Future Trees Trust and Torry Hill

Chestnut Woods Coppicing Chestnut Fencing Processing, Future Trees Trust

Torry Hill Chestnut fencing’s business depends on a regular supply of good quality chestnut timber. Sweet chestnut is a tree with variable habits, and the selective breeding and propagation of better quality tree types is essential. Working in partnership with Future Trees Trust ensures that we can help with the development of better varieties of sweet chestnut.

Not only are Torry Hill keen advocates of all that Future Trees Trust does but John has recently become the Chair of the Sweet Chestnut Species Group, a role that he doesn’t take lightly and actively champions the necessary progress that needs to happen to maintain good levels of sweet chestnut in the UK and beyond.

“I am really pleased to be hosting one of FTT’s chestnut seed orchards. This is the first stage of a long term programme to produce high quality seed for the UK nursery trade. It will obviously be of benefit to our business but there will be wider benefits as well for the whole UK forestry sector.”

Future Trees Trust and Sweet Chestnut

Focussing on sweet chestnut the Future Trees Trust is currently continuing its research to protect against the diseases Phytophthora spp and Cryphonectria spp.

Phytophthora spp is a fungal disease that causes ‘ink disease’ and Cryphonectria spp, although not present in the UK, causes chestnut blight. Both are real threats to sweet chestnut across Europe and we need to be aware of their potential impacts as well as develop resilience.

Sweet chestnut in England should show a reasonable degree of natural resistance to Phytophthora. According to Future Trees Trust, “Studies using molecular markers indicate that the level of genetic diversity in British populations is high and comparable to continental levels – suggesting that in the past there have been multiple introductions from different sources.”