Treescapes

Forestry/growing trees is a long-term process measured in decades in a world where increasingly every second counts. So it is vital to plant the right trees in the right way - or the mistakes can be there for all to see for many years ahead.

Trees are a significant feature in the landscape and often determine the characteristic "look" of an area. Those may be in blocks, hedgelines or even single or scattered trees.

Trees can be extremely useful in the landscape in screening or camouflaging eyesores or greening up derelict or damaged land. Because of the long time-scale involved in growing most species of timber trees, they are sometimes planted for the right reasons using the right species and at the right time when judged by the socio-economic climate of the day and for the then foreseeable future. But criteria can change.

After World War II, Government policy laid heavy emphasis on afforestation, particularly using faster growing softwood or conifer species in upland Britain. One reason was to produce a strategic reserve of timber for the future. Forests such as Kielder in Northumbria, planted almost from scratch, were major undertakings and seemed the right thing to do at the time. The driving force there was to plant trees quickly and on a large scale. Factors such as landscape and biodiversity were scarcely heard of then.

With time, what Society thinks and demands moves on. Things changed over time - people became wealthier, lived longer, had more leisure time and more vehicles and began to create new pressures and demand new services from the countryside. What were heralded as vital new generators of jobs and future wealth and security are now seen in a different light.

With the wisdom of hindsight, the blocks of fairly uniform conifer species planted in serried-ranks, in a pyjama-stripe pattern and enclosed within long straight fence lines did not really blend in or beautify the upland areas of Britain.

Trees in the landscape - or treescapes - grew up as a new discipline within forestry as the landscapers began to work together with foresters and land managers to harmonise forests and the landscape.

Particularly in the State woodlands, every sensible opportunity is taken now to soften the straight lines, to remove trees from areas such as stream-sides, and to use felling operations to remodel or restructure the forest.

Extensive plantations, established over a short timescale and often dating from the 1950s, are remodelled or restructured to coincide with commercial harvesting operations. By felling some areas a few years earlier than normal and leaving others for a few years later than when they were at their commercial best, the age-span of the stands of timber there has been stretched. The hard edges have been softened to produce a far more visually attractive landscape within commercially working forests such as Kielder.

In some areas, trees are being removed to enhance the landscape or promote conservation or archaeological features.

It is worth remembering, however, that much of the tree-free moorland scenery valued highly in upland areas is in fact an artificial one. Most of it would naturally be covered by trees. Grazing by livestock and burning for grouse moors have created and maintain what is really an extensive man made habitat. If the livestock were taken off and burning ceased, much moorland would revert to woodland over time. Efforts are now being made to regenerate upland woodlands, often by fencing out livestock and letting natural regeneration run its course.

Landscaping can be both:

• internal - what you see within the wood itself
• external - what you see from a distance.

Internal landscaping often ties in with recreation and wildlife conservation. And these can go hand in hand with running a commercially viable woodland.

Widening woodland rides and managing them to create a patchwork of different grass and shrub communities along them also helps to dry out the rides and makes it easier to get vehicle access when needed for forestry operations.

Creating box junctions where rides cross helps get air and light into the woodland and creates a visually more attractive treescape and enhances biodiversity - and also provides a stacking area for timber and a turning circle for vehicles at the same time. So with careful thought, internal landscaping can improve woodland and forests for all concerned.

The use of computer images has made forestry landscape design easier - both to envisage what new woodland and forests will look like in the future and how to redesign existing ones.

Of the numerous aesthetic factors affecting forest design, shapes fitting in with the existing land form, scale and diversity are fundamental in getting it to look right. Some beauty is still in the eye of the beholder of course.

Shape is crucial, particularly the external boundaries, and working out which areas or coupes to fell and when.

Things external landscaping now tries to avoid in treescapes are:

• long straight edges
• right angles
• parallel edges
• symmetrical or geometrical shapes
• vertical boundaries at right angle to contours
• horizontal boundaries following contours.

Underpinning principles include:

• trying to imitate and blend in with the surrounding landscapes
• following "visual forces" in land form
• harmonising with natural vegetation patterns where possible

The scale and diversity of new woodlands and forests is a vital consideration too.

Not all factors changing treescapes are man-made. Great storms can also decimate woods and radically alter treescapes from one day to the next. Loss of millions of tall elms to Dutch Elm Disease in the 1960's changed the treescape, particularly in the Shire counties.

More: For further reading about treescapes, the FC publication "Forest Landscape Design Guidelines" (1994) is useful. Short courses on forest landscape design are offered by organisations such as the Forestry Commission. For details of landscaping courses, try the Landscape Institute.