Illaun Farm-Forest Alliance: Fieldwork Results by Meadhbh Costigan

We knew from the start that it was a good idea to replace the spruce at the Illaun Farm-Forest with a whole bunch of native trees, shrubs, and flowering plants. But we weren’t sure of the best way to go about it.

We had heard of Continuous Cover Forestry, which would allow some spruce to be removed while leaving the rest in place to provide a protective canopy for new saplings. But introducing a massive disturbance like this to an ecosystem is bound to have both positive and negative effects on biodiversity. So we needed a way to measure these changes over time, in order to ensure our actions are as restorative and healing as possible.

Last year (2020), the UK Forestry Commission released a method for surveying woodlands that ranks a site’s ecological status as either “poor”, “moderate”, or “good”. Unsurprisingly, the results from the survey conducted at our spruce plantation returned a status of “poor”. But now we have valuable baseline data with respect to 13 measurable forest traits. From these, we can establish which aspects of the forest need protection and which ones should be changed. This will in turn guide our longer term management strategies and conservation efforts.

For example, the scores for herbivore damage, nutrient enrichment, and deadwood quantity were all as high as possible, so we want to make sure these don’t slip. Furthermore, the simple action of planting trees could increase the score across 7 of the 13 variables, including: tree age distribution; number of native tree species; percentage cover of native species; open space within the woodland; woodland regeneration; ground flora; and woodland vertical structure. Moreover, it suggests the conversion of spruce plantations to mixed-woodlands using CCF is worth exploring further.

In short, we can use this template to better direct our actions towards promoting woodland health. And we can repeat the survey next year, and in year 5, year 10, year 20…etc. in order to track changes over time.

It’s an exciting time to be doing what we do here at Hometree. And definitely cause for celebration!