LISS, SACs and squirrels
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Jonathan Levell was the District Forester in charge of the planning function in the 40,000-hectares Coed y Mynydd district. The team was responsible for design, planning, clear felling and thinning programmes, recreational projects, conservation and environment.
He recalls how all the different elements had an individual effect on each other, and how it was all pulled together in the Forest Design Plan known informally as the ‘blue book’.
“In the 1990s, it was very apparent that our forests were very uniform in terms of species structure and diversity, and also quite geometric in how they sat on the landscape,” Jonathan explains. “So we took the decision to try and redesign all the forests that were under forest enterprise land ownership and try and give them more organic shapes that sit nicer in the landscape so you don’t get a square block on the hillside.”
He adds that two important plans were how to clear fell certain areas, along with a restocking plan, staggered across 20-30 years: “So we get different areas of the forest, different ages and habitats and tree heights. Although we want to to get away from clear felling because of its harsh impact on the environment and move to a different management tool, the low-impact silvicultural systems (LISS). As to what species of tree we’re going to put back there? We want to be sure that if we are using deciduous species among evergreens that we get that shape right so it blends in with the landscape.”
Jonathan explains why Newborough forest was considered “one of the more complicated ones”.
“It was basically planted there to stabilise the sand dune system and protect the village from more sand corrosion. Over time, those objectives changed to include conservation, economic and environmental issues, and the forest’s new environmental status as a special area of conservation (SAC).”
With prices for timber going down, attention was turning towards the forest as a recreational area – with more than a quarter of a million people visiting the area, there was a potential economic impact of people spending money in shops, staying in bed and breakfast, and visiting the local amenities.
And Jonathan adds that the red squirrel was another important element: “We looked to reintroduce them into the forest. We hoped the red squirrel introduction program would be a success, but we took little steps to start with. And there was also the important ravens roost, one of the biggest in North Wales. ”
Tree removal was another consideration: “We considered removing some of the trees along the South Eastern edge next to the warren. Research over the past 50 years looked at the effect of the forest on the water table, and suggested the whole of the ground water flow system for the forest and the Warren is maybe quite isolated, and there is a correlation between the forest and the drying out of the slacks.”
Looking to the future, Jonathan imagines a forest with an open area along the front and along the side next to the warren to help the sand dunes, and a transition zone between the core area of forest and the sand dunes. In that central core area, we will probably won’t be operating a, a clear felling policy there anymore.
He concludes: “Nothing’s set in stone. It’s very exciting times ahead.”