Talk:Forestry Commission

Untitled
The Forestry Commission has a Board of Commissioners with duties and powers prescribed by statute, consisting of a Chairman and up to ten other Forestry Commissioners, including its Director General, who are appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of Ministers.

The Commission also has an Executive Board which assists the Director General and Country Directors in the effective management of the Commission by providing leadership and setting direction for the Commission as an organisation.

The new structure (Forestry Commission England, Forestry Commission Scotland and Forestry Commission Wales), which came into effect on 1 April 2003, allows the Forestry Commission to focus more clearly on delivering the policies of the individual Governments while still having the ability to take a GB-wide approach to "cross-border" issues.

The Forestry Commission in each country is led by a Director who is also a member of the GB Board of Commissioners. Delivery of policy, as well as progress against strategy objectives, are overseen in each country by the Commission's National Committee for England, National Committee for Scotland and National Committee for Wales.

The Forestry Commission also has three executive agencies which work to targets set by Commissioners and Ministers:

Our public forests, woodlands and other land in England and Scotland are managed by Forest Enterprise agencies on behalf of the Forestry Commission in that country.

Forest Research is a GB-wide agency which aims to deliver high-quality scientific research and surveys, to inform the development of forestry policies and practices, and promote high standards of sustainable forest management.

The objective of the Forestry Commission GB is to take the lead, on behalf of all three administrations, in the development and promotion of sustainable forest management and to support its achievement nationally.

Each of the countries has its own strategy and mission, and delivers the forestry policy of each country through specific objectives drawn from the country strategies.

Forestry is a devolved matter. The Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has responsibility for forestry in England as well as certain acitivities such as international affairs and plant health which remain reserved by Westminster. Scottish Ministers have responsiblity for forestry in Scotland and the Welsh Assembly Government has responsibility for forestry in Wales.

Forestry Ministers meet at least once a year to address topical issues of interest to all countries. The Forestry Ministers' Group also seeks to reach a common position on reserved matters, including international forestry issues and other matters (such as forestry taxation) which are for the UK Government.

Forestry Commission England, Forestry Commission Scotland and Forestry Commission Wales report directly to their appropriate Minister, providing advice on policy and implementing that policy within the relevant country.

The Commissioners receive external, independent advice on a range of key issues of interest to the forestry industry from the Forestry Commissioners Advisory Panel which operates on a GB level.

Woods list
The List is severely short and incomplete. I can probably add some I know of off the top of my head, but if this was to ever list all of them, then it may require a new article. Born Acorn 10:14, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Recreation
Some of this section leans too much towards advertising, I don't feel that it is particularly encyclopedic. Unless anyone objects I propose to delete the second paragraph.The Boy that time forgot 22:10, 29 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Agreed - go for it. (The first para could do with a bit of rewriting too...) AndrewWTaylor 16:26, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Apologies if I'm making a mess of this, but it's my first attempt at editing Wikipedia. Please put me right if I'm going about things the wrong way. I have just deleted a very inaccurate statement about the Forestry Commission "not liking birds to nest in its plantations" and "removing the lower branches" in order to stop this happening. This is simply not true. The process of "brashing", ie removing branches to a height of 6 feet was once commonplace (in the days of cheap plentiful labour), but was done to allow access into the crop for silvicultural operations (mainly allowing the forester to walk through the trees and mark thinnings). These days it is hardly ever carried out, due to cost considerations, the main exceptions being where there is a need for visibility, such as at the junction of mountain bike tracks.

I am hoping to add some more content as time goes on - the stuff here is a bit worthy and dull, whereas there are plenty of more interesting things to say about the work of the FC. Wikiapodemus (talk) 19:06, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

good call. if there are sources that back up what it said, it can go in. likewise for your intended section. ninety:one 19:31, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

BCD magazine
I removed the edit "The Forestry Commission is to feature within April's edition of BDC, or Building Design and Construction Magazine." The news that this is to feature is clearly of interest, but is not appropriate for the page itself. However, if anyone has access to the journal, it will be very good to get up to date content from it to improve this page, once the issue is published. RobinLeicester (talk) 21:56, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Name change
I'm really unhappy with this name change - done without proper discussion. No where is the FC refered to as the Forestry Commission of Great Britain. If anything, this page should be called Forestry Commission (Great Britain), but even that is debatable and certainly requires discussion. Obscurasky (talk) 23:28, 22 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I've tried to revert it, but without success. This change, in my opinion, is definitely incorrect. Obscurasky (talk) 23:31, 22 February 2012 (UTC)
 * My instinct was to agree, but it is being used in the meta-description on the official website - can't see it on any actual page. Can someone explain the basis for the change? RobinLeicester (talk) 01:17, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

