This Practice Guide provides advice to forest managers, practitioners, planners and supervisors, on how forest operations should be planned and managed to protect the water environment.
Over 90% of the Sitka spruce planted in Britain today is from ‘improved’ planting stock, which is predicted to produce around 25% more timber at final rotation, compared with material imported from the Pacific North West. Forest managers have a choice of improved stock: seedlings raised from seed collected in orchards established around 25 years […]
The restoration of plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS) to native woodland communities is a challenging objective that requires more management input than simply re-creating a stand of site native species. All sites differ, and optimising the choice of methods thorough site assessment is necessary before restoration starts. Where there is evidence of valuable remnants […]
The proportion of open space in many forests and woodlands is increasing as forest management plans are implemented and forests are restructured. Landowners and forest managers are increasingly being encouraged to manage this ground for biodiversity objectives but in some situations the management of open ground may be more complex and challenging than the management […]
This guide concentrates upon safeguarding setts and badgers within setts. It is not intended to provide comprehensive advice on the wider aspects of managing forests for the benefit of badgers although it includes some measures which go beyond what is strictly necessary to avoid an offence under the 1992 Act, in order to minimise disturbance […]
This Practice Guide contains detailed recommendations for the establishment of new broadleaved woodlands by direct seeding, a silvicultural system whereby tree seed is sown by hand or machine into a prepared seedbed at a site intended for woodland creation.
The purpose of this Practice Guide is to give best practice advice to owners and managers on the restoration of native woodland on ancient woodland sites which have been planted with non-native species. The emphasis of the Guide is on the potential contribution of restoration to biodiversity and the practical considerations for successful development of […]
Dense natural regeneration of Sitka spruce and other conifers is an increasingly common feature of both recently clearfelled sites and stands managed under continuous cover forestry in upland forests of the British Isles. This regeneration can be managed by combining natural self-thinning in the early stages of stand establishment with management intervention to cut access […]
This Practice Guide indicates the responsibilities of owners and managers for assessing the risk of hazards from trees, and considers what inspection procedures might be appropriate. Preventative care of young trees and methods of protecting trees from wildlife damage are described. Details of tree hazards, signs of their occurrence, and options for remedial work are […]
Golden eagles are primarily birds of open mountain country but they can use open woodland habitats and may benefit from prey species which use woodlands. In 2010 a suite of six new Special Protection Areas (SPAs) covering 360,000 ha were designated by the Scottish Government for the conservation of golden eagles, adding to the existing […]
We use 3 types of cookie. You can choose which cookies you're happy for us to use.
Strictly necessary cookies
Always On
These essential cookies do things like remember your progress through a form.
They always need to be on.
Cookies that measure website use
We use Google Analytics to measure how you use the website so we can improve it based on user needs.
Google Analytics sets cookies that store anonymised information about:
how you got to the site
the pages you visit on forestresearch.gov.uk and how long you spend on each page
what you click on while you're visiting the site
Cookies that help with our communications and marketing
Some forestresearch.gov.uk pages may contain content from other sites, like YouTube or Flickr, which may set their own cookies. These sites are sometimes called ‘third party’ services. This tells us how many people are seeing the content and whether it’s useful.
