Partnership working
The North York Moors National Park Authority works with many partners to help achieve its aims and for many years partnership working has been particularly well developed with the Forestry Commission.
In 1993 the Association of National Park Authorities signed an Accord with the Forestry Commission on the management and expansion of native woodlands in England and Wales. This has been successful in many ways – perhaps the most obvious being the availability of additional funding to encourage a significant expansion of new native woodland. In the North York Moors this has seen several hundred hectares of new woodland established over the past few years to expand the native woodland resource.
Close working locally has seen an increase in the amount of native woodland being managed as well, and there is now increasing interest in encouraging the restoration of planted ancient woodland sites, particularly to help achieve biodiversity objectives. In 2002 the National Park Authority employed a Native Woodland Development Officer, with significant funding from the Forestry Commission, to promote native woodland management and expansion and generate more activity.
The original woodland Accord has now been updated to reflect changing circumstances and will encompass other areas of joint interest. The new national Accord was reaffirmed at a signing ceremony in Helmsley in November 2002. In December 2003 a local Woodland Accord was signed by the Forestry Commission, Forest Enterprise and North York Moors National Park Authority to reflect local priorities You can download copies of both Accords in our Publications Section.
A partnership involving the Howardian Hills AONB, the Royal Forestry Society, English Nature and the Woodland Trust has considered priorities for action across the area. George Peterken, a woodland ecologist, has considered the development of the woodland resource of the North York Moors and Howardian Hills in the context of Forest Habitat Networks.
The National Park Authority is also a member of the Yorwoods partnership. The initiative was established in 1997 to assist the economy and environment of upland Yorkshire through better management of woodland. Yorwoods is now developing the ‘North Yorkshire Sustainable Woodlands Project’ to encourage and support sustainable woodland management through certification, business development and advice, as well as promoting training opportunities. Yorwoods also runs Yorkshire Wood fuels, a regional woodfuel producer group, to help develp the use of wood as a sustainable fuel. You can find out more about Yorwoods by visiting their website www.yorwoods.org.uk
