I’ve been working on a plan, recently, to get some more trees in the ground. Nothing new there to anyone who has visited this blog before, but I thought it was time for an update.

 

I chair the Northwest Forestry Framework (soon to change it’s name to something more in keeping with the political zeitgeist, but more on that another time) and have been working with a whole host of people, both in the Northwest but also in the national offices of the Forestry Commission, to put forward several areas in the Northwest as possible pilot areas for a major national push on woodland creation.

 

As an area of England with a level of woodland cover well below the national average, there is scope and opportunity for large scale tree planting and development right across Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside. When you look at the statistics, we are poorly served in these areas when it comes to woodlands.

 

The good news is that each of these areas has also developed clever and canny new models for woodland creation that deliver multiple benefits and move beyond traditional public sector investment models towards partnerships with business and the voluntary sector.

 

It’s all very, ‘Big Society’.

 

Now these areas are signing up to a ‘forestry manifesto’ that I’ve been touting around the region since the start of the year. This manifesto seeks, over 40 years, to deliver a doubling in woodland cover, to have an immediate and significant impact on carbon stores, timber production, environmental resilience, green jobs, local image and happiness and wellbeing; this is a vision of an intensely productive, as well as beautiful, landscape.

 

Show me the money

 

It all sounds very motherhood and apple pie, but who is going to pay? There are a number of existing or planned investment models across the Northwest which warrant further development and replication elsewhere. These include:

 

• Woodland planting as a key aspect of PFI (Public Finance Initiative) contracts and, specifically, waste management strategies;

 

• Working with large-scale developers to create an attractive setting for investment and adding value to land-based asset portfolios;

 

• Practical business partnerships providing improved local area ‘image’, biomass resources or climate change adaptation;

 

• Woodland or green infrastructure bonds, where investors can support woodland creation by investing in a bond that provides non-fiscal benefits in lieu of interest payments as part of a CSR or sustainability strategy;

 

• Developing a suite of woodland creation opportunities alongside community interest levies/section 106 arrangements where developers support environmental works as a condition of their planning consents; and

 

• Integrated land use planning to maintain and improve water quality.

 

• Landscape-scale, economically-linked programmes to aid recovery and local economic resilience.

 

Some of the above options sound a little jargon laden, but they have the potential to help us get some trees in the ground, and that’s what I care about. Each of these investment models is either already in play across one of our counties or city regions, or is ready to be developed by one or more partners.

 

Breaking down barriers

 

From the discussions we’ve been having so far, these partners are ready to start delivering woodland creation, on the ground, if certain barriers to progress can be removed. These barriers include:

 

• The ‘Hope value’ attached to under-utilised land and the misplaced notion that new woodlands permanently remove large areas from possible future development;

 

• More flexible, short to medium term land use deals and frameworks that will allow the notion of ‘temporary’ woodland to be pursued;

 

• Clear signals on the future of carbon pricing and accounting in relation to woodland creation;

 

• The lack of a mechanism for business to report on the carbon benefits of woodland creation programmes as part of their net greenhouse gas emissions; and

 

• The consideration of effective tax regimes to encourage investment in new planting in areas of need as a way for business to play a part in ‘big society’ programmes.

 

Making it happen

 

So the exciting thing is that if we bash down a few barriers, win over some hearts and minds, and pull our fingers out, the partners in the Northwest Forestry Forum are ready to begin work piloting a new wave of woodland creation using innovative funding and delivery models such as these.

 

More trees, in the ground, delivering a huge range of benefits.

 

And the track record for delivery across the region is solid and impressive, with the Community Forests (e.g. Mersey Forest and Red Rose Forest) having already planted 12 million trees and millions more having been planted through the Forestry Commission’s Capital Modernisation Fund and Newlands programme.

 

Here are some more tangible examples of where can start planting.

 

Real life example - Mersey Belt

 

There is an immediate opportunity for an ‘Adapting the Landscape’ pilot across what has been coined the ‘Atlantic Gateway’, connecting the twin city regions of Greater Manchester and Merseyside with the Northern areas of Cheshire.

 

Such a pilot would be focused on woodland creation in and around key physical development sites and along transport corridors; on productive forestry including biomass; on leisure, recreation and the ‘visitor economy’.

