Ftn feb 15 final version

FORESTRY & TIMBER NEWS February 2015 Issue 67

Confor’s Westminster conference p4

Stakeholder engagement p6

Forest management feature p13

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CONTENTS

CONFOR AGENDA

Changing perceptions

I

After a campaign changed minds about the use of wood in construction, director Stuart Goodall says now is the time to challenge perceptions about our forests

n 2011 Confor’s part-owned wood promotion initiative, Wood for Good, ran a new campaign called Challenge Your Perceptions. It was based on an assessment that builders’ and architects’ misconceptions about wood led to other materials being specified. For example, wood was seen to lack structural strength and was criticised as prone to rot and catch fire.

That theme of changing minds continues as it takes repeated and widespread effort to overcome deep-rooted perspectives or views, however misguided they may be.

We face a similar challenge when it comes to forests, with wood production and the need to secure income to support management poorly understood and consequently rarely appreciated. Wildlife and leisure are strongly supported, but the cost of protecting or providing them is not.

At the same time, most people we speak to respond well to statistics on the UK’s low forest cover and feel that the connection that other countries make to their forests, and the wood products they provide, is a good thing and should be ‘rediscovered’ here.

Changing perceptions about our forests is an even bigger challenge than wood and construction. The audience is more varied and the issues more complex. The connection with trees, as opposed to wood, is also perhaps more instinctive and the images of forest loss (albeit overseas) more vivid.

But if you never start, you never make progress and we need to make progress. A lack of understanding and support makes it harder to deliver new planting, to harvest or bring woodland back into management, to see more timber lorries on rural roads.

Farming has many negatives from public subsidy to pesticides, but the need to produce food is understood. Forestry has a far better story to tell, and we need to get out there and do that.

In 2015, with a new website, new visual resources, a Westminster conference and increased media activity, we will take the first steps, building on experience gained in Scotland where the media climate is more conducive. Your support and feedback is, as always, very welcome!

4 NEWS

Exceptional speaker line-up confirmed for Confor’s Westminster conference Update on sawmill energy campaign Forestry and timber businesses urged to take part in surveys Fishery sector reaches out to forestry Confor in Wales

Good business or business constraint? asks Amanda Bryan

Surge in timber thefts raises alarm Grants for grey squirrel control in England RFS members consulted on grey squirrel policy

Andrew Heald looks forward to a year of change Letter to the editor

6 STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

7 NEWS

9 CERTIFICATION

10 PROCESSING

A quality package: Iggesund investments drive demand for UK timber

13 FOREST MANAGEMENT

Eucalyptus at centre of Cornish farm scheme Managing change – Q&A with Tim Liddon and Graham Taylor The case for CCF Balancing amenity and commercial concerns in Mull’s community woodlands

22 BUSINESS & FINANCE Oliver Combe’s Timber Auctions market report

Peter Whitfield’s timber market report Hardwood auction report 2014

26 CLIMATE CHANGE Extreme weather – a wake-up call for timber supply

chain resilience?

27 PLANT HEALTH A chance to pull the chestnuts out of the fire Picture UPM Tilhill

30 PESTICIDES NOTEBOOK Glyphosate: appropriate choice for the environment?

33 PEOPLE 33 PUBLICATIONS

CONFOR CONTACTS Confor head office and editorial office 59 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 2JG 0131 240 1410 info@confor.org.uk

Caroline Harrison National manager for England and regional director M: 07500 927482 E: caroline.harrison@confor.org.uk

Martin Bishop National manager for Wales Rheolwr Genedlaethol i Gymru M: 07876 029482 E: martin.bishop@confor.org.uk

Jamie Farquhar National manager for Scotland M: 07817 374906 E: jamie.farquhar@confor.org.uk

Stefanie Kaiser Communications and editor FTN T: 0131 240 1420 E: stefanie.kaiser@confor.org.uk

www.confor.org.uk For the latest news of forestry and wood sign up to #forestandwood on twitter

Andrew Heald National representative for N. Ireland M: 07771 844653 E: andrew.heald@confor.org.uk

We want to hear from you Forestry and Timber News is your magazine, please contact Stefanie with your views and comments

34 WOODLAND OWNER

Forest schooling

Here comes the ‘lumbersexual’

34 LIVING THE FOREST 38 MOTORING Lively Volvo proves it can be frugal too

NEWS

Update on sawmill energy campaign

Save the dat e March – 24 London

Creating a government – industry dialogue for our sector Exceptional speaker line-up confirmed for conference Confor is very pleased to confirm an exceptional line-up of speakers for its landmark conference in the heart of Westminster just weeks before the 2015 General Election.

Politicians including Forestry Minister Dan Rogerson and experts from industry and beyond will gather on 24 March to discuss Confor’s election manifesto, Delivering Green Growth, which calls for a range of actions from the next UK government to ensure forestry and wood can deliver its full potential.

Mr Rogerson will deliver a keynote presentation on what the government can do to support continued growth in the sector, while Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor, will stress why forestry and timber needs to do more to tell its positive story.

A series of industry experts will tell the government what the sector wants - and needs - to thrive. Iwan Williams from UPM Tilhill will talk about delivering more planting and better management, Reg Hardy of Charltons speaks on how to unlock business investment - and Dave Hopkins of Wood for Good details why society should use more wood.