I would like to suggest that the name of this article be changed to Forestry Commission (UK). The current name is both quite generic and does not take into account the great many forestry commissions elsewhere in the world. (See Category:Forestry agencies and Category:Forestry ministries.) This is the only article that is not clearly specified as to location. "Forestry Commission" should be a disambiguation page... Thanks for your consideration, DA Sonnenfeld (talk) 02:36, 2 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Should that also apply to National Forest Foundation, Food and Drug Administration, Internal Revenue Service, and so forth? Perhaps as a starting point, you could create a Forestry Commission (disambiguation) page, where Alabama, Mexico and wherever else could be listed, and which could be noted at the top of this article. RobinLeicester (talk) 01:29, 3 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Excellent suggestion, thank you. As a step in that direction, I've categorized already-existing related disambiguation pages at Category:Forestry agencies (disambiguation pages). Another article with a similar challenge is Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, like the present article, for the United Kingdom only. DA Sonnenfeld (talk) 10:13, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
 * ✅. Disambiguation page created; contributions welcome! Thanks, DA Sonnenfeld (talk) 10:34, 4 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Sorry that I haven't replied to this earlier. The reasoning behind my reversion of the move to Forestry Commission (UK) is that there are currently no other organisations that are actually called "Forestry Commission" with articles on Wikipedia, therefore an additional qualifier (UK) is unnecessary. Should it become necessary to change the name, I would suggest that Forestry Commission of Great Britain is the most appropriate name; the forestry commission is only responsible for forestry in Great Britain, there is no connection to Northern Ireland, therefore UK is inappropriate.


 * I'm also not keen on the idea of having separate articles on the devolved Commissions because this will lead to several "permastubs" or significant duplication of this parent article. -- Mrmatiko (talk) 11:54, 4 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Resolved for now; reconsider later as needed. I'm satisfied with the disambiguation page at this time. Regarding the devolved commissions, perhaps in the future there will be a need to reconsider the present article and structure. Thanks for your constructive comments and input. Regards, DA Sonnenfeld (talk) 13:58, 4 November 2012 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose that Forest Research be merged in to Forestry Commission because the small amount of content currently in the Forest Research article could easily be used as a base to expand and improve the quality of the section in this article about Forest Research. --Mrmatiko (talk) 18:14, 12 May 2012 (UTC)

Natural Resources Wales
As of today the Welsh part of the FC has been hived off into the new Welsh environmental body NRW. I've made a start at adjusting the text but there are a few bits still to be done: specifically UK-wide statistics that no longer apply (perhaps these will need to wait until the FC releases new data?) and info on Welsh properties (I've kept them in for now because they're presented as historical events, and because the information should be moved to NRW rather than be deleted). Gareth (talk) 08:40, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Found some England & Scotland only data http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fcfs211.pdf/$FILE/fcfs211.pdf & made a couple of minor changes, but agree we need to wait for clarity on such things as Research forests.--DHM7777 (talk) 10:24, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Ownership
The opening paragraph talks about the FC being the largest landowner in Britain, but in other places in the article (Role, etc) it is only described as managing the forests. Does the FC actually own the forests under its control, or does it only manage them. And who does own them? Obscurasky (talk) 22:18, 3 June 2015 (UTC).)


 * The majority of land managed by the FC is owned freehold. Some land is also held on very long leases (typically 999 year leases), with the freehold owner retaining certain rights, for example shooting rights. Wikiapodemus (talk) 08:54, 6 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Sorry for the 4 year delay in responding. I'm afraid I don't understand your answer; I was asking who actually owns (freehold or leasehold) the forests that are managed by the FC - is it the FC themselves? Often you see them collectively referred to as the 'Public Forest Estate', which indicates they're owned by the state (on behalf of the public). Obscurasky (talk) 14:16, 3 November 2020 (UTC)

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