NATIONAL TRUST WOODLANDS CERTIFIED

(Left): Visitors at Stourhead enjoying the autumn colours with a magnificent tulip tree and the Pantheon in the background. Photo: Ian Shaw/NTPL. The grounds of Stourhead, billed by the Trust as 'one of the finest landscape gardens in the world', are open every day of the year from 9am-7pm. For full details about the house and grounds visit the National Trust site

The National Trust - the largest non-governmental owner of woodland in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - has successfully had its Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certification renewed, following a thorough inspection by the Soil Association. The Trust was first accredited by the FSC in February 2001. The Trust, which acquired its first wood - Brandelhow in Cumbria - in 1902, now has 25,000ha (61,776 acres) of woodland in its care, of which 5,000ha (12,350acres) is some of the most important surviving ancient woodland in Britain

Amongst their many other properties, they manage Hatfield Forest in Essex, an ancient pasture woodland and an almost perfectly intact medieval royal forest. Once the hunting preserve of the Norman kings, its open grasslands contain many ancient pollarded trees, and its forest continues to be regularly coppiced today, as it has been for hundreds of years. The cattle which graze the forest are excluded from the young coppices by fences, but they are allowed back in when the coppice has matured.

Many of the landscaped parks surrounding the Trust's mansions are also ancient pasture-woodlands, emparked and stocked with deer as early as Saxon times. There are also important ancient yews on National Trust land at Ankerwycke (Buckinghamshire), on the Thames near Runnymede (Surrey), at Crom (Co. Fermanagh) and in Borrowdale (Cumbria).

The Trust runs two sawmills, one at Ashridge, the other at Boon Crag near Coniston (Cumbria). Wherever possible they use their own timber in estate fencing and building maintenance and they also sell timber and other forest products worth about £300,000 each year.

You can read the National Trust’s forestry policy here: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-chl/w-countrysideenvironment/w-woodland/w-woodland-management.htm

The Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international, non-governmental organisation formed in 1993 to help offer independent and third party verification of forest management and timber products. There are national working groups in 28 countries including the UK. FSC UK is a registered charity. FSC certified forests are managed to ensure long term timber supplies while protecting the environment. The FSC does not conduct certification itself but accredits certifiers to undertake this work on their behalf. Organisations have to comply with the standards set out in the UK Woodland Assurance Scheme (UKWAS) if they are to be successful in gaining accreditation. More information can be found at: http://www.fsc-uk.org/