Item 13 North York Moors National Park Authority 18 December 2017 Forest Design Plan Consultations – Silton Forest (FDP 35) 1. Purpose of the Report 1.1 To agree the Authority’s response to the Silton Forest Design Plan. 2. Background 2.1 Forest Enterprise (FE) produces a strategic plan for each of its larger forest areas which sets out the longer term aims and objectives, as well as more detailed management proposals for a ten year period. The Authority has been provided with a copy of the final draft revised plan for Silton Forest covering years 2017 to 2026. The area covered is shown on the map in Appendix 1. 2.2 The National Park Authority is a statutory consultee on the Forest Design Plan (FDP). The plan is currently open for public consultation after which the plan will be due for approval (with or without amendments) by Forest Services (the regulatory part of the Forestry Commission). 2.3 FDP’s consist of a written statement of the main management issues and are supported by a series of plans which illustrate the main felling and restocking proposals, as well as other background plans which have guided the management options being proposed. With the electronic report presentation format it is now practical to reproduce all the design plan documentation which is located in Appendix 2. Any queries on the presentation of information in these documents can be made to officers prior to the meeting. 3. Silton Forest – Description 3.1 The 461 hectare forest comprises a single block of forest plantations situated towards the western edge of the National Park between Thimbleby and Over Silton. It falls within the Western Fringe Landscape Character Area. The land is mainly freehold with some areas on Thimbleby Bank held under a long term lease. The majority is recorded as being planted in the 1950’s and 60’s on land that was previously rough pasture. Historic maps indicate that some earlier plantations and enclosed farmland was present and the higher ground would have included moorland. 3.2 At the last FDP review in 2003 approximately 80% of the forest area was under coniferous tree cover with broadleaves and open ground accounting for 10% each. Significant harvesting activity since this time has led to a current composition of 66% coniferous, 13% broadleaved, 11% recently felled, and 10% open ground. Projections in the Plan for 50 and 100 years into the future maintain similar levels of conifer cover with broadleaf increasing to 22% and open/felled ground to 12%. The current Plan (2003) proposed a higher proportion of open/felled ground at 19%. 65 3.3 The forest is situated on escarpment and gently sloping plateau. The scarp slopes are visible from numerous viewpoints to the west and a large proportion of the forest can be seen from elevated positions on the Cleveland Way and other points on high ground. The Plan considers that landscape sensitivity ranges from medium to high across Thimbleby Bank, Over Silton Moor and Nether Silton Moor. Internally landscape sensitivity is considered low to medium. 3.4 The Plan states that 55% of the forest will be managed under long-term retentions or low impact silvicultural systems (mainly Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF)). Under CCF tree felling is restricted to thinning and small scale felling resulting in at least two age classes of trees present at any one time in a given area. Large scale clear felling and restocking which is the more common practice in UK forestry is avoided. In total under the new Plan Forest Enterprise is requesting approval to fell 31 hectares of conifer with 20 hectares being restocked with broadleaved species and the remainder with a range of conifer species. 3.5 Freehold land within the forest is designated as open access land. There is a network of forest roads, rights of way and forest rides. There are links to the Cleveland Way and the National Cycle Network. The forest is a very popular recreational destination locally. 3.6 Natural heritage includes a range of flora, fauna and habitat. The moorland margins are contiguous with the North York Moors SSSI, SPA, and SAC with 1.8 hectares of this within Forest Enterprise’s ownership along the eastern boundary. There are no Ancient Woodland Sites. National and regionally important species present are listed within Appendix 2. 3.7 Cultural heritage includes in excess of 50 recorded historic features. There are no scheduled monuments. 