🌲 Could we harvest timber without cutting down whole forests?

It sounds like a contradiction: we need timber, but wildlife needs woodland. So what if there were ways of producing timber while keeping much more of the forest standing?

A small community woodland near Dundee is doing just that, and it caught our attention at Save Our Reds.

Dronley Community Woodland  covers around 50 hectares and is being managed using something called Continuous Cover Forestry.

The idea is actually quite simple. Instead of clear-felling a large block of trees and then replanting it, selected trees or small groups of trees can be harvested while most of the woodland canopy remains.

At Dronley, selective thinning and planting are being used to create a more varied woodland, while still allowing timber to be produced. The woodland remains a woodland.

And this isn't some fringe idea. Forest Research published new guidance  on Continuous Cover Forestry earlier this year. It describes CCF as an approach in which a significant proportion of the forest canopy is maintained without clear-felling, with any gaps in the canopy kept below 0.25 hectares to help maintain the forest microclimate.

So what might this mean for red squirrels?

Could managing more forests this way help them too?

Scotland is home to around 80% of the estimated UK red squirrel population, and Scottish Forestry says productive conifer plantations are the  most important habitat for red squirrels in Scotland.

Red squirrels spend much of their lives in the trees. Connected woodland gives them places to feed, breed and move through the landscape, while large areas of open ground can make that movement more difficult.

Scottish forestry guidance already recognises the importance of how forests are harvested for red squirrels. Guidance for red squirrel strongholds specifically identifies low-impact systems, sometimes called Continuous Cover Forestry, as an alternative to clear-felling and says they should be considered in suitable sheltered areas.

Separate forestry guidance  advises avoiding clear-felling in the richest red squirrel habitat where possible.

Continuous Cover Forestry isn't appropriate everywhere, and we're certainly not suggesting that it provides a simple answer to all the challenges facing our red squirrels.

But Dronley demonstrates something important: the choice doesn't always have to be between producing timber and protecting woodland habitat.

There may be ways to do both.

And for a species whose future is intimately connected with the future of our woodlands, we think that's a conversation worth having.

Next week is Red Squirrel Awareness Week, and Save Our Reds will be publishing our new Habitats Briefing Paper, looking more widely at the places our native red squirrels depend upon and how we can better protect and manage them for the future.

Because saving the red squirrel isn't only about protecting the animals we have today.

It's about making sure they still have somewhere to live tomorrow. 🐿️