Abstract
In recent years, numerous articles have addressed management strategies aimed at assisting forests to adapt to climate change. However, these seldom take into account the practical and economic implications of implementing these strategies, notably, supply of forest plants and seed. Using semi-structured interviews with practitioners involved in the plant and seed supply chain in Great Britain, we highlight a series of practical and economic bottlenecks commonly encountered in the supply of locally sourced seed and domestically produced planting stock for native woodland and hedging markets. We find that adoption of alternative seed sourcing strategies, designed specifically to account for directional climate warming, is likely to exacerbate existing problems by adding further complexity to decisions nurseries make about tree species and seed origins to produce. The lack of long-term market predictability brought about by the current configuration of forestry grants and regulations and, in particular, the administrative systems for processing grant applications is identified as a major impediment to having a sustainable and competitive supply of home-grown and currently adapted planting stock. Finally, the time and effort it takes to supply healthy plants for native woodland creation projects deserves much wider recognition throughout the industry and will be crucial if planting objectives are to be met sustainably.
Highlights
A sustainable supply of germplasm or planting material is crucial for any plant based ecological restoration project (Broadhurst et al, 2016)
In this paper we explore how private businesses involved in the supply of seed and planting stock of trees and shrubs for the forestry and hedging markets are affected by policies that govern seed origin choice—using Great Britain (GB), as our study region
An interesting attribute of the forest nursery sector in GB is that private sector nurseries tend to be organised into professional membership groups, for example, the CONFOR nursery producer’s group and the Horticulture Trades Association tree and hedging group
Summary
A sustainable supply of germplasm or planting material is crucial for any plant based ecological restoration project (Broadhurst et al, 2016). An abundance of research emphasises that the planting material supplied for native woodland creation and restoration should come from a seed source that is ecologically and genetically appropriate for the planting site (McKay et al, 2005; Leimu and Fischer, 2008; Vander Mijnsbrugge et al, 2010; Sgrò et al, 2011; Breed et al, 2013; Bucharova et al, 2016). The situation in GB, the archipelago composed of the countries of England, Scotland and Wales, is pertinent because there is currently high motivation to expand and restore native woodland in many parts of the country (Scottish Executive, 2006; Forestry Commission, 2007a; Welsh Assembly Government, 2009), and due to problems with fragmentation of woodland and unreliability of natural regeneration, this is best conducted by planting of nurseryraised tree seedlings, rather the use of less resource intensive direct seeding approaches (Willoughby et al, 2004)
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