area, from reinforcing conservation efforts to helping local industries. Timber from certified woodlands can carry a Forest Stewardship Council label, providing independent assurance to customers that it comes from a woodland that is sustainably managed to internationally agreed standards.
Firewood is being sold and equipment is being purchased for making site furniture, which if successful could be sold.
At least 10 owners have part-financed forest management work through grant application.
Wider thinking has also included: woodchip as biomass fuels, sale of pine trees as Christmas trees, cards and leaflets using the woodland setting, wildlife booklets, honey from beehives and lamb from associated grazing animals.
A question for you:
It’s essential to find as many sources as funding as possible to enable the woodland management work to happen. This may be through greater efficiency, income generated or through grants, and this is something that will remain a constant challenge. Do you feel this is the right way forward?
1 comments:
I think that there is a general feeling that these are not commercial woodlands in the Forestry Commission sense. I doubt either if the woodland management could ever return a profit. But grant-aid can and should be offset by trying to generate some income, especially where it is part of a sustainable approach. The opportunity to cut and chip self sown birch, for example, could help solve the conservation problem of scrub invasion on dunes and heaths. There is likely to be more support for te work if the material is not wasted.
Likewise making furniture out of timber sourced from the woodlands is good. I have one note of caution, though. Just because we can have limitless supplies of timber for countryside furniture doesn't mean we should fill the countryside with it! Seats and bins can be intrusive if over done.
We should also be careful on jumping at all money-making ideas. Bee hives, for example, can be a threat to the indigenous bees.
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