ProSilva Ireland attends first international Continuous Cover forestry conference in UK
June 20, 2014
One of the many workshops held over the three days Continuous Cover forestry conference organised by CCFG in the Lake District, Cumbria UK
A number of ProSilva Ireland members recently attended the Continuous Cover forestry conference in the UK. It was a comprehensive conference with a number of field trips, covering topics on management approaches, timber quality, biodiversity, economics, ancient woodland restoration and policy developments, with speakers from across the UK and beyond.
From Ireland, Aine ni Dhubhain from UCD presented the doctoral work of Lucie Vitkova – the first results of Continuous Cover forestry in Ireland and explained results from the COFORD Low Impact Sivilculture System project, in which ProSilva Ireland has contributed and co-managed.
There was also a welcoming statement from Prince Charles endorsing this type of forestry and wishing this event well. His head forester was in attendance too. A guest speaker also talked about Osprey settling in the forests in this lake area and the enormous tourism that has resulted.
The CCFG committee are now compiling information from all the recorded talks and we will share these when they become available.
The event also received considerable press and TV coverage which indicates a growing audience for a different type of forestry in the UK. Recent storms and the increase in tree disease in the UK have brought renewed attention to the important role of forests there.
Below a slideshow of photos from the fieldtrips and conference – click on an image to show full-screen slideshow.
Conference title
ProSilva Ireland members, ecologists Faith Wilson and Kathy Duffy also attended; people from timber quality and harvesting, forest managers, researchers and forest policy people attended
Jens Haufe (Research Officer, Bangor) led us in a practical tree-marking for thinning exercise
Conference attendees tree-marking for permanent, continuous cover forests
Gary Kerr – Forest Research led a talk about natural and artificial regeneration of continuous covers forests
The natural regeneration in many of the forests was very impressive.
Continuous cover forestry at Wythop forest
Some of the Douglas fir and other broadleaves in this wood.
Phil Morgan (CCFG UK) discussed the AFI international framework, begun in France, that is helping facilitate long-term research of permanent stands.
Ireland is doing well in having already established some longterm research stands.
Phil and his group showed us how the measurements are undertaken at AFI sites
At Thirlmere forest there was talk regarding the necessity of developing permanent forests for water quality issues (and a recent outbreak of Phytophthora affecting larch); The transition to a changed management for this watershed had taken time to be accepted by the local community but people are now realising the tourism, soil stability in the surrounding hills and biodiversity benefits.
Small scale log moving machines are necessary for selective harvesting.
Elspeth MacDonald, Forest Research, talked of timber quality and harvesting; timber quality is being assessed by newly designed sonic testing equipment.
Some of the data from a recent paper.
Two ways of testing for timber density 1) for standing timber – measuring the rate of sound travel across a measured distance up the tree trunk.
2) a tapping monitor for sawn logs
Aine ni Dhubhain, UCD, sharing the results of continuous cover forestry research from Ireland
Our thanks to the conference organisers and the warm welcome we received from the CCFG UK /ProSilva Great Britain members.
The Irish Ear to the Ground programme this week (Thursday 12 December 2019 – go to 16 minutes on the RTE Player, available until 11 January) interviewed Pro Silva Ireland members John Sherlock, Kevin O’Connell and others who demonstrated the benefits of forestry on John’s farm forestry land near Navan, County Meath.
A talk on Close-to-Nature forestry in Ireland, will be given by Faith Wilson who is a practising ecologist and a committee member of Pro Silva Ireland. The evening has been kindly organised by the Irish Wildlife Trust. All are welcome. Irish Wildlife Trust - Green Drinks, Sweetmans Pub, 1-2 Burgh Quay, Dublin 2 - top floor, 7pm, 6th November 2018.
Please see the forest transformation and conversion event in the Czech Republic in October 2018. Due to the fact that forest transformation is a topic beyond the Czech Republic, this will be a relevant meeting for many in Ireland too.
2018 Pro Silva Ireland study trip to France in September: now fully booked! Pro Silva Ireland has been delighted with the growing interest in our annual study trips. This year's trip planned for September is now fully subscribed and 24 members will be participating in examining Close-to-Nature managed forests in Eastern France.
TEAGASC MASTERS WALSH FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY
“Exploration of the working properties and utilisation of small- diameter Irish-grown alder (Alnus glutinosa)” GMIT Teagasc
Rodney was one of the original founding members of Pro Silva, a signatory of the declaration of Robanov Kot (1989), the Pro Silva founding document. It is his championing of Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF), a term he was instrumental in defining and promoting, that will stand perhaps as his greatest legacy. He was the first chairman of the Continuous Cover Forestry Group (CCFG) and was responsible for establishing a formal association with ProSilva.
The focus of the Pro Silva Ireland Autumn field day will be early management of 1st generation oak plantation. We will be joined on the day by the Head Cooper from Irish Distillers in Middleton Co. Cork. Ger is a 5th generation cooper who has spent his life working with oak and knows the quality requirements of oak for coopering better than anyone. In recent years, Irish Distillers have been working with Pro Silva Ireland members to sustainably source high quality oak for coopering.
Pro Silva Ireland’s next Forest Open day is in Coole Park, Gort, Co. Galway on Saturday 23rd May 2015 with guest forester Huw Denman and ecologist Faith Wilson.
The focus of the day will be on how Continuous Cover Forestry can deliver benefits for nature conservation, biodiversity and landscape.
Phil Morgan, President of ProSilva Europe and known to many ProSilva Ireland members recently wrote an article on "The Case for Continuous Cover Forestry". The Forestry & Timber News Journal has kindly allowed us to re-publish the article here.
joint UK Continuous Cover Forestry Group (CCFG)/ProSilva Ireland study visit to Southern Poland next summer (2015), provisionally arriving on Wed 24th June and leaving on Sat 27th June
In the recent edition of the Irish Forestry journal (Vol 70, 2013) two articles detail, review and advance the scientific aspects of continuous cover forestry in Ireland. With thanks to the Society of Irish Foresters, these papers are now available to download here:
The COFORD (Irish Forest Research Institute) LISS project is a four year project now in its third year aimed at developing a greater understanding of Low Impact Silvicultural Systems and their use in Ireland.
ONE of Coillte’s oldest woods provided a living textbook for Close-to-Nature Continuous Cover forestry at Prosilva Ireland’s summer open forest day, at Rahin Wood, Co. Kildare, April 2013
