UK woodland guide published on using trees to slow floods

The Forestry Commission, Natural Resources Wales, Scottish Forestry and the Northern Ireland Forest Service have published the first UK-wide practice guide on using woodland to cut flood peaks.

Forest Research wrote it for landowners, managers, planners and flooding authorities. Trees change how water moves: they can hold and delay run-off. Cultivation, drains, forest roads and harvesting can do the opposite if they are put in the wrong place.

The guide says how to tell whether a community downstream is at risk, how to design a woodland so it helps rather than harms, and where a leaky dam is worth building. It is meant to sit under the UK Forestry Standard, not beside it.

Richard Stanford, for the Forestry Commission, said woodlands already cut peaks and that operations must not put them back. Dominic Driver, for Natural Resources Wales, said bad forest work can undo the gain and that NRW will use the guide when it manages and regulates forestry in Wales.

That is the story. It is a manual, not a ribbon-cutting, and it is not the Senedd.

Source: Forestry Commission / NRW / GOV.UK, 25 October 2022 · Liberty Lux News