Increasing woodland cover is a priority for all three nations of Great Britain. There are ambitious woodland creation and tree planting targets in each. This provides opportunity to restore degraded landscapes while tackling the climate and biodiversity crises.
This core Programme of research includes a number of projects which aim to understand more about new woodlands: where to locate them, how they develop, what benefits they might provide over time, and how this can be achieved. The research in this Programme aims to untangle the complex interactions between location, extent and species, and discover which combinations can reliably confer multiple benefits such as carbon capture and improved biodiversity. The research will co-produce products and tools which support land managers, stakeholders and policymakers to increase engagement with woodland creation activities.
WrEN is a long-term, large-scale ‘natural experiment’ which is studying the influence of different site and landscape attributes on biodiversity in a chronosequence of secondary woodlands.
This research aims to assist those responsible for woodland creation in the Central Scotland Green Network area in identifying landowners and locations which offer the ‘best bets’ for new tree planting. In addition, the research seeks to inform on how communication and outreach can be tailored to be more effective.
A model was developed to represent the environment of Scotland, including its many different types of land managers and their views about woodland creation. By representing alternative scenarios in the model, the research explored how each set of choices might affect the benefits we get from the environment over the next 100 years and the contribution to woodland cover targets.
The development of stakeholder visions for woodland expansion in Scotland from analysing organisational documents, workshops and interviews.
Overview of Forest Research's projects for the quantification and valuation of ecosystem service provision of urban trees
Research into private landowner decision-making, culture and their attitudes towards forestry.
This paper summarises the social science evidence relating to tenanted farms and woodland creation in Great Britain. It draws on a literature review and a series of nine interviews with key stakeholders to sense check and build on the findings. It focuses on the barriers, opportunities, and questions which relate specifically to tenant farming.
Science group leader
Principle Landscape Ecologist