The next RFF forum is to be held on 8th November, at the Mechanics Institute (103 Princess Street, (Major Street entrance), Manchester, M1 6DD).
Full agenda details to follow shortly, but please register your interest in coming to this event by clicking here and following the instructions.
An email survey will soon be sent to you, and it’s your opportunity to tell us how you think we’re doing, and what you think we should do differently.
The Regional Forestry Framework partnership is consulting with all its contacts throughout August, to find out what people think about the delivery of the Framework to date, how effective and useful communication has been, and what ideas people have for the future of the Framework. The email survey, which will be distributed across the full Framework mailing list, will also provide people with an opportunity to nominate new contacts and partners for the Framework’s work.
The findings of the survey will form part of the action plan review, which will take place between September 2009 and Spring 2010.
The first Framework action plan was produced in 2006, to drive delivery of the Framework and to establish real projects that could change the shape of the region’s woodland and forestry sectors. Three years on, the partnership is preparing to create a new plan for the next three years.
The current action plan mirrors the main Framework and sets targets in each of the six action areas. An annual review of the plan has shown that the majority of these targets are being met (in 2008, 95% of actions were progressing on or ahead of schedule). The partnership is now reviewing the plan, to create a new set of projects and goals. Importantly, this action plan will be carefully aligned with both the national Strategy for England’s Trees, Woods and Forests Delivery Plan and the Northwest Regional Strategy 2010, (or RS 2010, the document that will steer all economic, social and environmental actions for the region). The Regional Forestry Framework partnership are already inputting into RS 2010 to ensure that forestry is a key element.
The new Framework action plan will be launched in Spring 2010.
The Forestry Commission is currently working with the University of Central Lancashire, the prison service and other partners across the Northwest, to create opportunities for offenders to work in the natural environment.
Work can range from dry stone walling to tree planting and footpath construction, and much of the activity is carried out in the region’s woodlands and nature reserves.
Through involvement in the ‘Greener on the Outside’ project, offenders have reported being ‘less stressed’ and ‘happier’, leading to improved staff / prisoner relationships. As importantly, evaluation work carried out by the Healthy Settings Unit at Uclan has discovered that long term outcomes of the project include improved employability prospects for prisoners after they leave prison, and an improved attitude to training and skills development.
Initial work has focused on activity with Haverigg prison in Cumbria (BTCV working as the training delivery agent on Forestry Commission and Natural England sites). This trial has led to partners taking the Greener on the Outside activity to a larger number of prisons through the Groundwork Target: Wellbeing scheme.
Over the coming year (2009) The Northwest Regional Forestry Action Plan will continue to deliver on all six of its action areas. However, the partnership will also enter a period of review to evaluate the work that has taken place to date, and plan for the future. This will help to inform the regional response to Defra’s new England’s Trees, Woodlands and Forests Strategy (ETWF) Delivery Plan, which was released on 16.12. The next meeting of the Framework steering group will take place in the New Year, when we will start the process of developing a new three year Regional Forestry Action Plan that will be launched in September 2009.
A period of consultation will commence in the next year, please see www.iwood.org.uk for updates.
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 |
We had a Forest School workshop at the Regional Forestry Framework
Annual Forum and below are a few of the ideas we had on actions. Please
let us know if you agree or have more to add.
- We agreed current action in the RFF action plan (action number 30) was
valid and there is a role to be played by RFF partners at a strategic
regional level (in spite of FS being bottom up and locally led)
- LA’s - we agreed ultimate goal was to get FS mainstreamed by LA
Childcare services. This has happened in others areas of the country
such as Shropshire. I remembered after workshop that Rochdale maybe
already doing this in region. We agreed would be good to share any
learning about how this has been achieved. Evidence of benefits
(educational, health, personal development, physical co-ordination etc.)
does exist (FR report) but need to communicate the benefits of FS as a
learning environment. There are many barriers to schools participating
such as H&S, supervision, cover etc. The Learning Outside the Classroom
manifesto could help with funding such things as transport if have to
travel. Also potential links to new 6th form diplomas (land based).
Often FS start as solution for certain groups of people such as
exclusions, special needs and early years. A route in to LA’s can be to
offer opportunities for such groups.
- Promotion - agreed need to promote FS to schools/LA’s - NW Cluster is
running 4/5 taster sessions for teachers. See flier for first one
attached.
- Training - people are being trained and it would be useful to know who
they are. The NW Cluster are building a directory of trained FS folk
(name, contact details and level).
- Sites - there a few things which can help with finding sites. We all
agreed local sites close to school are the ideal. By Christmas the
accessible woodland directory will be available on RFF Iwood website
which could help to locate already accessible woodlands in local area,
although we know this isn’t necessarily same as access for FS and
records are incomplete. I will let you all know when this is available
and ask for your feedback on usefulness then. Also FC and other RFF
partners such as the woodland initiatives have good links with many
landowners and can often help. Also there are FC woodlands throughout
region which can be used as FS locations - it can be managed through our
permissions system. This experience could also be used to help other
landowners manage FS access.
- Improved access - the FC runs the English Woodland Grant scheme -
these grants support both woodland creation and management including
creating access. We will look at how we can either use our existing
Woodland Improvement Grant (WIG) access grant or create a specific FS
WIG as other regions in England have done. Our creation grant this year
included awarding regional points for creation of education access.
