Chairs 2008

ConFor’s South West Woodland Show 14 September 07; race day 17 April 07

ConFor’s South West Woodland Show will be held on Friday 14th September at Devon and Exeter Racecourse, Haldon, near Exeter, Devon and in the adjoining Forestry Commission woodlands. This is a biennial event alternating with the International Forestry Exhibition. Part of the arrangement with the racecourse is that ConFor sponsors a race at Exeter racecourse and that race day will be 17 April 07.

The South West Woodland Show is a popular event, attracting exhibitors from across the country and visitors mainly from south and west England and Wales. It has a regional focus so there is some emphasis on smaller forestry equipment suitable for the steep wooded valleys characteristic of southwest England.

The show has been held over the last 12 years and is run by a volunteer committee, which includes representatives from the Southwest Forest, Southwest Woodfair, Forestry Commission and others, supported by a paid secretary, Leslie Woodhead. She and her husband Bob, who have a forestry contracting business, are well known in the region and beyond, partly because of their practical organisation of various forestry-related events.

Over the last few years, there have been a number of changes in the committee, most of whom have served since the outset. There is now a good mixture of experience and new blood, so next year’s event promises lots of innovative ideas.

The tour is dedicated to the study of woodland management on an environmental basis as part of sustainable land use. Sustainable land use has received a major impetus since the United Nations Commission on Economic Development (UNCED) summit at Rio 15 years ago. The new definition states that forest resources and forest lands should be sustainably managed to meet the social, economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual needs of present and future generations (United Nations, 2001). Consequently alternative forms of woodland management have been introduced to the United Kingdom for which various terms have been coined such as continuous cover forestry and near-natural forestry.
These alternative forms of woodland management have been practiced for generations in Germany. I have specifically selected North Germany as a study area because site conditions are similar to those found in Britain. This and the fact that alternative management practices were only introduced 10-20 years ago allows a detailed study of growth and ecological processes involved whilst providing a vision and demonstrating techniques that can be taken home.

The tour programme will include

• the management of mixed and uneven-aged stands along the German North sea coast in a particularly windy climate, afforestation of former agricultural land with mixed broadleaves/conifers (Schleswig-Holstein),



• regeneration of mixed stands on poor sandy soils under a first generation Scots pine canopy, underplanting of oak and beech under Scots pine canopy, management of valuable Douglas fir woodlands (Lower Saxony: Lüneburg Heathlands),



• the management of mixed ash-sycamore-beech, Norway spruce-beech and oak-beech woodlands (Lower Saxony: Göttinger Wald, Solling, Harz mountains),



• grazing experiments, restoration of ancient wood pastures, wildlife management involving the re-introduction of the lynx,



• restoration of ancient woodland sites,



• half a day of lectures on the topics of the tour by specialists from the University of Göttingen,



• practical information on individual tree silviculture including tree marking for thinnings and the frame tree method; training in silvicultural systems,



• identification and discussion of soils and ground vegetation,



• identification of trees and vascular plants, the role of indicator species.



• The study tour will be co-organised and hosted by the Forestry Services of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, the University of Göttingen and the directors of the Forestry Research Stations of Lower Saxony.

Costs: ~ £460 per person including transport, accommodation, breakfast and tuition. Places are limited. First come first served.
A specific website (Blackboard) will provide detailed information on the tour as planning goes ahead.

Interested? For more information please contact:
Dr Arne Pommerening, arne.pommerening@bangor.ac.uk