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This Practice Guide provides advice to forest managers, practitioners, planners and supervisors, on how forest operations should be planned and managed to protect the water environment.

This Practice Guide provides advice to forest and woodland owners, managers and planners on creating, designing and managing riparian woodland to protect and enhance riparian and aquatic habitats.

Flooding is a major environmental hazard facing the UK and one that is expected to increase with climate change. Societal impacts and economic damages are likely to escalate, with major floods already costing multiple £billion. These concerns are driving a more sustainable approach to flood risk management involving greater working...

Our climate is changing rapidly, with milder, wetter winters, warmer summers, longer growing seasons and more frequent extreme conditions, including drought periods and heavy rainfall events. The projected rate of climate change is unprecedented and therefore action is essential now to improve the resilience of forests and woodlands, and to...

This guide will help forest managers and agents in Scotland decide the best future management option for afforested deep peat sites (defined here as soils with a peat layer of 50 cm or more). It explains the principles and assessment methods of the ‘Forestry on peatland habitats’ supplementary guidance that...

The proportion of open space in many forests and woodlands is increasing as forest management plans are implemented and forests are restructured. Landowners and forest managers are increasingly being encouraged to manage this ground for biodiversity objectives but in some situations the management of open ground may be more complex...

Atmospheric pollution in the form of acid deposition has been dramatically reduced since international controls on emissions were introduced in the 1980s. However, acidification still affects acid-sensitive regions of the UK, damaging fisheries and causing adverse ecological changes in freshwaters. Forestry is known to influence the degree of acidification, principally...

Forest management plans are the key reference documents for monitoring and assessing forests and forestry practice in Britain. They define and communicate forest and woodland management proposals, set out how sustainable forest management is to be achieved and describe the consequences of management activities over time. Forest management planning involves...

Wildfire events are predicted to increase in frequency in the UK due to increased land-use pressure and climate change. Wildfires can have a number of impacts on sustainable forest management and, in some extreme cases, may have devastating human and environmental consequences. Reducing the incidence and impact of wildfires in...

The restoration of plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS) to native woodland communities is a challenging objective that requires more management input than simply re-creating a stand of site native species. All sites differ, and optimising the choice of methods thorough site assessment is necessary before restoration starts. Where there...

Deadwood is a vital component of a properly functioning forest ecosystem. It plays an important role in sustaining biodiversity and in delivering ecosystem services such as soil formation and nutrient cycling. In the UK up to a fifth of woodland species depend on dead or dying trees for all or...

The guidance set out in this Practice Guide represents a step forward in our thinking about the benefits of the outdoors for health and well-being. It aims to inspire everyone involved with outdoor spaces in healthcare settings to think how they could be used for therapeutic purposes. Focusing on outdoor...