Forestry England's Yorkshire District is consulting on a newly revised forest plan for Deer Park Wood. The long term vision for Deer Park woods is to continue the gradual increase of native broadleaf cover, manage veteran trees and their surrounding habitat to improve or maintain their...
Closes 30 June 2023
The Salcey and Yardley Chase Forest Plan sets out the long term management objectives for Salcey Forest and eight outlying woodlands collectively known as Yardley Chase Woods. The forest plan area covers 1,069 hectares A forest plan defines the long term vision for a woodland or a...
Closed 9 June 2023
Forest plans define the long term vision for a woodland or a collection of woodlands and set out how management will move towards achieving this vision over the next ten years. We would like to invite you or your organisation to leave some feedback on our proposed revision to the forest...
Closed 17 April 2023
We would like to invite feedback on the proposed Birklands Forest Plan. The Birklands Forest Plan area is 587ha and situated in North Nottinghamshire, between the villages of Market Warsop and Edwinstowe, approximately 9km NE of Mansfield centre. Forest plans...
Closed 15 April 2023
We, Forestry England, provide access to the nation’s forests to the public, this includes providing suitable and safe access to those who enjoy recreational riding. We support riding access and absolutely recognise the importance of providing safe off-road riding. It is for this reason that we have...
Closed 9 April 2023
Forest Plans define the long-term vision for a woodland or a collection of woodlands and set out how management will move towards achieving this vision over the next ten years. We would like to invite you or your organisation to leave some feedback on our proposed revision to the Forest...
Closed 2 March 2023
Here are some of the issues we have consulted on and their outcomes. See all outcomes
Consultation for the Surrey Hills Forest Plan was open for six weeks from late January to the beginning of March 2023. We emailed a group of consultees and put posters up at entrances to our Surrey Hills woods, directing people to this online survey.
There were 31 responses to the Surrey Hills Forest Plan survey. 26 respondents answered question 1 (do you agree that the plan achieves an appropriate balance of social, economic, and environmental objectives for the woodland?). Of these 26 respondents, 16 answered yes to question 1, while 15 answered no.
The majority of those who disagreed with question 1 feel that Forestry England need to consider the needs of mountain bikers more, although most recognised the importance of the woodlands to other groups such as horse-riders and walkers. Other replies expressed views on the use of native tree species (both for and against), the potential for conflicting use of the woods by different user groups, and on their opinion that the plan needed to talk more about biodiversity management.
Of the 31 responses to question 2 (how well does the plan address your needs and interests or those of your organisation?), roughly two thirds of respondents answered OK, Well or Very Well, while the remainder answered Poor or Very Poor. Although generally positive, the majority of respondents still have concerns about representation of the views of mountain bikers, and conflicts between user groups similar to the answers to question 1.
Forestry England’s response:
Our Forest Plans are strategic documents, and not intended to deal with site-specific recreation management issues (other than to show our awareness of them where necessary). Our Land Management and Recreation Teams will continue to engage with different user-groups about how we manage our woods for their benefit.
In areas of Planted Ancient Woodland with non-native trees, we will continue to gradually restore to native species as dictated by Government policy, and by the need to make our woods more resilient to climate change.
For your responses and feedback to the draft 2023 Grizedale Forest Plan. Parish councils were notified for comment and shared the plan amongst residents, and posters were placed in car parks, forest entrances and the visitor’s centre.
Our consultation received 22 responses from members of the public raising a wide range of topics. Positive comments included praise for the quick clean-up of key routes following storm Arwen, and appreciation for the forest environment we manage. Constructive criticism and negative comments were mostly regarding recreation infrastructure; however some forest management concerns were also raised.
