Concept & Benefits of Treetopping™

What treetopping™ offers is a preventative rather than a predictive approach to avoiding windblow.

The concept is simple and logical. A key factor in determining windblow risk for a given set of site conditions is tree height. Cutting the tops off the crowns of living crop trees before they reach “critical height” (i.e. the predicted height at which there is a significant likelihood of windblow damage occurring) reduces the “sail area” of the crown and the potential overturning force on the tree’s root system.

The result is an immediate increase in crop stability. This in turn provides a potentially highly beneficial, commercial-scale forest management technique, enabling plantations to be grown longer and produce tree crops of a greater volume and therefore value than would otherwise be possible on the same site.

What benefits does treetopping™ offer?
As well as yielding significant economic benefits, tree-topping™ also has the potential to deliver a range of environmental benefits.

• Immediate improvement in crop stability
• Increased timber yields achieved through extended rotation lengths
• Extended life of shelter belts & sporting woodlands
• Greater flexibility for forest managers to meet environmental or other objectives where the need to retain forest cover is paramount
• A greater range of silvicultural options – for example, selective felling & continuous cover forestry
• Improved economic returns and added value to the UK resource (stumpage & plantation values)