As Forest Research and Forestry England release five animations spotlighting productive tree species, Dr Tom Ovenden, silviculture and species scientist at Forest Research, discusses resilience, diversification and the future of forestry.
In forestry, the concept of resilience in its broadest sense is about ensuring forests remain relatively stable and continue to deliver a range of goods and services in the face of unprecedented change. In practice this means that when trees – or the forests they form – experience something stressful, they can ‘bounce back’ quickly and easily. Ideally, this is also coupled with the ability of the forest to acclimate and change to accommodate the changing environment.
No single species can be resilient to every possible eventuality. There’ll be trade-offs – benefits and weaknesses of different species to different conditions and the characteristics of different species will interact when mixed. This can make reliably increasing resilience through diversification challenging and complex. This challenge also highlights the importance of understanding what you are specifically trying to increase resilience to (e.g. droughts, storms or pests and diseases etc).