A NEWLY launched high-tech online application is set to transform the way landowners, managers and ecologists across the UK carry out woodland surveys.

The new Woodland Condition Assessment (WCA) app has been developed jointly by the Field Studies Council, the Forestry Commission and the Sylva Foundation as part of a project aimed at reducing the workload for woodland owners and managers. 

Resource guides and training to help people get to grips with the new technology have also been developed. The project has been funded by DEFRA’s Nature for Climate Fund. 

The app improves the speed and accuracy of the existing WCA process, which currently requires landowners and managers to fill out and submit complex and extensive survey forms and spreadsheets to obtain results on the ecological condition of a woodland area.

Neil Riddle of the Forestry Commission said: “A condition assessment is a key element to help us understand where woodland management can be altered to improve the condition, so it was important that we created a tool that is user-friendly and provides meaningful data to monitor the condition of our woodlands.”

Visit www.field-studies-council.org/woodland-condition-assessments.