Forestry England is a division of the
Forestry Commission, responsible for managing and promoting
publicly owned forests in
England. It was formed as Forest Enterprise in 1996, before devolving to Forest Enterprise England on 31 March 2003 and then being rebranded to Forestry England on 1 April 2019.
Its mission is to connect everyone with the nation’s forests by creating and caring for England's forests for people to enjoy, wildlife to flourish and businesses to grow. It operates under the Forestry Act(s) and subsequent legislation and is part of the Civil Service and an
Executive Agency of the
Forestry Commission.
Operation
Forestry England is headquartered in
Bristol, and for organisational purposes it divides England into six forest regions each with their own regional office:
*North England, based in
Bellingham, Northumberland near
Hexham
Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden, Northumberland, Warden nearby, and ...
.
*Yorkshire, based in
Pickering, North Yorkshire.
*Central England, based in
Mansfield
Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...
,
Nottinghamshire.
*West England, based in
Coleford, Gloucestershire.
*East England, based in
Santon Downham, Suffolk.
*South England, based in
Lyndhurst, Hampshire.
It also manages
Westonbirt Arboretum in
Gloucestershire, perhaps the most important and widely known
arboretum
An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...
in the United Kingdom.
and
Bedgebury National Pinetum
Bedgebury National Pinetum at Bedgebury, Kent, in the United Kingdom, is a recreational and conservational arboretum managed by Forestry England that was established as the National Conifer Collection in 1925 and is now recognised as the most ...
, a living collection of
conifer
Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...
s, in
Kent, which is said to be the largest collection of conifers in the world.
The nation’s forests
List of forests managed by the Forestry Commission
Prior to 2013, the Forestry Commission (now Forestry England) managed about one million hectares of land across Great Britain, including 660,000 hectares of forest in Scotland, 250,000 hectares in England and 126,000 hectares in Wales. In 2013 th ...
Forestry England manages 1,500 woodland and forest areas covering around spread from Northumberland to Cornwall, Shropshire to Norfolk, making them England’s largest land manager. Around half of England’s softwood production arises from the estate and supports hundreds of small businesses and several large sawmills that rely on a guaranteed supply of timber to attract capital investment. Over 230 million people visit the public forest estate each year which supports over 70 substantial business partners on the estate, delivering most of the Forest Centre services, bike hire and other outdoor activities. Alongside all the economic and recreational activity, some 45% of the estate contributes to England’s most precious National Park landscapes and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Additionally, are designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest in recognition of their value for nature, virtually all of which is in sound or recovering ecological condition and accessible to the public.
See also
*
List of ancient woods in England
*
Forestry in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom,The United Kingdom (sometimes abbreviated to UK) is a political unit (specifically a country), the British Isles is a geographical unit (the archipelago lying off the northwest coast of Europe), and Great Britain is the name of ...
References
External links
*
{{Defra (United Kingdom)
Organisations based in Bristol
Environmental organisations based in England
Forestry in the United Kingdom
Forestry agencies in the United Kingdom
British landowners
Executive agencies of the United Kingdom government