Forestry Commission - Forest Research

Forest Research

Forest Research is the research agency of the Forestry Commission that undertakes scientific research and surveys. Its core roles are to provide the evidence base for British forestry policies and to identify methods for sustainable forestry management. It also carries out research with, or on behalf of, academic and commercial organisations.

There are three forest research stations run by Forest Research. A research station is located in each of the constituent countries of Great Britain: Alice Holt in England; the Northern research station in Scotland and the smaller Aberystwyth Research Unit in Wales. The Alice Holt research station was the Commission's first research station, established in 1946; it is the main research station of Forest Research. The Northern research station in Midlothian was opened in 1970. In 2009, a smaller research unit was established in Aberystwyth.

Forest Research's Technical Services Unit is run from the Northern Research Station and maintains a network of five field stations to conduct research for the Forestry Commission and other organisations. The Technical Services Unit is also responsible for six satellite stations and the research station nurseries.

In 2006, Forest Research made Alice Holt forest the first research forest in Britain. It was followed by the Dyfi Catchment and Woodland Research Platform, Gwynedd, in 2012. Alice Holt was chosen as a research forest because it has been the base for research by the Forestry Commission since 1946 and over that time the Commission maintained detailed records of the forest and experiments carried out within it.