STARTING A SCHOOL FOREST

SLOWLY but surely our forest estate is growing in size and importance. On the one hand completely new forests are being formed, and on the other substantial progress is being made in restocking those woodlands which were either felled in the two world wars, or have suffered from years of neglect.

The Forestry Commission, since its inception in 1919, has formed about 1,500 square miles of forest, by large scale afforestation and by replanting old woodland. The Commission's work has resulted in the establishment, by 1955, of nearly 500 separate forests, well distributed throughout England, Scotland and Wales, so that today there is hardly a county in the whole of Britain that is without a national forest. Evidence of the work of private owners in restocking their war-ravaged woodlands is also to be seen. The common aim of the Commission and private woodland owners is to make the country less dependent on timber supplies from overseas, and to ensure that an adequate amount of standing timber is available for use in an emergency. The importance of their efforts is the better understood when we realise that at present about four-fifths of the timber and timber products we use in Britain has to be imported.

Like all other projects of a national character, forestry demands careful planning and, as in other forms of industry, there must be a definite target. Where forestry is concerned the intention is to form by the end of the century five million acres of productive woodlands. Three-fifths of this will represent new planting by the Forestry Commission on the poorer land of little or no agricultural value; the remaining two-fifths will comprise woodland within which large areas at present felled or derelict will be restocked and subjected to systematic management. This type of woodland will be maintained in full production by private owners, or by the Commission.

The Need for a "Forest Sense"

As the country's forests increase so should forestry assume a new significance for country dweller and townsman alike. Both benefit from the increased measure of employment that goes hand in hand with the establishment of forests, for forestry not only offers work for the existing rural population but attracts many who formerly knew only the town or city as a place in which to gain a livelihood. There is greater prosperity in the countryside through the payment of wages to forest workers, improving the prospects of the rural tradesman as well. Townsfolk may look to the forest as a source of education and recreation, to be enjoyed whenever the opportunity presents itself for a visit to the countryside.

If the forest programme is to be successfully carried out, it is necessary as quickly as possible to develop a forest sense among the general public in this country-in other words we must encourage a realisation of the importance of trees and of the need for their protection from fire and other causes of damage or destruction. While it is fair to say that we already display an affection for our trees and woods, this is hardly enough. They already meet a host of our requirements in our everyday lives; they provide shelter for crops and stock, and they prevent erosion of the soil; they play an important part around reservoirs, purifying the very water we drink. They transcend all else in beautifying the landscape. And trees, whether in the hedgerow, the small wood, or the forest, will become increasingly important in the future, as more and more use is made of their timber.

The cover shows a boy of Mackie Academy, Stonehaven, planting spruce trees at Fetteresso Forest, Kincardineshire.

For these reasons, then, trees must demand our respect and a marked sense of responsibility towards them. They must come to mean more to us than something delightfully familiar in the rural scene and we must learn to cherish them as a great national asset.

The Advantages of a School "Forest"

It is obviously desirable that love of trees should be encouraged among the younger generation, and the Forestry Commission is anxious to do all that it can to interest children in forestry. Experience has shown that much good can come from a close association between young people and the forest, and to help this to develop the Commission has introduced a scheme which provides for the “adoption" of forest plots by individual schools. The procedure is very simple. A school which, geographically, is suitably situated in relation to one of the Commission's forests is invited to approach the local Conservator of Forests (for addresses see page 12) with a view to adopting a plot of land in the forest on which the children may carry out a variety of operations and studies. Provided the Conservator is satisfied that there will be a sustained interest in the project he or one of his officers will meet the school representatives "on the ground", so to speak, and between them they will select a suitable site of, say, two or three acres. There will follow the signing, on the part of the school, of a simple form of indemnity and then there is nothing to delay occupation of the plot and the commencement of activities.

Of course, conditions may vary according to the location of a forest plot, as may the species of forest trees (which are normally provided without charge by the Commission) that will require planting and tending. A forest plot on the poorer soils on a hillside or mountainside in Wales or Scotland will sometimes call for a fair amount of physical exertion by the young foresters, and although the planting of some mixed deciduous and coniferous forest trees (and possibly ornamental trees) will by no means be precluded, conifers will necessarily predominate. Elsewhere, for example in the southern parts of England, the richer soils will permit the planting of a greater proportion of hardwoods, such as the traditional oak, beech, ash and sycamore.

The experiences of the headmaster, staff and children of one of the schools which have already adopted a forest plot-Cymmer Afan Secondary Modern School, in the Afan Valley, South Wales-are outlined on pages 5-9 and speak for themselves as to the advantages of the scheme. They prove that the school forest may indeed become an open-air classroom of especial value in the promotion of studies in rural science. Leaving aside for the moment the manual tasks of site clearing in preparation for tree planting, the planting and the subsequent care of trees (which would be undertaken with guidance from the local Forester), it will be seen that work on a forest plot and the observations made in the surrounding forest can be directly and easily associated with a number of important subjects that are normally in the school curriculum.

GIFTS OF TREES FOR PLANTING

IN SCHOOL PRECINCTS

Schools which for one reason or another are unable to adopt a forest plot may be interested to know that the Forestry Commission will consider making gifts of up to 100 young forest trees for planting for study purposes in school grounds or playing fields, or of smaller numbers for raising in pots in the classroom. The offer is, of course, conditional on the Commission having a surplus of such trees and on the school being prepared to meet the cost (which would be small) of packing and transport. Application should be made to the appropriate Conservator during the summer preceding each autumn-spring planting season, to give him time to reserve stocks. See also pages 9-11.