The event concludes with a panel discussion including Guy Opperman, Conservative MP for Hexham, Roger Williams, Liberal Democrat member for Brecon and Radnorshire and chair of the Westminster All Party Forestry Group, and Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North and former forestry minister.

The conference’s opening session will address market demand for assurance of sustainability and the problems that certification is currently creating for the sector with FSC certification becoming more complex and costly. Fiona Wheatley of Marks & Spencer will address the customer perspective and Helen Browning, chief executive of the Soil Association, will discuss how to concentrate on the essentials of assurance and not get bogged down in unnec4 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015

essary complication. The session is anchored by Andrew Heald of Confor, with a senior Forestry Commission speaker and representative of FSC joining a panel discussion.

Mr Goodall said: “This is a landmark event for the forestry and timber sector and offers us the chance to put over our positive message to politicians - and to explain how they can build on the success of the sector and take it to even greater heights. We also need to take a long, hard look at how we can best demonstrate to customers that our products are sustainable assurance schemes need to be fit-for-purpose for the user and not just credible with the customer.”

He added: “Our last conference at Westminster, in 2012, following the report by the Independent Panel on Forestry, was a real success in raising the sector’s profile and putting the benefits of productive forestry and wood products in the spotlight. We also received excellent feedback from those who attended. However, there is still much to do and we need a new government to work with us to secure future wood supply and build a financially sustainable future for the sector - delivering the green growth that everyone wants.”

The full conference agenda is on the Confor website: www.confor.org.uk

Confor is demanding that a proposed relief payment from the indirect cost of renewables for energy intensive industries be applied to the sawmilling sector.

It is estimated that the relief could involve significant cost savings, potentially in excess of £3 million per annum to the companies involved by 2020. Under the proposed eligibility criteria, UK sawmillers would not qualify.

Confor has engaged a lobbying firm, Tetra Strategy, and has met seven MPs who have all written to ministers, along with constituency MPs from a number of the UK’s sawmills. Scotland’s enterprise minister has also written in support of Confor’s campaign.

A meeting has been arranged with officials for the end of January and it is expected that the Government will issue its final recommendations by early February. Confor’s argument is that there are few sectors more exposed to international competition and that the recent strengthening of Sterling means that domestic mills have seen their recent price advantage largely eroded. A switch to imports would have consequences up the supply chain.

There is a very tight window in which to press the case for sawmillers and it will be very difficult to secure a place for them in the new scheme, but the benefits would be very significant and are therefore worth fighting for.

This campaign follows on from Confor’s success last year in negotiating a Climate Change Agreement with the UK Government which provided a reduction of up to 90% in the Climate Change Levy. A number of sawmills are now benefitting from that agreement.

When and where

The event takes place at RICS on Great George Street, just off Parliament Square, London, from 10am-4pm on Tuesday 24 March 2015. Tickets, including a buffet lunch and refreshments, are £75 for Confor members (£90 non-members).

Places are limited and early booking is recommended by calling Liz Hughson on 0131 240 1410 or email liz@confor.org.uk

Ransford’s sawmill, Bishops Castle, Shropshire

Forestry and timber businesses urged to take part in surveys Businesses across the forest and timber industries are being encouraged to take part in three statistical surveys being conducted by the Forestry Commission. They are: • the Private Sector Softwood Removals Survey; • the Sawmill Survey; and • the Survey of Round Fencing Manufacturers.

The surveys, which can be completed online via the FC website, are conducted with the support of the sector-wide Expert Group on Timber and Trade Statistics. The information from them, together with data from other sources, is used to produce statistics to monitor the state of the timber industry and the balance between supply and demand. These statistics have a range of uses, including: providing information about the economy; informing policy and programme development; informing policy and programme evaluation and monitoring; and

promoting the benefits of forestry.

Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor, said: “The UK’s forestry and wood sector is a success story, and it is vital that we have accurate and up-to-date information on the contribution it makes to the economy and to wider society in order to inform policy makers and promote the sector. I would encourage businesses to respond to these surveys, noting that their data is kept confidential.”

Detailed information and links to the online survey questionnaires are available at www.forestry.gov.uk/timbersurveys Further information is available from the Forestry Commission’s Statistics Unit by email to statistics@forestry.gsi.gov.uk or telephone to 0300 067 5238.

By Martin Bishop, Confor National manager for Wales Meeting the Environment and Sustainability Committee

Confor were invited to meet members of the National Assembly for Wales Environment and Sustainability Committee at the Welsh Winter Fair in December.

The purpose of the meeting was to meet old and new members of the committee informally and to discuss the future work of that committee.

It was useful to meet existing supporters of forestry like Alun Ffred Jones AM, William Powell AM, Llyr Gruffydd AM and to meet and put our case to others members of the committee.

Deputy Minister to support Confor

The benefits of woodland for water are increasingly recognised

Fishery sector reaches out to forestry Confor has accepted an invitation to speak at an important conference on Forestry and Fisheries in Penrith in April.

The title of the event is Forestry and Fisheries – Where Next, and Confor’s technical director Andrew Heald will present the result of joint research undertaken by Tom Nisbet of Forest Research on the Role of Productive Woodlands in Water Management.