 

Funding can be drawn from business through receipts from soils deposition, community interest levies, Section 106 agreements, through an easing of planning constraints if the creation of greenspace is assured and possible short-term amnesties against business tax.

 

Delivery partners would include large development businesses in the area, as well as the key Local Enterprise Partnerships and the voluntary sector in the form of community forests and Groundwork.

 

Real life example - Lancashire

 

In Lancashire there is already an innovative model for woodland creation in the form of the county’s ‘Woodlands from Waste’ programme linked to a soon to be commissioned, 25 year, £2 billion Waste PFI.

 

A partnership of Lancashire County Council, 13 Local Authorities and their commercial contractor, Global Renewables, alongside the Forestry Commission, will be planting and managing 100,000 new trees per year for the next 25 years - creating woodland on brown and greenfield sites across the area. The cost is being met through savings on landfill taxes and, in addition, is utilising a growing medium by-product of the waste treatment process.

 

Real life example - Cumbria and Lancashire

 

Water company United Utilities has pioneered a programme called the Sustainable Catchment Management Programme (SCaMP), working with farmers and land managers, local authorities, Government and other conservation organisations to influence how water catchment areas are managed and properly funded. The objective is a double win of improved water quality (under the European Water Framework Directive) as well as conservation of the natural environment. UU’s partner in the programme has been the RSPB.

 

The project has leveraged in public funding to help deliver an increase in clough woodland, with 450 hectares of upland oak woodland to be planted, some 300,000 trees being planted and 200km of fencing to allow for moorland restoration and woodland planting. It has carried out the work in two of its four estate areas: Bowland in Lancashire, and the Southern estate including Longdendale, the Goyt and parts of the Peak District.

 

Meeting Defra’s priorities

 

It may sound a bit arcane, but in the absence of any major eco bills or statements, there are still some clear signals as to what the new government’s priorities are, not least in the departmental ‘Structural Reform Plans’ which have beenpublished. How does the above outlined activity ‘fit’ with the three key priorities outlined in Defra’s structural reform plan?

 

The woodland creation opportunities highlighted can directly contribute to and foreshorten the delivery of each priority and relevant actions and milestones. Specifically:

 

Support and develop British farming and encourage sustainable food production

 

Defra’s objective is to enhance the competitiveness and resilience of the whole food chain, including farms and the fish industry, to ensure a secure, environmentally sustainable and healthy supply of food with improved standards of animal welfare.

 

Woodland creation can contribute to this objective in a number of ways. It will provide affordable measures of support for hill farmers via diversifying farm incomes e.g. through timber sales and reduced energy cost savings through woodfuel.

 

It will also help with animal husbandry, particularly in the uplands, primarily through the provision of shelter. Woodland creation will also lead to more sustainable, integrated land use where for example, higher value agricultural land holdings can be protected through woodland creation ‘upstream’ stablising soils and alleviating flooding.

 

Biodiversity and landscape

 

Defra’s objective is to enhance and protect the natural environment, including biodiversity and the marine environment, by reducing pollution and preventing habitat loss and degradation.

 

A pilot of new woodland creation in the Mersey Belt, Cumbria or Lancashire will contribute to this in a number of ways.

 

It will deliver more green spaces for local communities, new native habitats and wildlife corridors needed to help wildlife adapt to expected climate change impacts. It will help stabilise soils, improve water quality and reclaim damaged, brownfield land. In addition there will be increased tree planting by private sector and civic societies.

 

Support a strong and sustainable green economy, resilient to climate change

 

Defra’s objective is to encourage businesses, people and communities to manage and use natural resources in a sustainable manner and to reduce waste; and work to ensure that the UK economy is resilient to climate change.

 

A woodland creation pilot will directly address this objective, as the approaches above show, it can directly provide a source of carbon storage and can be deployed in partnership with the private sector.

 

Next steps

 

As you might imagine, I’m dead keen to play these arguments out to national players - especially Defra - but also to the emerging Local Economic Partnerships which have been causing such a stir in local politics over the last few weeks.

 

In addition, this proposal will be the centrepiece of our next meeting of the Forestry Forum on November 8 of this year; if you want to come along, just let me know. We need every bit of help we can get to achieve that goal we’ve set for ourselves - a doubling of woodland cover.

