"What is Continuous Cover Forestry?"
Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) is a term used to describe forest management methods which maintain continuous woodland conditions, rather than periodically removing whole crops of trees as clearfelling systems do. In other words, the next tree generation will already be established when the old one is harvested.
There are several synonyms for Continuous Cover Forestry, with "Low Impact Silvicultural Systems" (LISS), "Permanent Forest", "Alternatives to Clearfelling", and "Dauerwald" (German for continuous forest) being the most commonly used.
The concept of CCF has a long history, particularly in continental Europe. Some forms of CCF management had been practised for centuries before an accepted term and a corresponding definition of "Continuous Cover Forestry" were agreed upon. While CCF ideas rose to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th century and suffered a decline thereafter, they have recently gained more importance again within the context of forest decline, restoration, and timber certification.
The aim of CCF is to maintain continuous woodland conditions. Primarily this is done by manipulating the over-storey through removal of individual trees or small groups, thus controlling the light regime allowing natural regeneration to occur, without detrimental weed growth. This gives rise to an uneven aged mixed woodland, where all age classes of tree co-exist within one forest stand. Implicit to this form of management is the favouring of native broadleaves and the reduction of exotic coniferous species. There may also be financial benefits such as savings on planting and pruning costs.
The UK Woodland Assurance Scheme (Forestry Commission, 2000) includes a number of requirements that promote a shift away from even-aged plantation forestry and clearfelling systems. The trend towards low-impact silvicultural systems is also reflected in the separate woodland strategies for England, Scotland and Wales. Woodlands for Wales (Forestry Commission, 2001) expresses the strongest commitment to CCF, aiming "to convert at least half of the National Assembly woodlands to continuous cover over the next 20 years, where practical, and encourage conversion in similar private sector woodlands."
"What are the advantages of CCF?"
Across most parts of Europe CCF is believed to be a woodland management type that contributes to sustainable forestry not only in terms of timber production but also with respect to nature conservation and the promotion of the recreational and landscape value of woodlands.
CCF has economical, ecological and cultural implications:
- CCF uses natural processes for forest management to a greater extent than clearfelling systems. In doing so, it creates more stable and more diverse woodland ecosystems.
- Natural regeneration is used as the main stand establishment method. The further growth of the regeneration is then controlled by interventions in the overstorey. This saves on planting and tending costs .
- Timber production focuses on higher value timber and larger tree dimensions. This makes harvesting more efficient. Due to the enhanced stand stability the risk of major disturbances to timber production (e.g. through windthrows) is lower.
- Maintaining a permanent tree cover means that the soil is never exposed and left to erosion by wind and water.
- CCF is usually associated with greater biodiversity as often more than just one target tree species is involved, and the complex stand structure leaves niches for additional species and facilitates the incorporation of "old growth" features.
- Abandoning clearfelling practice means that major disruptions to the landscape are avoided. By enhancing structural and species diversity CCF creates attractive woodlands for visitors.
Due to the more complex stand structure, CCF requires higher skills from forest managers as well as forest workers. It will never replace clearfelling practice completely, but where practical it will make our forests more diverse, stable, productive, and therefore valuable environments.