The research demonstrates that modern forestry managed in accordance with UKFS actually has many positive impacts both in terms of water quality but also in managing flood risk.

Hopefully by engaging with critical audiences at events such as this Confor can continue to address many of the negative perceptions around the impact of productive woodlands with water.

CONFOR IN WALES

The research is presented in a new Confor publication, The Role of Productive Woodlands in Water Management which will be launched soon (see also “publications” on page 33).

More join ICF The Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF) is celebrating a new milestone in membership figures, having recorded 1500 members at the beginning of 2015. This is the highest membership number the organisation has ever had, since its foundation in 1925. In December 2014, following the release of Professional Membership Entry (PME) exam results, ICF also reported a record number of new Professional Members.

Confor Wales Manager, Martin Bishop, recently met with Julie James AM, Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology at the Tŷ Hywel office in in Cardiff. The meeting was very productive and the Deputy Minister was keen to hear of the Confor proposals to commission a report comparing the financial returns of upland forestry with agriculture in Wales and would set up a meeting with officials from the Department for Economy, Science and Transport to discuss investment in forestry in Wales.

The Deputy Minister was also very interested in how the modern forest industry has evolved into a very high-tech, high skill-based industry and the opportunities it presents to support the aims and objectives of the Welsh Government in developing the skills of the Welsh workforce.

Mrs James would like to see the forest industry and her department working closer together to promote skills and education to a wider audience, including schools.

Finest Wood Awards open for applications Businesses, school, communities and individuals are being urged to find out if their woodland is one of the best! The Scottish award aims to recognise and reward those who use, promote, own or manage Scotland’s woods and forests to deliver economic, environmental and social benefits.

There are four category awards: the Schools Award, the Community Woodlands Award, The New Native Woods Award and the Quality Timber Awards. Nearly £7000 of prize money is to be won.

Entries must be received by 31st March 2015.

Full details, including entry criteria and entry forms, are available at www.sfwa.co.uk where you can also register your interest in entering the Awards.

Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 5

STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

Good business or business constraint?

by Amanda Bryan

Stakeholder engagement seems to be a hot topic across both government and business.

Not just because it is ‘a good thing to do’ but because it makes good business sense. The benefits of good stakeholder engagement range from reducing constraints and increasing the licence to operate, minimising risks and identifying new opportunities but also to better understand critics and being able to address any negative claims. These are all relevant for the forestry sector.

UPM Tilhill used stakeholder engagement to good advantage at Carrick in Argyll. In 2011, an investment client purchased a 1525ha site in the area for commercial forestry, however, just after purchase a pair of golden eagles nested on the site for the first time in 40 years threatening the 1000ha+ proposed native/ productive conifer planting scheme . Early and continued engagement with both local and national Scottish Natural Heritage staff and an iterative de-

...reducing constraints and increasing the licence to operate, minimising risks and identifying new opportunities sign process resulted in the development of a 563ha mainly productive woodland planting scheme which will be completed in 2015. A much smaller scheme than originally planned, but a still substantial scheme on a site which was at one stage looking unsuitable for forestry.

Stakeholder and community support for a new timber haul route in north-west Mull was an important factor in securing permission from local landowners and farmers to permit access across their land although they would not stand to benefit directly themselves. This opened up large tracts of previously inaccessible commercial forestry, bringing 120,000ha+ of timber to market over the next ten years.

On an international scale, Fibria, a company producing eucalyptus pulp operating in Brazil, experienced a range of problems including theft of timber and vandalism to property and faced significant negative NGO campaigning against their forestry practices until they developed a range of community engagement programmes.

6 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015

Today, their business costs have been much reduced through theft being down 90%, damage to property also down and improved employee motivation and productivity. (http://newgenerationplantations.org) While the benefits are clear there is still a degree of reluctance within the sector to engage with local and community stakeholders. There are concerns surrounding the potential of stakeholder consultation to add in delays or to add in additional constraints or barriers to proposed schemes. Additional concerns have been expressed by forestry managers themselves about the time and skills required to take on any additional workload around stakeholder engagement.

It is true that some engagement activities can take time and may result in changes. After all, engagement implies a willingness to listen, to discuss and potentially to make alterations either to what is being proposed or how it might be delivered. However, time spent establishing good relationships and a degree of trust with stakeholders mean that future proposals may proceed more quickly and potential problems be identified and dealt with more easily. It can also make the difference between a scheme proceeding or not.

Confor have recently embarked on some work in relation to stakeholder engagement to address perceived barriers to achieving the new planting targets and to assist with the wider de-

NEWS

Practical issues to consider in stakeholder engagement • Specify clearly what you want from your

stakeholders through your engagement process – if you don’t know how will they?

• Let people know how much influence

they can have – be honest about constraints.

• Are you going to have a top-down or

bottom-up approach? How fully formed are your plans and how open to change are you?

• Whose voices do you want to hear? Will

you get a truly representative sample?

• How much time do you have both in

terms of physical manpower but also in terms of response time? This will affect what engagement techniques you might select.

• Do you have the right skills or

expertise? Who is the best person in your organisation to do this or do you need outside help?

• Are your consultation materials fit for

purpose – generally visual aids are better – maps, photographs and mock-ups. What information will people want to know about and do you have answers – think about a Q&A approach? Dense technical text is not appropriate.

