Research & Development

Research by the Forestry Commission on windblow in Britain began in the early 1960s, with emphasis from the start being on seeking methods to predict the likelihood of windblow damage occurring.

In 1977 a national system called Windthrow Hazard Classification (WHC) was introduced as a tool for predicting the likely onset of windblow damage.

Over the past 20-30 years, and in conjunction with the WHC system, UK foresters have developed silvicultural and management practices to help to mitigate inherent risks of windblow in vulnerable plantations. Such practices include improved cultivation methods, drainage, non-thinning regimes and pre-emptive felling of crops before they reach the height at which they might otherwise be expected to blow down.

Whilst the research has been important in helping to predict the probability of windblow for a given site and crop parameters, to date there has not yet been a single silvicultural method available to foresters that decreases the risk of windblow and enables crops to forest to achieve their full economic and environmental potential.

In 2002 WindFirm Ltd embarked on a Research and Development Project, in partnership with the Forestry Commission’s Research Agency, to investigate the potential and evaluate the application and cost/benefits of treetopping? as a forest-scale management practice. The Research is on-going.