Call for more on-farm tree planting...

[The Business Barn]

Soaring timber and firewood prices should act as an incentive for more farmers to consider planting trees or better manage areas of existing woodland on their farms, according to forestry body Confor.

Figures from the Forestry Commission show timber prices have risen by almost 30% in a year and are nearly double the level of a decade ago, with some regional hotspots seeing prices above the average.

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[rollestonpark]

I will just come to this from 'the other side of the fence'
Due to the fact that you can't cut down more than 4 cu metre per calendar quarter without a felling license.
I had to remove about 6-10 pollar trees due to excessive growth near to a neighbours house, so I needed a felling license.
The guy from the forestry commission came to look and said 'so what you planting to replace these?'
'I said nothing, because its next to this house the location is unsuitable.'
He said 'well in that case, I can't let you remove them'
'We basically don't grant clear felling without replanting. except in exceptional circumstances.'

So I said, 'so once you plant a tree, always tree, yes?'
'Basically yes.'

Thus unless your prepared to permanently sacrifice the land to trees, never plant a tree.

Just my take on it after having to deal with the felling license problem.

 

[Kidds]

once you plant a tree, always tree,

A pretty good incentive to not plant trees.

 

[renewablejohn]

Would not trust the forestry commission. Signed up to a woodland grant scheme back in 2005 and they have failed to pay out from 2015 onwards. Will cost me a fortune in replacing the dead ash trees imported from their diseased supplier.

 

[Adeptandy]

Same here, took on a farm with a freshly planted wood, FWPS appears to have ended , now have rent on 13 acres I can't get an income from

 

[Goweresque]

Given Michael Gove's desire to ban log burners, perhaps long term investments in the production of firewood might not be such a good idea???

 

[delilah]

Soaring timber and firewood prices

Can someone tell we where this is and we will ship a load of logs there; we haven't been able to put our price up for logs for 3 years due to mild winters/ oversupply.

 

[renewablejohn]

Can someone tell we where this is and we will ship a load of logs there; we haven't been able to put our price up for logs for 3 years due to mild winters/ oversupply.

Same here but also being undercut by the RHI log drying scam using wet timber to produce dry timber.

 

[Hilly]

farmers moving too metal fencing, building industry moving to plastic , log burners ban ? maybe etc etc etc forestry planting more more trees they are setting themselves up for an epic fail in the future, we will end up with millions of acres of sitca spruce abandon`d

 

[Happy]

farmers moving too metal fencing, building industry moving to plastic , log burners ban ? maybe etc etc etc forestry planting more more trees they are setting themselves up for an epic fail in the future, we will end up with millions of acres of sitca spruce abandon`d

There is a massive shortage of timber in the UK coming and with 60% of softwood used already imports can only see the situation getting worse as thousands of acres of the the stuff has been felled here in the past 5-6 years but going to be a long time until the next crop ready.

Biomass plants are swallowing up tonnes of the stuff. Been told Drax are importing it from South Anerica, trucking it up from south coast where 100,000t only lasts them 3 days.

 

[Hilly]

There is a massive shortage of timber in the UK coming and with 60% of softwood used already imports can only see the situation getting worse as thousands of acres of the the stuff has been felled here in the past 5-6 years but going to be a long time until the next crop ready.

Biomass plants are swallowing up tonnes of the stuff. Been told Drax are importing it from South Anerica, trucking it up from south coast where 100,000t only lasts them 3 days.

yes, at the moment, bio mass is rubbish and will be found out in the future, it has no future , 30-40 years forestry will be on its knees and we will be left with an environmental disaster.

 

[primmiemoo]

How much pesticide and herbicide to establish and maintain these new trees? How much fuel?

Not long ago in tree terms, thousands of acres of ancient native pastures were planted to conifers, because it was never imagined that our coal mining could cease and there would be no demand for pitprops. Nobody appreciated the ground at the time, and dismissed it as marginal/poor. Goodbye biodiversity. Goodbye ecology. Of millennia.

That's thousands of acres of unique habitat lost. Not farmers' fault.

The most recent woodland scheme more often than not (no doubt some took it on sincerely) a tax-efficient slippers income-stream on ground that is farmable ~ or was ~ and has been farmed for a millennium. Won't be again without Act of Parliament?

Gove wants more destruction??

If they put incentive to manage hedgerows for timber, maintaining fields for food, that would be a different proposition.

I love trees. On the holding, there's an equivalent to 30 acres of woodland at all stages (with understorey) hidden in plain sight on the hedges.

I love trees better in the right places.

 

[The Business Barn]

Can someone tell we where this is and we will ship a load of logs there; we haven't been able to put our price up for logs for 3 years due to mild winters/ oversupply.

Hi there,
Thank you for your message. Please contact Confor for further information; you can find more details here: www.confor.org.uk/news/latest-news/surge-in-timber-prices-sparks-call-for-more-planting.
Best wishes,
The Business Barn