4. Objectives 4.1 A summary of the FDP objectives for Silton Forest are set out below; x Maintain and improve the ecological, cultural and heritage value of these woods; x Improve the resilience of the natural environment and realise the potential of these woods for nature and wildlife; x Encourage communities to become involved across these woods, its management and direction though consultation in planning and participation in volunteering; x Maintain and improve the forest’s contribution to the surrounding landscape character by increasing species and structural diversity; x Maintain the land within our stewardship under UK Woodland Assurance Scheme (UKWAS) certification; x Improve the economic resilience of these woods from a more diverse range of site appropriate conifer and broadleaf species. 5. Comment 5.1 There has been a significant amount of harvesting undertaken at Silton under the last Plan. This includes both large scale clear felling on the plateau adjacent to the moorland (Appendix 2 – views 1 and 2) through to smaller scale felling on the lower ground and scarp slopes. In addition, approximately 30% of the forest has been thinned. This activity is delivering biodiversity and landscape benefits through increased structural and species diversity as well as the felling of some dense single species plantations in prominent locations. 66 5.2 In the new Plan the adoption of CCF over a large proportion of the area is welcomed as it reduces the visual impact of felling operations. The area under CCF in the 2017 Plan has increased from 136 to 249 hectares. Also welcome is the increase in transitional open space and broadleaved components. Buffer zones are to be created along the watercourses with expected benefits to ecology and water quality. Over time it is expected that the Plan will deliver a more diverse forest with greater contribution to National Park purposes while maintaining timber production objectives. 5.3 The most significant variations from the current Plan are the proposals for future management of the upper elevations of the forest at High Grain Moor, Over Silton Moor and Nether Silton Moor. In the 2003 Plan an area of approximately 100 hectares was assigned to be managed as “wooded heath,” defined as a mosaic of habitats with tree cover ranging from 30% to 70%. The 100 hectare area is shown on the annotated map at Appendix 3. The 2003 Plan proposed that a new stock fence would separate this area and that grazing and other vegetation control methods would be utilized to deliver a semi-natural open forest habitat. Overall tree cover was expected to be approximately 50%. At the time the drivers for this approach were; x Improve on the low ecological status of the current unthinned tree crops; x Improve the visual appearance of the forest; x The marginal suitability for economic timber production due to susceptibility to windthrow, high costs of establishment, poor growth rates and distance from road network. The Authority was highly supportive of the 2003 plan primarily on the clear landscape benefits, but also in respect of the expected gains for biodiversity. 5.4 The 2017 Plan proposes that the area of wooded heath is reduced from the current 100 hectares to 32 hectares adjacent to Thimbleby and Arden Moors with the remaining 68 hectares to be now managed as either productive conifer (30 hectares) or mixed woodland (38 hectares). These areas are now intended to be managed as follows; x Wooded heath: 32 hectares of wooded heath with tree cover maintained between 30% and 70% with a similar specification to the wooded heath of the 2003 Plan. Here conifers that start to dominate will be felled as they reach a commercial size. Seedling conifers that may have an impact at the landscape scale (such as is observed adjacent to Thimbleby Moor) will be removed at an early stage; x Mixed conifer: 30 hectares of well-established pine, spruce and birch regeneration will be thinned at the earliest economic opportunity to favour broadleaves and to maintain the heathland component that has regenerated well since the removal of the original plantation crop 13 years ago. These areas are scheduled to be clear felled between 2047 and 2062; x Mixed woodland: 38 hectares of land will be managed as mixed woodland and open ground under CCF. These areas are generally more recently felled plantation (8 years ago) that is regenerating with a wide range of conifer and broadleaved trees along with open ground which has good heathland components. The aim here is to maintain the current range of tree species and proportion of open space by selective thinning and small scale clear felling targeted to maintain and expand existing open habitats with permanent or transitional open ground. 67 The annotated map at Appendix 3 shows the location of the areas above including the boundary of the wooded heath from the 2003 Plan, with the mixed woodland CCF areas marked by a red boundary. The base map is from the 2017 Plan, Map 09 Proposed Habitat and Restock, in Appendix 2. 5.5 The main drivers for the changes to the proposals are: x Natural regeneration of a broad range of tree species on the felled sites has been prolific.