What Is Continuous Cover Forestry?

Continuous cover forestry involves the maintenance of a forest canopy during the regeneration phase with a consequent presumption against clearfelling in favour of alternative silvicultural systems. Although there are likely to be cost penalties from the use of continuous cover systems these can be more than offset by the provision of enhanced non-market benefits.
The main constraints are the risks of windthrow and of regeneration failure through browsing or vegetation competition, plus the lack of experience of alternative silvicultural systems in British forestry. However, despite these limitations, there is potential for greater use of continuous cover forestry on selected sites throughout Britain as one means of providing more diverse forests for multi-purpose benefits.