ID142 Woodland management plan

The Idea

In 2018 the UK Department of Education outlined a whole-school strategy to enhance biodiversity, improve air quality and increase access to and connection with nature. In line with this there has been a strategic shift at Keele in the last few years, with the 2022 Keele Estates Strategy Masterplan calling for a green campus that maximises its natural and rural setting. The arboretum and woodlands cover approximately half of the Keele estate but only received cursory mention in the strategy and at present there is no formal woodland management plan in place beyond tree risk management. This is a missed opportunity for learning and teaching, wellbeing and civic engagement. For Keele to combat and become resilient to climate change we need to be a sustainability leader by integrating carbon reduction of our built estate with nature recovery on the lands which surround it. 

Our woodlands are shady, overmature, species-poor plantations that are ravaged by squirrel damage and tree disease, devoid of a shrub layer and choked by a growing influx of Schedule 8 invasive species. The horticulturally important arboreta specimens in the woodlands are being lost. The heritage infrastructure is crumbling and a network of degraded paths that criss-cross the woodlands are not fully accessible. Woodland in this state is less resilient to climate change and does not showcase the universities green message. 

Our idea is to breathe new life into the woodlands, and to do that we need to devise a woodland management plan to gain access to funds and identify meaningful interventions. We want to start by rejuvenating Barkers Wood to improve its biodiversity and to better connect people with the woodland. One way this could be done is coppicing - a traditional woodland management technique that dates to the Stone Age, which utilises a trees natural ability to produce new shoots after being cut in the autumn or winter. Wildlife will benefit from the early successional habitat it creates and a whole range of products can be grown (firewood, bean poles, fencing stakes, etc) that support woodland crafts (basketry, charcoal burning, woodland sculptures, hedge laying, etc).

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

Keele is perfectly placed to join the social forestry movement that is embracing traditional woodland management approaches, wood crafts and alternative teaching spaces. We feel Barkers Wood would be an excellent candidate woodland as its accessible from Barkers Wood Road, there are parking and facilities nearby, and there is direct access onto the site via a footpath and vehicle accessible track. The woodland is predominantly composed of non-native sycamore that were cut ~45years ago. They resemble ‘overstood coppice stools’ and as sycamore come into leaf earlier than native trees and have bigger leaves the shade they cast has a detrimental impact on the carpet of bluebells. There are local markets for the cut wood (e.g., Keele Christmas Tree Farm kiln dried log business) and a child-centred forest school could be created. This leads to opportunities to liaise with Caudwell Children, Keele and North Staffordshire Teacher Education (KNSTE) and Nurture CIC. Our local competitor, Staffordshire University, is developing a Woodlands Forest School. This could be translated into the wider “Keele Living Lab” concept and potentially provide an accessible outreach destination. 

How We Would Implement This Idea

The first step is the develop a woodland management plan. This would make us eligible for Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier funding from the Rural Payments Agency. The Forestry Commission can provide £1500 of funding to help write such a plan. 

• Collect baseline data on woodland condition and create permanent sample monitoring plots in the woodland >> this could be an MSc Ecology & Conservation project 
• Carry out a Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) appraisal, this could be incorporated into the Conservation Biology module and final year project provision >> we already have a theoretical exercise based on a forest school by Keele Lake 
• Recruit a (part-time?) woodland ranger (woodsman/ coppice worker/ greenwood craft worker) to lead on woodland management and associated activities. There would be a cost implication to the university for this, but it could be offset by an income stream they generate. 
• Create a woodland volunteers group headed up by a woodland ranger (liaise with local freelance providers, The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), The Coppice Federation, etc) to carry out coppice works, etc. This could be rolled out as placement opportunities, so students get authentic practical experience, and could be extended to all woodlands on campus reducing contractor costs. 
• Develop a low-impact forest school using cut logs for seats >> this could be developed in the future to a more sophisticated structure, such as a wood cabin/round house if funding is found. 

What Success Would Look Like

• IMPROVED STUDENT EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES: authentic activities offered to ecology, conservation and education students (etc) that make them more employable 
• IMPROVED STUDENT RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION: forest school provides a draw to education students, better able to compete with Staffordshire University 
• IMPROVED COMMUNITY RELATIONS, ALONGSIDE STAFF AND STUDENT WELLBEING: GP practice prescribes woodland activities and crafts as a means of tackling mental health problems, potential to tie this into the Medicine degree programme 
• IMPROVED TEF SCORES: collaborative pedagogic research and teaching opportunities that link together and build on existing strengths  
• IMPROVED GREEN GOWN AND SUSTAINABLE CAMPUS RATINGS: buy fewer wood products as we can grow our own. For example, the stakes that we use when planting flowering cherry trees could be grown on campus. 
• CREATION OF A LONG-TERM CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY LEGACY: healthy resilient woodland and arboreta championed for the next generation  
• KEELE BECOMES A TRADITIONAL CRAFTS AND GREENWOOD WORKING HUB: Barkers Wood is a pilot project to test the feasibility of a new kind of woodland management at Keele. Traditional nature-focussed management practices could be expanded to other woodlands around campus. The even-aged conifer monoculture plantations at Springpool Plantation offer unique opportunities for diversification in terms of species and age structure, and growing commercial timber