Left: community consultation on development of community and business facilities in Culbokie bates that are in play across the UK, in Scotland in particular, on the ownership, use and management of rural land. There will be a new Scottish Land Use Strategy produced in 2015 and this along with any regional plans may well set out the scale and scope of forestry expansion in the next decade. The sector must have a seat at the table and must work with others to achieve a licence to operate, to identify new opportunities and to maintain growth of forestry as an industry. A further report on Confor’s stakeholder engagement work will be available in a future edition of Forestry and Timber News.

Amanda Bryan is a rural and community development consultant with Aigas Associates

Surge in timber thefts raises alarm Alarm has been raised in the forestry sector over a surge in timber thefts from harvesting sites, mainly as a result of a rise in demand for fuelwood and chip.

“With so many small ‘depots’ for the material springing up the opportunities are once again present, and whilst the security of deliveries to mills is easily checked, this is now threatened”, says Tim Kirk (Forest Valuations). He describes the usual tricks of the thiefs: “An artic with 25 tons puts an extra four tons on, but drops it off in passing. Or plain Sunday theft.” Harvesting sites in operation are more vulnerable because gates are often not locked. “There is a timber depot in a valley near Vyrnwy that seems to have an ever growing pile of Krono material! Who keeps an eye on that sort of operation? This highlights the importance of harvesting cab print-outs and delivery records matching. As long as the harvesters are honest!”

Tim is not alone with this concern regarding potential timber theft in the sector, in particular in the biomass/firewood sector. Iwan Williams, from Tilhill Harvesting recommends to send out

an alert note to the forestry community, to raise awareness of the issue. A representative of UPM states that the company only uses “reputable hauliers who regularly haul in excess of 2k tonnes (each) per week from our operations. If these hauliers were to ‘misplace’ timber in their own/or others yards and be caught they would not only be barred from hauling from ourselves but they would also harm their reputation. “Trust is good, however, control is better”, some might say. UPM regularly monitors dispatch using covert cameras and has caught thieves stealing stake blanks from a site in Bangor about a month ago. The perpetrators have been arrested.

UPM is confident that they are taking appropriate steps to deter and monitor possible thefts; one measure they apply and recommend is the use of covert cameras placed adjacent to timber stock piles in plantations, pre-collection for delivery.

There is a certain concern that other merchants may not be taking the same steps; district forest managers are strongly encouraged to take appropriate measures to minimise the threat of theft when dealing with third party merchants.

Grants for grey squirrel control in England?

There has been a lot of media interest in grey squirrel control. The Forestry Commission does not provide a grant solely for the control of grey squirrels. However, the new Countryside Stewardship scheme (which replaces the old English Woodland Grant Scheme) will have a five-year Woodland Improvement Grant option. This will pay £100 per hectare per year for those woodland sites that the FC decides are in need of improvement – this is decided by means of targeting (are they in a target area) and scoring (how in need of improvement is the woodland).

The grant will pay for various work items to be undertaken. If grey squirrels are present and a threat to the woodland as evidenced by the management plan then the owner will be ex-

pected to control them as part of the payment.

Control methods will vary depending on whether there are red squirrels present or not. Reds must not be killed or injured therefore if they are present squirrels will have to be live-trapped, reds released and greys killed.

Further details of this grant will be available in the summer. The owner will need an approved woodland management plan to apply. If the owner does not have a management plan, then there is a grant available to help them produce one. This is NOT targeted or scored although there is a minimum threshold of three hectares.

The grant for the management plan should be available from mid-February onwards. www.forestry.gov.uk/greysquirrel

RFS members consulted on grey squirrel policy A survey of RFS members has revealed qualified support for new Defra policy on grey squirrel control in England. RFS Chief Executive Simon Lloyd says: “Three quarters of surveyed members are in favour of the new policy, published last December, which recognises the need to address the widespread damage grey squirrels are inflicting on our broadleaf woods, and see it as a positive step in the right direction.

Members particularly welcome policies which encourage collaboration between landowners.

However, 18% believe the policy falls short of what is required to make a difference. Concerns have been expressed about how effective the new policy will be in practice. There are

concerns that many woodland owners will not qualify for incentives included in the new grant scheme, and that without Warfarin there are currently inadequate tools to do the job effectively. These issues need to be addressed if the policy is to make a difference.”

There is strong support from RFS members for the development of new control methods including new traps and research into chemical control agents.

The full survey results are being shared with Forestry Commission England to support work on the implementation phase of the policy.

The new government policy can be found at www.forestry.gov.uk/greysquirrel.

Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 7

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CERTIFICATION

A year of change

by Andrew Heald, technical director Confor 2015 is set to be a crucial year for forest certification in the UK, not only is UKWAS undergoing review and revision, but so is the FSC Chain of Custody scheme, used by nearly 3000 companies in the UK.

FSC supply at critical levels

The most fundamental issue, however, may be the ability of some UK sawmills to secure the volumes of FSC certified wood they require to label all their output as certified.

Currently, the vast majority of mills in the UK sell most of their material as ‘FSC Mix’ (whether their customers specifically request it or not). This means that the mill has to secure at least 70% of its supply as FSC certified with the remainder classified as ‘Controlled Wood’. As consumption of wood raw material has increased and the share of supply coming from the (100%) certified public estate has reduced, the proportion of FSC wood has reduced for some mills, especially those in the eastern part of Scotland and northern England.

