9th October 2009

Essential forestry work is carried out at Castle Neroche

THE Forestry Commission has begun a five-week programme of essential forest operations work at Castle Neroche.

Visitors are asked to keep to the public rights of way during the operations.

These works are essential and have been planned to meet a wide range of objectives.

Stephen Eyres, Forester for East Devon and Neroche, explains: “When we carry out forest operations, there is often concern about us felling trees and opening up large areas of forest.

“However, all Forestry Commission forests are carefully managed and have detailed design plans, which have to take a number of different priorities in to account such as timber production, recreation opportunities and nature conservation.

“Our plans consider the landscape and how the forests look and feel and, by having a balance of enclosed forest and more open spaces, they can become more appealing places to visit and spend time.

“The harvesting operations at Castle Neroche will not involve clearance of any large areas but will mean that some access routes will have some of the trees and other vegetation taken back.

"This will allow more light to the track surface, which helps protect it and creates more open space to encourage the growth of trees and other vegetation and benefits wildlife. Some areas will be left completely untouched.

“In any working forest it is essential that a proportion of trees are removed to allow the other trees to grow and flourish. These thinning operations are one of the most important parts of successful woodland management and we would be unable to produce any quality timber if we didn’t do this.

“All the timber harvested as a result of the operations will be sent to various mills and will be used for a range of end uses, including construction projects and fencing.

“We work very hard to keep any disruption to local people and visitors to a minimum, and we ask that people be patient and adhere to warning signs.

“We will maintain access on public rights of way as much as possible and it is important that visitors do not stray off these while the work is in progress.”

Further work will be carried out in Thurlbear, starting in December, and similar work at Middleroom and Bickenhall from the middle of next year.

Essential forestry work is carried out at Castle Neroche

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