 

To view the Manifesto presentation online, please click here  (You can also download the presentation from this link too.)

 

 

 

 

The Regional Forestry Forum this year will take place on 15th October 2009, 2 – 4:30 pm

It will be held in Preston at The Gujarat Hindu Society Centre,South Meadow Lane,Preston,PR1 8JN

The Forum is of particular importance this year as we will refresh the current delivery plan and look to embed Forestry, in its widest sense, into the developing integrated regional strategy, RS2010. We will also assess progress on the current delivery plan and identify the key issues/opportunities for the sector.

The programme for the Forum meeting will follow but we hope that you will pencil this important meeting into your diaries and register your interest in attending the event through the link below.

We look forward to your involvement in continuing to develop the role of the Forestry sector in the North West.   Apologies for any cross-postings.

Location details:   http://www.ghsenterprise.co.uk/contact_ghs_centre.html

Click on the link to register:   http://www.doodle.com/8ezduam9s87a2bup

A dramatic 20m high sculpture, entitled Dream, has been unveiled at a public launch event at Sutton Manor, St Helens, the Forestry Commission managed site in the Mersey Forest..

Thousands of members of the local community and visitors from further afield attended the event on Sunday 31st May to celebrate the new sculpture, a joint commission by St Helens Council and ex-miners from the Sutton Manor Colliery, in St Helens, where the structure is now sited.

Dream takes the form of the head of a girl with her eyes closed. Designed by renowned artist Jaume Plensa, it is intended to become a ‘gateway’ feature for both Merseyside and Greater Manchester, symbolising the regeneration of the region.

The sculpture and the former coal mine site were chosen as part of Channel 4’s Big Art Project which aims to create new works of public art, commissioned by communities.
With support from The Forestry Commission, who put forward 10% of the funding required, it is hoped that the Dream site could form part of a network of green recreation sites within The Mersey Forest.

And Dream has more recently made the news again, when a climber from Haydock, referring to himself only as ‘Bigjobs’, scaled the statue barefoot, carrying a scrubbing brush to ensure his climb did not deface the artwork.

The University of Cumbria’s Newton Rigg campus is pursuing an aim to become completely carbon neutral, thanks to a range of projects undertaken by the National School of Forestry. Work that ranges from coppicing for woodfuel and studies of Cumbria’s biomass supply chains to systems that ensure university vehicles and boilers are as low carbon as possible are all playing their part.

The National School of Forestry is undertaking three different trials of biomass production systems. An existing coppice system has produced 600 tonnes of coppice over the past six months, whilst a ‘demonstration woodland’ is managed by one of the School’s UKERC (UK Energy Research Centre) PhDs, its biodiversity monitored in managed and unmanaged sections. The School has also just planted a small short rotation forestry trial in order to develop a short ‘self-guided’ tour through the campus.

The School is also examining the link between biomass and biodiversity, to ensure that the wider environment does not suffer through the production of biomass via short term tree planting. The School has recently been awarded a UKERC (UK Energy Research Centre) PhD to manage woodlands for biomass whilst maintaining and increasing biodiversity. This works alongside Butterfly Conservation at their woodlands in South Cumbria and North Lancashire.

Alongside a small internal project examining supply logistics of biomass, developing a GIS based system to look at supply from under-managed woodlands and how it might be used, the School is also working alongside Cumbria Woodlands to check the quality of biomass as used by local users. Initial results indicate that there are significant differences between the delivery specifications of biomass and the actual moisture content.

However, the School is not focused solely on wood and boasts an integrated ‘land-based’ approach in their commitment to low carbon initiatives. All farm vehicles now run on biodiesel produced from their newly operating biodiesel demo plant, soon to be the centre of a trial into oil fired heating boilers. Similarly, a biomass boiler is due to be installed in student residences in Autumn, using the School’s own coppice and woodland material, whilst  a ‘rocket’ composter has been added to campus, ensuring that all food waste can be processed.
Another UKERC PhD project looking at the sustainability and community acceptance of Palm oil production for biofuel is also underway.