As some mills have drifted down towards the 70% threshold they have offered a premium to owners if they have their forest certified. Several forest owners have rejected this offer on the grounds that certification is “too much hassle” and they believe they can sell their wood without a certificate.

If a mill drops below 70% certified wood supply, then it will have to change its labelling.

In very simple terms it can no longer label all its

output as FSC mix. Instead, it can only label the proportion of its products that originate from certified sources. So, if a mill currently receives 7000t of FSC input and 3000t of UK produced controlled wood then it can label all its output as FSC Mix. However, if the mill drops to 6000t of input as FSC certified, then only 6000t of its output can be labelled as certified. In this case, the volume of certified product is instantly reduced by 40%, including the co-product that would go to panel board mills or energy markets.

While few customers explicitly state a continuing requirement for certified product, there is a real expectation on their behalf that the product they buy will have evidence of sustainability and legality, and certification is the primary means for demonstrating that. With at least a 30% drop in certified product, a mill that falls below the 70% threshold will have to check who of their customers, will or will not accept uncertified or ‘controlled wood, and if required, what additional evidence will need to be provided to their customer to meet their requirements.

CONFOR WORKING FOR CHANGE 2014 April Initial forest industry certification meeting in Edinburgh September Certification debate at APF show September Confor presented a Motion at the FSC General Assembly, calling on audit costs for small forest owners to be reviewed November UK Forest Certification summit, with representations from across the industry December Industry concerns and priorities presented to FSC UK 2015 January Confor responds to consultations on FSC Chain of Custody and future strategy January Confor meets with PEFC to raise highlight industry concerns February Confor meets FSC to highlight industry concerns March Confor hosts Westminster conference on certification and the future of the forest industry

This issue is just one of a number arising from certification. Confor joined FSC International two years ago and beefed up its team with the employment of Andrew Heald in response to reports of increasing problems and evidence that the industry had to be more actively engaged with FSC. Confor hosted two major meetings in 2014 with the UK forest and timber industry, and identified a number of key issues, and proposed solutions that have been communicated directly to FSC, and to UKWAS. Confor is also responding to the main FSC consultations mentioned at the start of this article, and is taking a key role on behalf of industry in the UKWAS drafting committee. Andrew Heald has also been appointed as a director of

UKWAS, representing the Economic Chamber and the concerns of the industry.

Clearly any radical change will prompt concern amongst groups involved in UKWAS and FSC that we are trying to significantly lower standards. In order to explain what we propose and why, we will be meeting with key organisations to explain the real challenges the industry faces and to explain our proposals.

We believe it is essential that the very real and growing concerns of the industry are addressed by those running voluntary certification schemes, and that the solutions really are proportionate to “scale, intensity and risk”. As a sector we have a very strong story to tell about sustainability, it would be wrong if the principal means to demonstrate that story became so costly and bureaucratic that it undermined the practice of responsible forestry.

any applicability to British woodlands. After all these years it has not stopped the former and, in my view, still has none in the latter.

Unfortunately, B&Q, followed by many others, latched onto the scheme as a sales gimmick for its tropical hardwood furniture, no doubt egged on by the pressure groups which then pushed for it to apply to all British-grown timber too, with the results we see here now.

Even at this very beginning it was clear that the ‘green’ lobby was doing its utmost to add every single complication, almost all of which had nothing to do with ‘sustainability’, as most people understand the word, but everything to do with left-liberal thinking and policy and we see from the article that their efforts towards ever increasing bureaucracy continue.

As to manufacturers being concerned where their certificated supplies are going to come from, I feel they should not hold out much hope of an increase in area as I suspect that almost everyone who wishes to certify will by now have done so and those who have not will take all possible measures to avoid yet more form-filling and semi-governmental intrusion. Their only hope I suggest may be that a younger generation of owners, who have been brain-washed into accepting a formfilled life, will one day be happy to sign up.

I think it is fair to say that most of us thought at its inception in Great Britain that it was a complete and pointless waste of effort and I still do.

Christopher Pound

Confor lobbies for change in FSC

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Certification: a sense of déjà vu Having been a director of TGO in 1997 I read Andrew Heald’s article in the October edition of FTN (Time for a fresh approach, p13) with a dispirited sense of 17 years déjà vu.

I feel a little history might set some of the talk around FSC into context.

During my year’s ‘tour of duty’ the majority of every meeting was taken up with discussing drafts of the proposed standard and wondering why on earth a scheme brought into being to try to stop illegal logging in South American and SE Asian rainforest had

Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 9

PROCESSING

A quality package: Iggesund investments drive demand for UK timber

by Stuart Goodall As the UK still seeks the elusive ‘balanced economy’, Confor member Iggesund provides another example of a successful wood manufacturing business. One that continually invests, provides quality product and which exports.

Based portside in Workington, Cumbria, the Iggesund plant has become one of the biggest consumers of wood in the UK, boosted by the commissioning of a massive biomass plant that provides both heat and electricity for a gigantic production line producing packaging for items as diverse as Chanel perfume and Chivas Regal whisky, as well as the M&S sandwich.

