This is one of eight seminars being run by Scottish Forestry and the Institute of Chartered Foresters with the aim of increasing industry discussions and awareness of key resilience issues in response to our changing climate.
The seminars will look at a range of climate change risks, climate change projections and some of the measures we can take to increase our resilience. Depending on your interest you may wish to view one or all of them. Whilst many of the issues are relevant at a UK scale or wider, the seminars will be presented with a Scottish specific focus.
Whilst the seminars are related, they are not intended to be a complete series or a training course, which by completing, you would be able to comprehensively understand climate change risks and the appropriate measures to take in response. Instead, these seminars are designed to help improve awareness of the key climate change risks that affect forestry, how those risks are projected to change over time and some of the measures that can be taken to improve resilience.
When considering resilience, it is helpful to think in terms of a resilience framework consisting of the following elements:
- Adaptation – Long term change. Driving change by increasing the extent, connectivity, diversity and health of our trees in order to reduce the impact of future threats
- Resistance – Risk reducing measures. Reducing the threat or absorbing the impact of a risk with no substantial change or loss to the treescape
- Response and recovery – Detection and response. When threats do occur, facilitating an effective response to enable the treescape to recover.
There is a balance needed when choosing resilience measures. For example, if more adaptive or resistance measures are used then there may be less need for response and recovery, or vice versa. This could also vary nationally, for example with no standard requirement for each woodland or forest to employ the same measures.
For detailed information on the climate change risks to forestry and potential response measures we recommend reading the UKFS Practice Guide: Adapting forest and woodland management to the changing climate or visiting the Climate Change Hub.
To keep up to date with Scottish Forestry’s work on adaptation and resilience, please follow the work of their Adaptation and Resilience Steering Group.
Speakers
Steve Conolly MICFor – Managing Director, Cawdor Forestry
Steve Conolly is the Managing Director at Cawdor Forestry and will share some of his experience as a forest manager in tackling the massive wildfire at Dallas, Moray in 2019.
Tim Gordon-Roberts MICFor – Adaptation and Resilience Policy Advisor, Scottish Forestry
Tim works as Adaptation and Resilience Policy Advisor for Scottish Forestry. He has worked in public sector forestry for 24 years, in a variety of roles in Scotland, Wales and England, spending the last 11 years with Scottish Forestry.
Bruce Farquharson – Deputy Assistant Chief Officer, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
Bruce is the Deputy Assistant Chief Officer in charge of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s Training Department. He also has responsibility for the Services Wildfire Capability. This involves developing and maintaining the wildfire prevention and response strategy, and as the Chair of the Scottish Wildfire Forum, working with a diverse range of partners to develop a common understanding and agenda for all of the agencies involved in wildfire prevention and response. Bruce has been in the Fire Service for 31 years and has had experience in a number of different departments in his career.
James Morrison – Principal Scientist (Climate Change), Forest Research
James has worked at Forest Research since 2008 leading work on assessing risks to UK forestry from the rapidly changing climate, including that from wildfire and he contributes to the research-council funded project on Towards Developing a UK Fire Danger Rating System. The wider climate change research looks at what adaptation measures are necessary and how forestry and woodland management can help emissions mitigation, and contribute to net zero ambitions. He previously taught and researched about climate change, and particularly its effects on plant growth at the universities of Essex and Reading.
