First ever UK woodland natural flood management guide published

First ever UK woodland natural flood management guide published - Forestry Commission

looking through trees to houses in the distance over fields — The Guide will enable the forest sector to play a stronger role in flood mitigation, which will increase the resilience of communities to flooding and reduce the financial impact of future floods. (Credit: Natural England/Peter Wakely)

Advice in the new UK Forestry Standard Practice Guide includes how woodland creation and management can reduce flood risk.

A new United Kingdom-wide guide outlining how our forests and woodlands can reduce the damaging effects and financial impact of flooding on vulnerable communities has been published today (Tuesday 25 October) by the Forestry Commission, Natural Resources Wales, Scottish Forestry and Northern Ireland Forest Service.

Woodlands can play a key role in flood mitigation and make an important contribution to reducing downstream flood risk. Tree planting can significantly affect the volume, pathway and timing of surface run-off, slowing and reducing flood peaks, while management operations such as cultivation, drainage, road construction and harvesting can have the opposite effect if not appropriately managed.

Produced by Forest Research, the new Practice Guide provides advice to landowners, forest and woodland managers, planners, practitioners and flooding authorities on how forests and woodlands can make a positive contribution to natural flood management and play a stronger role in flood mitigation.

Advice includes:

How to identify whether downstream communities are vulnerable to flooding and if so, modify the design of the woodland to enhance the flood benefit.
How to amend the scale, timing and type of woodland operations to minimise the impact of flood risk and flood run-off.
Where and how to use leaky dams to slow flood flows.

Applying this guidance will assist land managers and forestry practitioners in meeting the requirements of the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) and will help deliver a more sustainable and integrated approach to managing flood risk – reducing the damaging effects and financial impacts of future floods on downstream communities.