Gavin Davidson, forestry general manager and fibre buyer, showed myself and Andrew Heald around on a very, very wet December day. The scale of the site and of the production process is huge, meaning Gavin is kept very, very

Combined, the plant and packaging line consume nearly a million tonnes of wood a year 10 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015

busy ensuring the beast is kept fed.

Iggesund is a Swedish company, part of the Holmen Group, with global reach. The company owns forest and sawmills, as well as producing pulp and packaging. The Workington plant is principally a production facility, turning out 200,000 tonnes of Incada paperboard a year.

Incada is a five layered ‘folding box board’ with three middle layers of ‘mechanical pulp’ coated on either side with ‘chemical pulp’.

Some of the final product resembles giant toilet rolls, but it is both incredibly smooth and strong – with the layers very difficult to prise apart and the whole not tearing easily.

With the biomass plant now fully functional the site is self-sufficient in electricity, exporting also to the grid. Combined, the plant and packaging line consume nearly a million tonnes of wood a year, with the boiler taking up to 2000 tonnes a day.

The feedstock for the mill and boiler is principally virgin wood and sawmill co-product. Its location near to the Workington port means it can take deliveries by sea from the west coast of Scotland, though most still arrives by road from across northern England and into Scotland.

Over 400 people are based on site, making it a major local employer, and their jobs appear secure as Iggesund has invested repeatedly – about £200m over the last ten years, with a fur-

ther investment of £20m planned for 2015. The new investment will increase output by 20,000 tonnes and aims to continue a focus on targeting the quality end of the packaging market.

Around 60% of the mill’s production is shipped abroad.

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The boiler has been a great success for Iggesund, with 98% ‘up-time’ and a performance rated at 105% of the manufacturer’s specification. With the new investment Gavin will have its hands kept full, though he still plans to fit in a climb of Argentina’s Aconcagua – it’s 6,961 metres making it the highest mountain outside of Asia. We wish him well! www.iggesund. com

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FOREST MANAGEMENT

This picture was taken in September 2014 four months after planting.

Eucalyptus at centre of Cornish farm scheme Bryan Elliott, of Pryor and Rickett Silviculture, looks at the thinking behind a eucalyptus silviculture planting scheme The commercial Eucalyptus, Sitka spruce and native broadleaf planting scheme at Treworder Barton was designed around a productive arable farm along the coastal fringes of a coastal inlet along the North Cornish Coast. An ESC assessment for the location indicates that shining gum, Sitka spruce and upland oak woodland species are suitable for the location. Eucalyptus makes up nearly nine hectares and five different species have been specifically selected to take advantage of the natural characteristics that give an advantage. To spread the risk element, seven hectares of Sitka spruce were planted in three fields that will also ultimately provide a timber supply, though over a longer period than the Eucalyptus, with just over a hectare of native broadleaf along the visual front windward edge.

The site has minimal wind, relatively high average temperatures, a south-sloping catchment that ensures cold air will not dam and create frost pockets, and most importantly, the lack of out-of-season frosts and no knowledgeable history of -14˚C frosts that seems to be a critical factor in Eucalyptus failure throughout the UK. With the potential for climate change over the coming years, this mix of species and a robust and varied species crop will cover the opportu-

nity of continued woodfuel supply as well as reducing the risk of failure through careful species siting and future management.

Variety in Eucalyptus

The five different species of Eucalyptus planted are E nitens, E denticulata, E cordata, E johnstonii and E rodwayi; each have specific characteristics that have been utilised to optimise site suitability and, ultimately, growth.

E nitens and E denticulata have the greatest capacity to produce vast sustainable volumes once the stand dynamics have created a microclimate that optimises the growth habit of the species. These two species have been given the best sites and will be the prime driver for shortterm woodfuel supply and ultimately the better carbon storage medium on suite. Both E nitens and E denticulata will be replanted at the end of the rotation to provide stronger rootstock.

With world class yields over short rotation lengths, Eucalyptus plantations are a viable opportunity to meet a growing demand for woodfuel.

The other Eucalyptus species have specific abilities; E cordata has a greater ability to withstand salt spray so will generally be planted along the top windward edge of the plantation.

E rodwayi and E johnstonii have greater abilities to survive deep frost damage over the winter months than most, specifically the more frost tender E nitens.

Looking into the future

After almost a year following planting, survival has been almost 100%; one of the main ingredients to that success is a scorched earth policy between the rows, with 3-4 spray interventions that have minimised the weed competition for moisture. Canopy closure will most probably occur in late summer 2015 which will be 16 months after planting.

One of the main objectives is to create a carbon store that will provide a supply of woodfuel in an area of the country that is woefully short of timber. The sustainable woodfuel supply has been conservatively estimated at 300m³ per annum from this planting scheme. The thinning regime will most probably start in year six or seven and clearfells will be carried out in year sixteen with variances of standing volume and felling ages between the species. The estimated mean annual increment is 42m³/ha/annum for E nitens on the Wadebridge Site in Cornwall.

Conclusions that can be made are that good quality planting stock is now more easily available and with significantly improved establishment and maintenance techniques the opportunity for Eucalyptus survival is increased. With world class yields over short rotation lengths, Eucalyptus plantations are a viable opportunity to meet a growing demand for woodfuel.

