The RFS is delighted to announce the winners of the Best of England Excellence in Forestry Awards, together with the first Woodlands for Climate Change Award. Judges in all categories were awed by the quality of all entries.
RFS Co-ordinator Trefor Thompson said: “The quality of the field was evidence of the strength of woodland knowledge and management throughout England.
“All those who entered the woodland and schools categories had already proved themselves as excellent winners in their regions in previous years, and they were all therefore competing against the very toughest of competition.
“The introduction of an England-wide Woodlands for Climate Change Award, sponsored by Forestry Commission in partnership with the Environment Agency Climate Ready project, reflects the need to build resilience into our woodlands for the future. Those who have won awards are all demonstrating how management can be adapted to meet the challenges of today and of tomorrow!”
The Awards will be presented at a special event at the Hay Barns, Upton, Oxfordshire, on 9 July 2014.
More information on the winners and case studies will be available on the competition pages shortly. The judges’ reports will appear in full in the October issue of the QJF
Best of England Excellence in Forestry Awards go to:
Duke of Cornwall Multipurpose Award (Sponsored by John Clegg & Co)
Winner Hampton Estate, Surrey – Bridget and Bill Biddell
Silver Combe Sydenham Estate, Somerset – William Theed
Silviculture Award (Tubex)
Winner Sotterley Estate, Suffolk – Miles Barne
Silver Whitbourne Estate, Worcestershire – Bill Evans
Small Woodlands Award (Woodmizer)
Winner Alvecote Wood, Staffordshire – Sarah Walters and Stephen Briggs
Silver Rawhaw Wood, Northamptonshire – Carolyn Church and Hugh Ross
Community Woodland Award
Winner Heaton Woods Trust, Yorkshire – Richard Palframan
Silver Clayton le Moors Wood, Lancashire – Paul Worswick
Sylva Cup
Joint award to Sir William Worsley and David Brown, representing four generations of both families who have worked together as owner and manager respectively of Hovingham Estate over the years since 1897 – creating a wonderful woodland resource on the Estate.
Schools Award (PEFC and ECL Howard Watson Smith)
Winner Moulsecoomb Primary School, Brighton
Silver Ifield School, Gravesend
Certificates of Merit Millbrook Primary, Cheshire; Welton Free Rangers Forest School Nursery, Somerset; Pinewood School, Hertfordshire; Heaton Primary and Forest School
Woodlands for Climate Change Award (sponsored by FC England in partnership with EA Climate Ready)
Winner Thetford Forest – Forestry Commission, East England District
Silver Treworder Barton Farm, Wadebridge, Cornwall – Hugh Davis
Highly Commended Combe Sydenham Country Park, Somerset – William Theed; Norbury Park, Stafford – Prof Jo Bradwell; and Sefton Coast Woodlands, Formby – The Mersey Forest
