Jeremy Evans from the Woodland Trust gave advice on PAWS restoration, veteran trees and deadwood, and Owen Davies from FSC UK linked this to current and future requirements in the UK Woodland Assurance Standard (UKWAS). There was also discussion of the need to balance economic, environmental and social objectives - in the case of Cleobury Coppice, we looked at how PAWS management worked alongside timber production and public access.
‘We really want to do more to support existing FSC certificate holders and those considering FSC forest management certification,’ explained Owen. ‘We hope that by providing access to experts and opportunities to learn from the experiences of others we will make certification more accessible to all. And, most importantly, we hope there will be benefits in terms of the quality of woodland management.’
Workshop attendees included individual owners of small woods, managers of community woodlands, staff of forest management companies and a representative from Natural Resources Wales.
All benefited from the input of our hosts Ewan McIntosh and Paul Manley from Tilhill Forestry, who explained how they met certification requirements in practice, and of Andy Grundy from certification body the Soil Association, who described how requirements would be audited.
This is the first such joint workshop, and FSC UK is keen to work with other partners to share best practice with current and potential forest management certificate holders. If you have any suggestions for topics or locations for future workshops, please get in touch with Owen at owen@fsc-uk.org.