The Crown Estate at Windsor

The Crown Estate at Windsor is a unique woodland, with its proximity to London, diversity of forest types, high visitor numbers, and its need to balance ecological restoration with timber production. Being certified has become a vital part of their forest management practices and the narrative of the estate.

The original certified woodlands

The Crown Estate at Windsor is one of the original Forest Stewardship Council^® (FSC^®) certificate holders. They achieved their first accreditation 20 years ago and have been continually certified since. The estate’s 3,200ha of forest is FSC and PEFC certified through Soil Association Certification.

This site has pioneered sustainability and certification not only within the estate’s borders, but across the wider forestry community.

It was these values that we wanted to talk to Chief Forester Richard Everett about: whether such a long time within the FSC system has altered the way the estate is managed, and how they continue to approach their forestry certification.

Richard tells us how, far from becoming an administrative burden, over the last 20 years certification has become a comprehensive project management tool for the estate. It has become a framework from which their silviculture can be managed and from which they can develop innovative pathways. It is a baseline for the day to day, year to year, and decade to decade management and planning.

Biodiversity in balance

In some respects, having such a large estate does make things easier. Though they maintain ecological, social, and economic sustainability across all the diverse lowland woodlands, they can also slightly vary the emphasis depending on the woodland, while still creating balance.

This means that while 80% of the woodlands are in some sort of environmental designation, they can still harvest around 12,000 tonnes of timber a year.

All this is achieved within a peri-urban setting just outside London, where there is significant leisure use (over 6 million people a year visit the estate). Managing this balance between visitors and biodiversity is one of the key challenges and most important objectives for the estate.

How certification helps to meet sustainability goals

The estate is proud to offer a diverse and reliable supply of certified timber. While their smaller volumes may not compete with the commodity markets, good management and certification remain essential. Even in the niche of high quality oak, Richard sees a reputational advantage in being able to sell it as certified; being able to say that it’s not just the timber that is good quality, but also the way it is grown.

Sometimes the certification can be seen as restrictive, almost frustrating, but the estate deals with this by creating an opportunity from that restriction. The use of chemical herbicides is a good example, especially in controlling the extensive bracken on the estate.

The estate needs to reduce and consider alternatives to chemical use and to that end they have been experimenting with ways to break down the bracken stems by rolling with horses and with mechanised cutting to kill the above ground plant and impede further growth.

In this way, the certification clause on reducing pesticide and herbicide use isn’t an impediment but becomes a tool for development.

Richard summed up the need for the estate’s certification: “We have all sorts of stakeholders and all sorts of visitors who come to the estate from so many different backgrounds. When we are quizzed about forest management and our objectives, it always comes into the into the discussion that we're meeting an internationally recognised standard for our sustainability. That’s a really positive message for us.”

Certification as a management tool

Time and again in the conversation it was apparent that certification was used as more than just a promotional or marketing tool. This is no more evident than in the creation of wetland habitats in the forest.

Wetlands, once drained to enable plantation forestry, are now being reconsidered and managed to restore habitats and enhance biodiversity. This, which is suggested by the certification criteria, will enhance the ecology of the site, visitor attractiveness and wildlife resilience.

Rather than being a negotiation between certification criteria and silvicultural objectives, at the Crown Estate both are working in tandem. FSC and PEFC certifications act as the framework for long-term silvicultural objectives.

Moving forward with certification

What about the future? How does the estate and its certification move forward together?

Every year the certification criteria changes slightly, but Richard sees this as part of the overall change of silvicultural practices.

Soil Association Certification provides continuity for the estate. The auditors’ expertise and experience enables discussions about how the standards apply to different aspects of the estate’s forestry business, as well as compliance issues.

As we start to view forestry as something that happens outside as well as inside the forest gate, Richards thinks it will be interesting to see how certification schemes evolve.

Urban trees and, for the estate, parkland agroforestry, are good examples. The estate is undertaking advanced cloning to provide biological continuity of their veteran trees, which will impact positively both inside and outside the traditional forest.

In the end Richard summed up the importance of certification to the estate perfectly:

“We often get challenged by people who question some of our forest management activities, particularly harvesting which can often be perceived as being destructive, but what we're doing is quite the opposite: improving habitat for the future and producing sustainable products. It is very useful to say a Soil Association Certification auditor came and inspected us last year and these are international standards we're complying with.”