- Forest Education Initiative (FEI) - agreed important to liaise and
update FEI.
One area included in current action which we didn’t get time to discuss
are exploration of links to eco-schools and healthy schools so any
thoughts on this please let me know but I’m sure eco-schools will be
receptive to FS. We also touched briefly on school grounds as potential
locations for FS and I know Mersey Forest are targeting those they have
worked with on grounds or with CF sites close by for taster session.
At end of workshop I said I would try to set up an e-network of those
interested in FS’s, just so folk can email round information as and when
to keep others up-to-date with developments in the region. Please let me
know if you wish to be added to this list.
Penny
I’ve just been sent a story by Richard Denyer of the Forestry Commission’s Regional Advisory Committee (thanks Richard) about a possible new British Standard that could see thousands of mature trees across Britain chopped down for posing a risk to human health, even though more people die each year in the bath, falling downstairs or toppling out of bed than get squashed by a toppling tree: in fact, you’re only twice as likely to come to a grisly end through brutal contact with bark than you are to get struck by lightening.
Now the British media loves a story about the nanny state curtailing an ever more paltry set of personal freedoms but this one does give cause for alarm. As reported in the Economist, the Daily Mail and the Times last week, every tree in the country could be up for inspection under the new BSI number and could face felling if they pose a risk. Landowners will be overjoyed no doubt, being required to inspect each tree, every year, possibly paying for the cost of the inspection as well as registering for the new British Standard.
This coming as those of us concerned with trees, woodland and forestry become increasingly worried about the unchecked and relatively unmonitored ‘chainsaw massacre’ that is befalling urban tree cover and which the Northwest Forestry Framework is trying to get to grips with through a region-wide assessment of how we are faring with regard to trees and tree cover in our towns and cities.
It may be a small storm and I may be misreading the press reports, but this is one to watch, and watch carefully.
The BSI’s draft recommendations for tree safety are out for public consultation until the end of July. If you want to comment, it could cost you though as the download carries a price tag of £36 for non-members.
http://www.bsi-global.com/en/Shop/Publication-Detail/?pid=000000000030174363
Natural England have recently announced the launch of a new Countdown 2010 Biodiversity Action Fund. They have secured £5 million for the next three years to fund projects run by Voluntary Conservation Organisations. Natural England will be funding projects that can demonstrate how they will benefit BAP priority species and habitats in England through working at a landscape-scale, developing the evidence base, protecting the best sites, working in partnerships and being sustainable. The application process will be open from 22 May to 18 July 2008 and Natural England hope to be able to announce awards by the start of September. Awards will be for a min of £25k per year and up to a max of £250k per year.
Full details are now available on the external website: www.naturalengland.org.uk/conservation/grants-funding/countdown.htm
Main contact: Trudie Mills (Biodiversity, Plants & Fungi Team) - 01733 455185.
Email: countdown2010@naturalengland.org.uk
So here’s the breaking news: our Rural Development Plan for England which runs through to 2013 was given a final thumbs up from the European Union on 7 December (with a number of changes made to the Environmental Stewardship programme and to the support programme for energy crops). This means that we can start implementing this £3.9 million programme in the New Year, with ourselves at the NWDA, Natural England and the Forestry Commission responsible for one or more of the strands of support that it brings to the rural community: clearly it will be of pivotal importance to the businesses we’re keen to support from the woodland and forestry sector. One early challenge for the three agencies outlined above is how we can make sure that we intertwine our programmes across the region to get maximum value out of the new programme of funding and, naturally, I’m going to be keenly focused on how we can boost enterprise, innovation and business growth in the sector we’re focused on here on the blog: forestry.
Ours is not the biggest sector in the region but with almost 70,000 employees and turnover of almost half a billion, we do matter and we can do a great deal to contribute to a sustainable and prosperous regional future. Ranging from forestry services to timber processing and forestry products, our sector is distinctive in that it processes and adds value to timber resources often sourced from elsewhere: we’re not the biggest source of timber but we have significant strengths when it comes to using it and working with it.
And that’s a clear theme for the future. We want to work in 2008 to continue to ’sex up’ wood as a sustainable and stylish resource for the future. Whether it’s as an architectural material, a key ingredient of landscaping or as a power source, we want to work hard in the forthcoming year to position wood as the material of choice across a whole series of supply chains. Our signature activity on this front will be a conference and campaign we’re calling ‘Form>Wood’, which we hope will raise the bar for using wood, particularly in construction and the built environment.
We kicked off work on Form>Wood this year but that’s not been the sole focus of this action area. We also have started a dialogue with members of the forestry industry in the region about better pulling them together as a sector to share information, promote themselves and achieve greater levels of shared efficiency, and I’d like to thank all of those who came to our planning meeting on this topic at the Red Rose Hub at the end of November. We’ve also seen a users and producers group established in the Mersey Forest area this year and another boost for the sector was the awarding of ‘Centre of Vocational Excellence’ status to the National School of Forestry at Myerscough College.
So good work completed but much, much more to come in the New Year, and if I had a particular wish it would be for us to establish a greater prominence here in the Northwest for the organisations that represent the sector - such as EFIP or Confor - to help us build a bigger profile for an area of industry that really can be a cornerstone of a sustainable, economically sound future for the region.