Comments regarding recreation infrastructure in the forest. Forest plans don’t directly address recreation – they are land management documents for long-term forest management and resilience. Many comments from mountain bikers regarding condition of existing infrastructure, potential for provision of more trails and working with other groups, and the bike shop. Comments relating to cycling infrastructure have been passed to the relevant recreation staff. The North Face trail has been closed following the winter storms and plans are being made to reinstate and enhance this offer in 2023-24, taking into account the views of customers and our onsite bike hire provider. Some comments drawing attention to the omission of horse riders from the plan The forest plan has been updated to include reference to horse riders as well as walkers and cyclists. Horse riders should be reassured that Grizedale will continue to offer over 80km of roads and paths, and 32km of bridleway open for use by horse riders. For more information on horse riding in Grizedale, please see the following webpage: https://www.forestryengland.uk/grizedale/horse-riding-grizedale Comments about potential for improved provision for motorsport and vehicle users on unsurfaced county roads (UCRs). Motorsport events in the forest are managed through a national agreement between Forestry England and Motorsport UK. Please contact your relevant Motorsport UK club if you have an idea for additional events or improvements for motorsport in the forest in the future. UCRs present in the forest are managed by the local highway’s authority and concerns about their condition or potential changes to these roads should be directed to Cumbria County Council, or Westmorland and Furness Council from 1st April 2023. Concern about damage to potentially rare roadside vegetation We welcome any information members of the public may have about interesting flora or fauna in the forest. If you have spotted a species of interest, we would encourage you to record this find using the iNaturalist application as part of our ‘Forest Find’ project, this way the species found can be recorded and protected as appropriate. For more information on the Forest Find project, see the following webpage: https://www.forestryengland.uk/forest-find Concerns about Forestry England’s deer management and squirrel management strategies Deer numbers can become too large for their habitat to support them. Grazing by large populations of deer reduces plants and animal diversity in the forest which can in turn affect soils and release carbon. Deer can also damage or kill young trees by damaging bark and lower branches, preventing forests from regenerating. We manage deer populations to look after our forests sustainably. Our highly skilled wildlife rangers replace the role of Britain’s missing predators by sensitively and humanely controlling deer populations in woods. Our expert staff use trained working dogs to track and find deer. For more information on Forestry England's deer policy, please see the following webpage: https://www.forestryengland.uk/article/managing-deer-the-nations-forests Similarly grey squirrels represent a risk to restocking operations, and also have a significant impact on woodland biodiversity, and in particular the native red squirrel. As such Forestry England staff work with Red Squirrels Northern England to humanely control the population of grey squirrel in the forest. Concerns about suspected trail hunting Forestry England suspended trail hunting in the nation’s forests in 2020, and this activity is currently under review. If you suspect unauthorised hunting is taking place in the forest or on land we manage, please visit the following webpage: https://www.forestryengland.uk/trail-hunting Concerns about the use of chemicals in the forest At Grizedale forest we make use of fallow periods between felling and restock to minimise the need for use of insecticides, however in some instances the targeted application of pesticides is necessary to ensure successful planting takes place. The use of chemicals in forestry settings is closely regulated. Forestry England operations are planned using the principles set out in the UK Forestry Standard, and are certified against the UK Woodland Assurance Standard by an independent auditor. For more information about how we apply chemicals, please see section 6.7 of the UK Forestry Standard, and Section 3.4 of the UK Woodland Assurance Standard. |
The external consultation for the Long Mynd Forest Plan was open for six weeks in January / February 2023. Posters were put up at six points where public rights of way enter the forest, directing people to an online survey. In addition, emails were sent specifically to organisations and groups who we felt have an interest in how the site is managed eg parish councils, the Commoners Association and the local mountain biking shop.
Six of the 19 respondents to the survey describe themselves as neighbours / forest users. Seven responses were received from members of the Long Mynd and District Bridleways Association. The other respondents were Historic England, Shropshire Council's Historic Environment Team, Natural England, the National Trust and the Shopshire Hills AONB.
Feedback from forest users was generally positive:
although there was disappointment that the plan does not say much about mountain biking.
Forestry England comment:
One respondent was concerned about litter and asked what we can do to prevent it.
Forestry England comment:
And someone else asked us to “stop cutting down trees”.
Forestry England comment:
The responses from the Long Mynd and District Bridleways Association expressed their concerns that they hadn’t been consulted directly and therefore had not had time to formulate a response.
Forestry England comment:
Historic England and the Shropshire Council Historic Environment Team were pleased to see the inclusion of a scheduled monument plan for the bronze age bowl barrow, but pointed out that unscheduled historic features should be protected too.
Forestry England comment:
Natural England, the National Trust and the Shropshire Hills AONB recognise the challenge of balancing competing land uses – timber production, recreation, biodiversity – and appreciate that our Forest Plan places the creation of dynamic habitat high up on our agenda.
However, they would have liked us to create a greater amount of dynamic habitat to act as a buffer between the forest and the neighbouring heathland SSSI, and would like us to move away from a forest dominated by conifers managed by clearfelling, towards greater habitat diversity and variety of management systems, in order to protect soils and watercourses.
Forestry England comments:
Forestry England – westenglandplanning@forestryengland.uk
February 2023