Guidelines on Closer-To-Nature Forest Management
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EU has published and translated guidelines on closer-to-nature forest mangement in all European languages.
After 2 years of absence, we as Pro Silva Netherlands organise again our annual spring excursion on 11, 12 and 13 May. The theme this time is: tree wise felling in stands dominated by Scots pine. During the Pro Silva spring excursion we want to discuss in the field what this means in practice for the forest manager.
Scots pine is the central theme of this Pro Silva meeting. A large part of the Dutch forest consists of Scots pine forests, which have been planted in a relatively short period of time. The continuous thinning seems to be no longer effective for a part of the Scots Pine forests. The space made available by timber harvesting is no longer taken up by individual crown expansion. The stock of harvestable wood from trees in the prevailing tree layer is running out. In a substantial part of these forests, the understorey is not very promising. These are the so-called hollow pine forests!
Pro Silva is committed to applying the principles of tree-by-tree logging in Dutch forests.
Many of these questions cannot yet be answered unequivocally, which makes it all the more interesting to discuss them in the forest.
The spring excursion is taken place on the Bieduinen Estate (‘Landgoed Bieduinen’) in Putte, in the western part of the province of ‘Noord-Brabant’, in the far south of The Netherlands close to the border of Belgium. Here you can see interesting developmental stages of about 25 years of tree felling.
You can register for the excursion via the website of the KNBV:
You can select a date and indicate any dietary requirements. Participation in the excursion costs € 32.50 for members of the KNBV, € 15.00 for student members and € 42.50 for non-members, including coffee/tea and lunch.
The excursions start at 9.00 a.m. and end around 4.30 p.m.- After registration you will receive more information and the exact location.
More information can be requested via Martijn Griek: prosilva(at)knbv.nl (not for registration).
Fotos from Bieduinen Estate (Landgoed Bieduinen) visit during the excursion
Due to the deteriorating Corona situation, ProSilva Netherlands unfortunately decided to cancel the planned anniversary meeting of Pro Silva Netherlands on the 15th of October. The symposium on the Schovenhorst estate to celebrate their 30th anniversary can hopefully take place at a later date.
Pro Silva Netherlands celebrates this year its 30th anniversary. They cellebrate this on the 15th of October with an 'anniversary meeting' on the estate 'Schovenhorst' in Putten.
For this meeting, they are now working on the translation of the brochure from our Walloon collegues from Pro Silva Belgium. This Dutch translation will be presented during the anniversary meeting. From that day, the Dutch brochure can be bought for € 10,00.
Since March 2020 Pro Silva Netherlands have a new sectretary. After 13 years Martijn Boosten stepped down and Martijn Griek is his successor. Martijn Griek works at "Bosgroep Zuid Nederland" and can be reached at prosilva(at)knbv.nl.
Pro Silva Netherlands had highly successful excursions in October 2019. The three days - with the same excursion - were completely occupied. (over 90 guests). The Excursion took place at the forests from “Kroondomein Het Loo” near Apeldoorn, where the president of Pro Silva NL René Olthof works and lives.
The main theme was the conversion of even aged stands to uneven structured forest. His approach has resulted in 27 years of stands which are often still of the same age (mostly with natural regeneration) but with a high variation in diameter and structure. The participants could see a diameter spread there from 15 to 80cm DBH in a 75-year-old Douglas fir stand. They have been shown that one should be concerned about light conditions, that this can be achieved by harvesting thick trees, starting with poor quality. At this excursion target diameters for different qualities have been introduced to make better decisions. The thin repressed trees of the original stand are still growing and under improved light conditions they still produce very satisfactorily. (This is also the fact at the thicker repressed trees of course)
They have been shown the growth as a return on investment of different diameters, where thinner trees are financially much more viable than the thickest trees, because the kubic meter price can increase much more. It is important to leave them standing and harvest them later at the right aim diameter. This all sounds very logical, but it is not a normal procedure in Holland. Through a process where mostly all structure is harvested away, one often falls back to clear cutting.
fotogallery by René Olthof (C) 2020
With this excursion Pro Silva Netherlands has achieved a lot to convince People that the Pro Silva single tree selection can be very profitable in a economical way, where it results in sustainable forests. This can result in a big “spin off” for Dutch forest management. “Kroondomein Het Loo” will be present some of these shown stands as “exemplary forest” so that everybody can take knowledge of this approach. They also gave a new impulse to the contacts within forestry education.
There is a lot of discussion in Holland about how to deal with the forest in general. Pro Silva Netherlands would like to share this approach.
Pro Silva Netherland is in the process of raising its profile and wants to make it more visible to the outside world. The single tree selection approach should be taken along on all their excursions as a standard approach. They want to improve their website independent of the forestry association.
René Olthof, May 8th 2020