Bangor University welcome call for more Forestry education
Comment re: MPs call for more Forestry education to combat threats to woodlands.
Academics at Bangor University’s School of Environment, Natural Resources & Geography have welcomed the calls for universities to extend training and education in forestry to enable the country to cope with threats to our woodlands from diseases such as the recent Ash dieback.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report exposed shortcomings in the UK’s ability to deal with threats to woodlands . In the report, MPs call for universities to train new scientists in this area.
John Healey, Professor of Forest Sciences at Bangor University, welcomed this call for an expansion in forestry education.
Professor Healey said:
“The forestry profession is at the forefront of tackling huge challenges from the combination of impacts of climate change, tree diseases and pressure on land to meet the demands of food security, while regulating flooding and water quality. There has never been a more important or exciting time to recruit a new generation of foresters who have the knowledge and ability to develop the solutions required to meet these challenges. Bangor University has been at the forefront of recent research on impacts of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide on forests, the role of forests in nutrient cycling, the role of trees on farmland in reducing flood risks, and new research on tree diseases. This provides the basis for the university’s degree education in forestry to bring its graduates to the cutting edge of current knowledge in these areas.”
In 2014 Bangor University is celebrating the 110 year anniversary of its teaching in Forestry. Professor Healey commented that: “Forestry education at Bangor is thriving with a number of recent new appointments of academic staff in this field, strong recruitment to the university’s degree courses in forestry at BSc, MSc and PhD levels, and a notable recent expansion of the flexible, part-time, distance-learning forestry MSc programme.”
