In April this year, the Sylva Foundation launched a new web-based service; myForest.  Interest and support for the service has been encouraging, with some 5300 hectares mapped by 200 woodland owners across Britain, in the first six months.  Quite a large number of these are members of the Small Woodland Owner Group.

The aims of myForest are to:

1. Support woodland owners and managers in mapping and managing woodlands.
2. Provide an easy to use map-based platform for marketing products from woodlands.
3. Establish links between forestry stakeholders at a local level to help link the woodchain.

Why is this needed?

Timber is Britain's sixth largest import: not only softwoods but a million tonnes of hardwoods are also imported each year.  Yet over 600,000 hectares of woodland in England are potentially unmanaged.  If some of these could be managed on a sustainable basis, they would deliver wood products with a low carbon footprint and support local rural economies.  There would be massive benefits for wildlife too, as 13 of Britain's leading environmental NGOs recently agreed that lack of management is contributing to declining biodiversity in our woodlands.

At Sylva, we aim to support woodland owners in understanding the fantastic resource that they own by helping them map them, produce inventories of the trees and other features, and also to plan for their management in the longer term.

myForest offers:

• Free woodland account with mapping and management planning facilities

Woodland owners or agents can sign up to create a free woodland management planning account. A simple Geographical Information System (GIS) based on Google maps and aerial photography enables users to map their woodlands and individual compartments. Inventory information can then be entered relating to each compartment; including species, age, size, or quality.

Users can also produce a management plan that can be saved, emailed or printed. At present the plan conforms to Forestry Commission England’s management planning template, ensuring the myForest management plan is compatible with the eWGS.  Planning to develop similar links to the regulatory framework for Welsh woodland owners is currently in progress.

• Free promotion of your business to the local woodchain

Forestry businesses are able to create a free account, and then detail their location on the business directory map. Hundreds of businesses have signed up throughout England, Wales and Scotland to promote their products and services, these include woodland contractors, sawmills, woodfuel merchants etc. Users of myForest are able to search for businesses by category and by distance in their region.

• Web-maps of woodlands, products and businesses

Woodland owners can opt to make their woodlands ‘visible’ on the ‘Woodland Resource’ map. This is a form of passive marketing in that if they are visible, potential customers can contact owners to enquire about woodland products. The woodland owner remains anonymous until they decide to respond to any expression of interest from a business.

On the ‘Wood Market’ map, woodland owners can market products more actively.  Timber and wood can be marketed as standing trees, roadside lots, or processed products. This function of the site specifically aims to assist in the promotion of saleable lots of timber to the marketplace, enabling woodland owners to achieve the best prices for their timber.

• A list of web resources and woodland organisations

The myForest service aims to provide a range of useful resources to support sustainable forest management. These include many links to useful publications, produced by both governmental and non-governmental organisations, which assist in mapping, management and marketing.  There is also a lively forum on the website: www.myForest.org.uk.  We welcome all suggestions as to how the myForest service can be improved and hope that it can be of benefit to woodland owners

The Sylva Foundation (www.SYLVA.org.uk) is a tree and forestry charity with a vision for Britain's woodlands to thrive ecologically and economically for the benefit of everyone.

(Dr Gabriel Hemery  FICFor, Sylva Foundation)