New high-tech app to streamline woodland surveys for landowners
A newly launched high-tech online application is set to transform the way landowners, managers and ecologists across the UK carry out woodland surveys.
The new Woodland Condition Assessment (WCA) App has been developed jointly by the Field Studies Council – based in Preston Montford – plus the Forestry Commission and Sylva Foundation as part of a project aimed at reducing the complexity and workload for woodland owners and managers.
Resource guides and training to help people get to grips with the new technology and build on their biodiversity identification skills have also been developed.
The project has been funded by Defra’s Nature for Climate Fund, which is transforming how trees and woodlands in England are grown and managed.
The easy-to-use WCA App improves the speed and accuracy of the existing WCA process which currently requires landowners and managers to fill out and submit complex and extensive survey forms and spreadsheets to obtain results on the ecological condition of a woodland area.
Neil Riddle of the Forestry Commission, which is leading the project, said the new app allowed reports on woodland condition to be easily generated while providing statistics for the Forestry Commission, and key data about how well woodlands are faring across the country.
He said: “A condition assessment is a key element to help us understand where woodland management can be altered to improve the condition, so it was important that we created a tool that is user-friendly and provides meaningful data to monitor the condition of our woodlands.