Keep up to date with what the National School of Forestry and the Centre for Wildlife Conservation at the University of Cumbria are up to by reading their blog: https://portfolio.pebblepad.co.uk/cumbria/viewasset.aspx?oid=48158&type=blog

With a high proportion of process heat users in the region, rising fuel prices and the impending need to adapt to the effect of climate change, The Northwest Biomass Project could help a large percentage of Northwest companies move towards cost-effect low carbon energy sources.
This 30-month project (funded by the NWDA and co-ordinated by Envirolink Northwest) will identify and address weakness in the biomass supply chain and look at the actions that are needed to provide additional revenue to assist regional businesses looking to purchase bio energy equipment.
For further information, contact the Project Officer, Nigel Blandford at n.blandford@envirolinknorthwest.co.uk.

Update from Regional Forestry Framework Forum

 Feedback from the Forum was generally very positive with 88% responding that the event was good or excellent

  

QUESTION

POOR

ADEQUATE

GOOD

EXCELLENT

There were also positive responses about people wanting to be involved in the future refresh of the Framework and hearing more about it. There was a large response of “don’t know” to the question about whether the Framework has made a difference - something that has to be addressed in the refresh.

 

YES

NO

DON’T KNOW

A couple of years ago I added up all of the figures for tree planting across England’s Northwest. The statistics were drawn from the preceding five years and were made up of contributions from our Community Forests, local authorities, Forestry Commission, Northwest Regional Development Agency and Groundwork, to name just a few of the key players.

The bottom line, once the sums had been totted up, was a new tree being planted every ten seconds in this great region of ours. An impressive figure. A ‘killer stat’ to be proud of.

What I didn’t factor in, of course, was whether de facto levels of tree cover were going up or down, whether our ancient trees were being adequately protected or whether our support for new woodland areas was resulting in an increase or decrease in rates of tree planting.

These are some of the trickier issues that our Delivery Group has started to grapple with on behalf of the wider Northwest Forestry Framework community and in 2008 we’d like to report back to you on the progress we’re making, particularly on measuring levels of urban tree cover across the region. We believe that our urban spaces should be greener than ever, with all the climatic, civic and marketing advantages that green space delivers, and we’d like to get a handle on how we’re doing.

As my colleagues have set out elsewhere on this Blog, we’ve been making progress on working with industry, supporting the land reclamation sector, boosting the prospects for biomass and developing new, pioneering partnerships such as those with the health service or prison sectors.

Across the region, those working for woodlands and forestry have ensured in 2007 that we are successfully delivering against all of the major actions in our action plan or have instigated work to make sure that they’re tackled in 2008. Of the 47 actions in our plan, 43 are underway.

So I’m pleased to say that from my perspective we’ve hit a good number of our targets and are more than aware of those we need to focus on in the year ahead. We’re not resting on our laurels and we know there’s a lot to be done, but during our first full year of operation, the Northwest Forestry Framework has made real progress against our ‘Agenda for Growth’. What out for more of the same in 2008.

My wish list for the new year include:

•    News about funding commitments for biomass will be positive and create opportunities for developing the supply chain in the North West.

•    Work with the partners to continue the promotion of biomass fuel as a viable alternative to fossil fuels in the light of carbon saving and climate change concerns.

•    Promote and encourage the uptake of national funding schemes in the region to ensure that we have good examples and demonstration sites with which to influence decision makers.

All the best,

Helen

County Hall, Preston

1 October 2007

Here’s what happened - you came to the event, helped debate our forestry future, shared great ideas and great feedback, used a pretty handsome number of Post-It notes and, I hope, left feeling that you’d gained an overview of how we’re progressing and helped to refine our programme for the future. I’m really grateful to the 70-odd people who took the time to be with us last Monday, your time is much appreciated.

We’ve had a chance to analyse the feedback forms you gave us and I’m very pleased to report that when it came to the usefulness of the event for you, 67% of you felt that it was a ‘good’ event, 17% told us it was ‘excellent’ (thanks for that!) and another 17% told us it was ‘adequate’. Nobody rated the event as ‘poor’ but if you would like to tell us what we can do to improve things next time, let me know or (in truly transparent fashion) why not paste yout comments up here?

As for the progress we’re making more generally across the Forestry Framework, 18% of you thought progress was ‘adequate’, 73% thought we were making good progress and 9% thought that progress was ‘excellent’.

