Visit to Norbury Park Estate - with Dr Jo Bradwell
Exploring the science and the reality of silviculture in the age of climate change.

Norbury Park Estate was purchased by the current owners in 2009. They are passionate about the environment and work tirelessly to ensure the resilience and sustainability of their woodlands are a priority.

Since 2009 the estate has embarked on a massive re-afforestation programme by planting trees on the poorer quality arable land. To date almost 400 acres of new woodland has been created and over half a million trees planted. Alongside the new woods the estate cares for nearly 1,300 acres of mature forests.

Our forest management comprises of two aspects: maintaining the sustainability of our mature woodland, whilst growing our younger woodland to maturity. In both aspects, the concept is to select & retain the best and largest trees while reducing competition from the smaller trees surrounding them by using ‘halo-pollarding’. This management technique is carried out on a 4-5 year rotation to leave a 1-2 meter canopy gap around the ‘winning’ trees allowing them ample room for growth to ultimately produce high-quality sawlogs. The smaller pollarded/ felled trees are used for timber, fire-logs and woodchip to fuel our own biomass boilers and kiln.

Research work on the estate has resulted in over 100 different tree species being planted. Many of these are grown in mixed species plantations, where growing large numbers of different species (many non-native) in close proximity appears to result in faster growth rates and reduced diseases. This research is attempts to mitigate against the effects of tree pests and diseases and better understand carbon sequestration.

Alongside our own research work, Norbury Park Estate is supporting a huge international experiment in collaboration with the University of Birmingham’s BIFoR (Birmingham Institute of Forest Research) department.

The BIFoR FACE (Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment) experiment is the largest experiment of its type in the world where fully mature English oak trees in a natural woodland setting are being incubated in an enhanced carbon dioxide environment predicted for the year 2045. This allows ongoing monitoring of how the whole ecosystem of the woodland will respond to rising CO2 levels.

Itinerary