Working in partnership with Julia Garritt from FC Scotland, a team of experts from FC Scotland, Forest Research and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), presented a comprehensive insight into this wide-ranging subject. Different aspects of water on harvesting sites are becoming much more significant in harvesting operations and of course, environmental protection legislation has significant penalties for wrong-doing.
The opening presentation looked at the ‘bigger picture’, focusing on standards, legislation and regulating activities which impact on the water environment before focusing on practical matters. Opportunities for working better together were usefully explored, so as to avoid confrontation and prosecutions.
Diffuse pollution is a term that has entered the forestry vocabulary only relatively recently, but understanding of the subject within the sector is variable. Diffuse pollution is defined as the release of potential pollutants from a range of activities that individually may have no effect on the water environment, but at the scale of a catchment can have a significant impact, (ie reduction in water quality, decrease in wildlife, etc). Diffuse sources of pollution include run-off from roads, houses and commercial areas, run-off from farmland, and seepage into groundwater from developed landscapes of all kinds. Forestry operations have been highlighted as a potential source of diffuse pollution.
"This was another event in our popular CPD series, which aims to keep members abreast of developments in topical subjects," said David Sulman, executive director of UKFPA.
"The subject of forestry and water was recommended by members of our Harvesting and Contracting Committee as one that warranted attention. Feedback from members attending the event has been extremely positive and there is already interest in making site visits with FC and SEPA staff to observe and discuss practical matters in the forest. I am sure that there is much to be gained by closer working of this type".