Thanks for your feedback and as I said at the Forum meeting, we plan to work a lot harder now to engage, communicate and listen to you, our key stakeholders in the future. We’ve had a year getting our house in order, finding out about who is working on what and generating a few ideas on projects and priorities, but now we need to re-engage with you, the people that make things happen on the ground.

Steve

The phrase ‘joined-up’ is the scourge of political sketch-writers and Plain English campaigners everywhere but it is, undoubtedly, a phrase that begs to be used in relation to the delivery of the Forestry Framework for England’s Northwest.

So use it we will.

We have spent the last year and a half joining things up and getting things done.

Our partnership is joined up: Government departments, local authorities and the voluntary sector are all playing a part in steering the delivery of our Framework. Our sector has also reached out and struck new and practical partnerships, such as with the health sector or our regional environmental technologies champion, Envirolink Northwest.

We have also joined-up our projects and actions where we can, in areas such as supporting the timber sector or greening our urban areas, we have seen different actions in our Framework bundled up into projects that could help us deliver on a number of fronts.

It may be jargon, but ‘joined-up’ works well to describe the Northwest’s Forestry Framework and the way it works.

Getting things done

As a cursory glance over the updates on this blog will show, there is co-ordinated activity across the region taking forward a host of actions set out in our ‘Agenda for Growth’. Of the 47 actions in our plan, 32 are underway and the remainder will almost all be coming onstream in the coming year.

So across our six areas of action we are genuinely helping to bring the businesses working in woodlands and forestry together more closely into a recognisable sector; we are enhancing our region’s image through greenspace development and we have plans for the transformation of gateway sites; we are supporting ‘greener’ farming and seeing the restoration of natural areas; we are making good links with the health sector, with education and with the prison service; we are putting efforts into developing biomass as a sustainable energy source within the region; and we are staying focused, in our sixth action area, on how we can keep improving our performance as a sector not least with the launch of a new Rural Development Programme for England.

And I am particularly pleased that we are planning a few, signature projects out of the Forestry Framework ‘stable’ that hit a number of our targets across differing action areas. These include a plan for a conference and PR campaign called ‘Form>Wood’ which will target the architecture, design and urban development sectors with the message that wood is the sustainable and contemporary material of choice. We are also launching a programme to really get to the heart of whether our urban tree cover is as healthy as we think it is or should be and will use the results of our surveying work to raise the game of our local authorities, in particular.So there is plenty of progress in greening the region and supporting the sector, but there are many, many challenges that remain.

Raising our game

We must continue to expand our partnerships beyond the usual suspects. We need to develop more joint projects like the recent Land Remediation Network we’ve established with Envirolink and we seriously need to improve our linkages to the private sector.

We need to ask ourselves, honestly, if we are trying to do too much or if the Framework is adding enough value to the region’s endeavours in our area.

We must ensure we are the very opposite of a talking shop: we must be a source of action, activity and transformation.

We have to reach out and ensure that a much wider audience hears of our progress and finds out what they can do to partner up with us and help deliver our programme. We must create more of a ‘buzz’ now that our projects and activities are taking form.

And we have to improve the entire sector’s performance in a few key areas.

We have to get better at influencing regional strategies and helping shape our region’s future; a new Regional Economic Strategy is being developed and we have on the horizon the prospect of an Integrated Regional Strategy which should have woodlands, forestry and greenspace as a key component; the true ‘setting’ for prosperity and growth.

We must do our part to deliver against the region’s Climate Change Action Plan, particularly in the adaptation to climate change impacts where woodlands forestry has the power seriously help to improve the resilience of both our rural and urban areas.

Finally we need to strive for ever better levels of design and delivery. If we are given the incredible opportunity of programmes like Newlands we must create spaces and places that inspire and transform communities; that rival anything, anywhere in the world; that make England’s Northwest a region that attracts talent, investment and trade.

What comes next?

In 2008 we will be working to freshen up our Action Plan in the face of new national and regional developments but there will be no new strategies or visions or frameworks in the next few years; we have our plan, our stakeholders have agreed it and we will be sticking at it until all of our actions are delivered and all of our promises are made good.

Alongside a few other key areas of regional endeavour, such as the knowledge economy, climate change and work to achieve greater levels of community cohesion; our sector - woodlands and forestry - has pivotal role to play in delivering a more sustainable region for the future, a greener future for England’s Northwest.