Forestry

Highlights

Forestry has been taught at Bangor since 1904. Benefit from cutting-edge international research and easy access to a diverse range of public and private-owned woodland, forests, and other habitats for fieldwork. Accredited by the Institute of Chartered Foresters, this BSc (Hons) Forestry counts towards professional membership entry for Chartered Forester status.

We will also pay your first year’s student membership. Access to Treborth Botanic Garden and woodlands/farmland at the Henfaes Research Centre for field work and research in lowland agriculture, forestry, hydrology, environmental science and conservation. Excellent facilities include a natural history museum, specialist labs, dedicated field store with research-grade equipment, and industry-standard GIS software to support your learning and practical fieldwork.

Friendly, supportive community: opportunities to get involved with the International Forestry Students’ Association and Bangor Forestry Students’ Association, which hosts guest talks, socials, and field trips.

Course overview

Vital to the global ecosystem, almost a third of the world’s land surface is covered with forests, which absorb around 15.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. Trees naturally filter air and water, help prevent soil erosion, and provide shelter, food and resources to humans and wildlife. The provisioning services of forest ecosystems are also vital to meeting future timber needs of the UK.

A career in forest management gives you the chance to make a real difference to conservation and climate change. You could end up responsible for thousands of hectares of productive woodlands or one country park, or you could find yourself managing farm woodlands, or developing urban environments. Accredited by the Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF), our BSc (Hons) Forestry sets you on a journey to become a Chartered Forester.

Studying in a fantastic location for field trips and projects near Eryri National Park Authority, you also have access to the 82 hectares of woodlands, many semi natural, and farmland we own at the University’s Henfaes Research Centre. The Centre, also a Defra study farm and part of the Global Farm Platform, hosts a range of forestry and land-use research experiments that provide excellent learning resources. Bangor University was the first university in the UK to offer a degree in forestry.

We also launched the career of the world’s first female forester, Mary Sutherland. Today, our forestry alumni are part of the forestry and woodland management heritage, capacity, and expertise of a huge array of countries and organisations. Our graduates have chaired the Government’s Climate Change Committee and worked for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation watershed management project.

They currently help manage the Chatsworth Estate, and other large tracts of forestry across working with a range of management companies across Wales and the UK. Our extensive local, national, and international networks and active research programmes allow us to deliver high quality teaching which addresses cutting-edge issues, from investigating the role of species diversity and forest productivity, identifying future timber species, and increasing the resilience of future plantations. Our research, much world leading, concerns forests and climate change adaption, mitigation, deforestation, biodiversity, flood protection, nutrient cycling, human wellbeing, conservation, and the role of forests in recreation.

One recent project with Forest Research, for example, analysed the viability of land sparing and land sharing strategies for commercial woodland expansion within Wales. We work closely with, and introduce our students to, organisations such as the ICF, Natural Resources Wales and Natural England, Eryri National Park Authority, the Environment Agency, Forestry Commission, Woodland Trust, Small Wood Association, Forest Research, Tilhill Forestry…