Treworder Barton won Silver in the National Climate Change Award run by the Royal Forestry Society.

Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 13

FOREST MANAGEMENT

Managing change

515ha spruce planting at Westwater planted in 2008.

It’s the nature of the business that forest managers have to respond to constantly evolving circumstances. We asked two industry professionals – Tim Liddon from UPM Tilhill in Sotland and Graham Taylor, Pryor & Rickett in England – for their views

Q

What do you perceive to be the top three changes in forest management in the last decades, in the UK and particularly in your country / region?

Tim Liddon The rate of change is increasing and will be ever with us, the challenge is to embrace change as part of our everyday routine.

Over the past decade major positives for me are: • a step change improvement in health and safety and environmental protection - but there is much work still to be done, • greater availability and understanding of improved Sitka spruce material improving future timber quality.

The flip side of improvement is • the negative influence on our industry of a significant increase in the cost of doing business with Government.

Graham Taylor i) Bureaucracy: When I first joined the industry in 1990, a planting grant application was two pages long and dedication plans were very short documents. Compare this to an EWGS planting grant application with its 30 pages of ‘guidance’ notes and UKWAS compliant management plans which have themselves become an art form in recent years. ii) Health and Safety: In 1990 the non-wearing of safety kit was still relatively common place and some forestry kit was poorly maintained, old and sometimes dangerous. There have been huge strides in improving H&S systems, hazard awareness and the functionality, reliability and safety of modern machinery. iii) Harvesting Efficiency: In 1990 most harvesting was still motor-manual, often with large gangs of cutters followed behind by tractor / trailer forwarders or the early purpose built forwarders. Output was completely reliant on the numbers of chainsawyers on site. Compare this with modern combination purpose built machines capable of comfortably doing in excess of 200t/ day on an 8hr shift in the right crop.

Q

How do you see this change – have things improved or are there things that worked better in the past?

Tim Liddon Our ability to ensure everyone working in our industry does so in a safer environment has improved greatly. However, there is still more to do especially with electricity, and steep ground working. On the environmental side, diffuse pollution is probably our biggest challenge – on the up side there has been con14 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015

siderable training and greater awareness. But on the flip side changing weather patterns to shorter, sharper bursts of rain present us with more challenges.

Improved Sitka seed orchard material is now the norm in the industry for restocking. Full Sibling material is now more available and will produce better quality timber if used selectively. It does not mean a reduction in diversity if best practise is followed – something being taken up by the Sitka Spruce Breeding Cooperative www.sitkacoop.co.uk.

The increase in bureaucracy is very unhelpful burdening our already stretched staff resource.

It appears from my viewpoint that the fear (real or perception) of the EU creates a huge burden of administration. – the registration of Business Reference Numbers (BRNs) is one point in case where significant additional information is now required, including NI numbers! Simpler? It does not appear so.

Graham Taylor The increase in bureaucracy combined with the increase in harvesting efficiency to enforce forest managers to ‘frontload’ their time involvement on forest management projects. A significantly greater amount of time is spent prior to operations taking place. The bureaucratic hurdles, multiple discussions with relevant (often irrelevant!) agencies takes a greater proportion of the forester’s time, sometimes for questionable benefit.

The improvements in H&S were welcome, and necessary. Britain has the safest forest industry in the world, but relative to other sectors in the UK our record is still poor. Good management systems have helped us achieve these improvements, but a greater focus on the causes of distraction (human error) that inevitably lead to accidents I think may help us make even more progress in this regard.

Sadly, I think the increase in environmental focus, its concurrent legislative constraints and the increasing focus on broadleaved woodlands having or needing no economic raison d’etre has in turn caused unfortunate environmental damage, primarily due to neglect or ‘de minimus’ activity. Many woodlands are overrun with high deer numbers and low levels of light / inactivity combine with excessive browsing pressures to cause degradation of important species and habitats.

These low levels of activity are often caused by environmental constraint and these have combined with the increase in harvesting mechanisation to provide a lack of continuity for the specialist hardwood contractors to maintain a

Sadly I think the increase in environmental focus... has in turn caused unfortunate environmental damage, primarily due to neglect or ‘de minimus’ activity. sustainable living. The recent improvements in firewood markets have helped create more work opportunities but if you look at the correlations of species protection legislation, and the trends in those species, I genuinely believe that the protections have hindered the development of resilient populations of the species that we are told are ‘under threat’ and were the justification for increased protection. There has been a huge rise in ‘ecological consultants’, without the concurrent rise in species numbers. Something is wrong with this system.

Q

What main issues and challenges are forest managers facing right now in their work?

Tim Liddon Undoubtedly human resource is becoming our biggest challenge, there are not enough skilled and experienced people avail-

If Douglas fir is being removed from PAWS and is replaced with squirrel damaged birch / willow scrub over successive decades future finances will suffer, and yet this is the accepted ‘wisdom’ for those claiming a truly sustainable approach.

I have been to sites on audits where owners managing solely for environmental reasons, but are failing in the delivery of those objectives are not treated harshly enough by the UKWAS standard, yet those who are managing with a commercial remit, are issued with non- compliances sometimes on relatively trivial matters.

Q

In your opinion, how does forestry in your country compare to other models of European forestry, or plantation forestry abroad, such as Eucalyptus?

