First ever UK woodland natural flood management guide published

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 recently published by Forest Research, in collaboration with the Forestry Commission, Natural Resources Wales, Scottish Forestry and Northern Ireland Forest Service.

The UK Forestry Standard Practice Guide  – Designing and managing forests and woodlands to reduce flood risk –can be viewed or downloaded via the following link Forest Research Publications | Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (daera-ni.gov.uk).

Advice in the guide includes how woodland creation and management can reduce flood risk, and 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.

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.

Managing flood risk in Northern Ireland relies on partnership working to help protect affected communities and assets from flooding. Implementing the guidance as described will enable foresters to meet UKFS requirements and guidelines, and in so doing, make a positive contribution to reducing flood flows and the damaging effects of flooding.

Further Reading

Opportunity mapping for woodland creation to reduce flood risk in Northern Ireland

Prolonged and heavy rainfall throughout much of November and December 2015 resulted in saturated ground conditions, higher than normal water levels in lakes and watercourses causing flooding in parts of Northern Ireland.  A project commissioned by Forest Service and undertaken by Forest Research provides spatial data sets and maps which identify priority areas for woodland creation to benefit flood risk management.

Opportunity mapping for woodland creation to reduce flood risk in Northern Ireland | Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (daera-ni.gov.uk)

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