New UKFS Practice Guide champions riparian woodlands - Forest Research

Forest Research has published a new UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) Practice Guide on Creating and Managing Riparian Woodland.

The UK’s riparian woodland has been depleted over recent decades, often through clearance for agriculture and development. Reversing this habitat loss and encouraging the restoration of riparian woodlands can deliver the following important environmental benefits:

• Climate change mitigation – providing conditions that keep water cooler and that reduce downstream flooding
• Increased biodiversity – enhancing riparian and aquatic habitats can support protected and priority species
• Improved water quality – reducing water pollution by buffering the impacts of management activities occurring on adjacent land
• Increased natural capital – contributing to nature recovery and nature-based solutions.

Lead author of the Practice Guide and Forest Research’s Head of Physical Environmental Sciences, Tom Nisbet, said: “This publication describes how we can do better in creating, designing and managing trees and woodlands along our streams and rivers to protect and improve our freshwater environment. We continue to hear about the poor condition of many of our streams and rivers and the growing pressure of water pollution. This comes from many different sources including soil and nutrient run-off from adjacent land. The planting of trees and woodland along our watercourses, what we call riparian woodland, can do much to reduce pollutant run-off to water as well as to slow flood flows and cool water temperatures.”

Posted On: 10/12/2024

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