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The Ward Forester Project is aimed at giving woodland owners access to a professional forester to manage their woodlands in a cost effective way.

To improve the productivity of small woodlands the Ward Forester project maps clusters of woodlands under different ownership (wards), and brokers the placement of a professional forester with responsibility for finding best offers for any type of woodland operation. The ‘ward forester’ is an independant consultant working alongside woodland owners (or managing agents) to seek opportunites for cross-ownership working in order to reduce costs and provide attractive tender opportunities. This low obligation approach gives the woodland owner access to professional forestry expertise with the choice of when to participate or not. All that the ward forester needs is access to what the woodland owner intends to do. This can be in the form of a schedule of operations, or ideally a management plan (for which grant aid is available from the Forestry commission).

The map below illustrates the latest progress – woodland owners can navigate here to see their own area and assess local interest. Forestry Consultants can also identify clusters of woodlands that they would like to approach the Ward Forester project with a view to managing.

Key to map

Grey icons = Woodlands which are currently unadopted and are therefore available for expressions of interest from prospective forestry consultants wishing to act as ward forester

Yellow icons = Teign ward (the pilot ward)

Red icons = North Torridge Ward

Orange icons = South Torridge Ward

Green icons = Mamhead Ward

Blue icons = Tamar Ward

All personal data (name, address, contact details etc.) are protected. All that is visible on the map are the woodlands.

To become involved please contact us at wardforester@devon.gov.uk