We want to see more forests that are great for people, wildlife and timber.
The best way to achieve this? Using the power of Continuous Cover Forestry. It works by creating a mixed age forest, where trees at different stages of life grow side by side. Timber is harvested evenly across the forest, with only a small percentage felled at any one time, meaning you always have a forest that feels like forest.😊
How Do We Do This?
1) We share content to inspire others to create continuous cover forests
2) We join with people who don’t have the time or energy to do it themselves but want to make a positive impact with the money they invest.
Learn
We share how we’re creating continuous cover forests and how you can too. That includes planting new forests and transforming existing forests to continuous cover.
Invest
We join with people who are too busy to create or manage their own forest but want to have a positive impact by investing in a forest.
Stay
We’re building unique accommodation in some of our forests. Join the wait list to follow our journey.
How it all began.
Hi there, I’m Chris, the founder of Diverse Forest and lover of trees!
It probably has a lot to do with being an orienteer all my life, it’s a forest based sport that involves finding a series of checkpoints as fast as possible using just a map and compass. Which means I’ve been to a lot of forests, 100s maybe 1000s all over the world.
But commercial forests in the UK have always depressed me. They’re managed through a technique called clear fell where vast areas of trees are cut down together – is it even a forest if you cut down all the trees? More like an industrial tree farm.
They lack biodiversity, they’re an eyesore on the landscape, often a barren wasteland to wander through plus cause a host of local environmental issues. But naively I always assumed that was the only way you could grow timber….
But in 2019 I came across continuous cover forests. Forests that are great for people, wildlife and timber.
It works by creating a mixed age forest, where trees at different stages of life grow side by side. Timber is harvested evenly across the forest, with only a small percentage felled at any one time, meaning you always have a forest that feels like forest! 😊
I decided the best thing I could do was to create my own continuous cover forest, so along with two friends we bought 30 hectares of land and last year planted 60,000 trees with a £200k government grant.
Using what I’ve learnt from the first project and working with a great team, we aim to inspire people to create their own continuous cover forests and provide a way for those that lack the time to do it themselves to invest in ones we create.
Chris Smithard, Founder
Diverse Forests 