Tim Liddon Our industry is different to the rest of Europe, it is unashamedly high-value plantation forestry. Most of it is first rotation, with improvements being delivered for the second rotation in terms of timber quality and biodiversity – but this comes at a cost in reduction of timber production. We know that we have higher yields and growth rates that our European colleagues so we can and do produce excellent investment returns; the latest IPD (2014) report shows that over the last decade UK Forestry has delivered an average annual return of 17.9%.

Our forests are also different to Europe in other ways – they have seven times as many weevils! able. This is across the whole commercial sector from mounding operators to crane wagon drivers, and from forest managers to FC case officers. We have some long-term agreements with clients and suppliers which should allow confidence to invest, and there have been plenty of studies to inform us, but as yet we still struggle to do anything meaningful to address the issue.

Graham Taylor i) Juggling the bureaucracy and keeping woodland operations running, whilst dealing with the multiple pressures of species / habitat constraints and the vagaries of the British weather remain the perpetual theme of lowland woodland management. Doing this whilst maintaining viable / healthy and profitable forestry businesses remains the biggest challenge facing private sector forest managers in lowland England. ii) The recent drastic changes in oil prices are just beginning to feed through to demand for hardwood firewood. Weakening of the Euro will inevitably lead to cheaper imports, notably of hardwood timber (round and sawn) as the stagnant European economies will take advantage of increasingly favourable exchange rates. This will have a negative impact on all hardwood commodities at a time when we had just started getting used to generating incomes from lowland broadleaved woodlands. iii) Uncertainty on grant arrangements: The stop / start nature of funding rounds & perpetual rule changes creates inadvertent pressures on application windows. This contributes to an air of uncertainty for woodland owning clients and an unwillingness to commit to doing things.

Q

Sustainability requirements – how meaningful and effective are they, in your opinion?

Tim Liddon The sustainability requirements are varied and increasing – FSC/PEFC, UKFS, General Binding rules etc. Our industry has great sustainability credentials that has enabled greater use of home-grown timber in the UK. There needs to be a balance between requirement and credentials. Change in the delicate balance occurs – FCS’ highly hazardous list and FCS’ variable and changing interpretation of UKFS are two areas that should produce improvement but often do not and take up inordinate amount of time to resolve. Cypermethrin derogation renewal was a point in case; a huge amount of work to maintain the status quo.

Graham Taylor UKWAS, under all of its guises, has been helpful for the industry to think about sustainability as a concept. However, there remains a lot of scepticism around those organisations which get excited / proud of their ‘sustainable’ credentials and yet remain financially unsustainable, or are failing in their delivery on some of the non-economic objectives, whose non-compliance is actually more forgiving within the standard.

I would pose the question, ‘how can organisations claim to be sustainable in managing broadleaved woodlands without committing to grey squirrel control on a sustainable basis?’

If mature oak established in the pre- grey squirrel era are being felled for profit now, and not being replaced, how can this be sustainable?

Graham Taylor In my view the continental model of forestry is much more truly sustainable. It is a ‘market led’ approach, with European forest managers endeavouring to grow a commodity which helps to provide the owner, themselves and their employees, a return for their endeavours and a truly sustainable form of land management. This is the start of a nation’s ‘value-added’ product supply chain. Some owners in the UK fully understand this principle and manage their woodlands accordingly, sadly others don’t understand the long-term nature of such an approach, or are unwilling to invest when the trees need appropriate silvicultural interventions, and then are left wondering why their forestry never performs as an asset.

Owners of lowland woodlands need to fully understand their target markets, the silviculture associated with getting the tree to saleable condition and should ignore the latest forestry fad or fashion.

Q

How do you see our forestry in ten years’ time? Considering the previous question, in which direction should we be heading?

Tim Liddon In ten years’ time we will be well into the second rotation of our plantations, with that should come more sustainability and ‘maturity’ in our forest industry. I would like to think that we will have a more resilient industry from workforce to forests delivering even more to the nation.

Continued on p17 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 15

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FOREST MANAGEMENT New planting of a 600ha productive forest at Carrick in Cowal

Continued from p15 Graham Taylor As a trading nation with a historic empire we have taken on the notion for too long that we will always be able to buy our timber requirements from somewhere else in the world. With the remaining tropical forests under extreme pressure, the environmental constraints rising across the temperate regions and demand for raw material generally rising, the assumption of continued raw material / timber product availability from ‘somewhere else in the world’ is a false medium-term premis. The wise land owner will see this and adjust silvicultural practice accordingly.

Q

What is your opinion on land sharing vs land sparing? Should we grow timber intensively and spare land for pure conservation, or should we try to find solutions to deliver a true multi-purpose forestry on one single site?

Tim Liddon In most of our forests we can share more, and it should not usually be a case of one or the other. We do need greater understanding of where we can live together; highly protected raptors can and do hunt over large restock areas, and sea eagles, for example, are becoming more common and they like big spruce trees – We and conservation bodies need to understand more how to manage our forests to accommodate such species. Equally, well we need to understand where conflicts would arise and separation of production and conservation is required. This will only come about by closer professional working relationships - partnership working to deliver conservation.

Graham Taylor I am in the multi-purpose camp.

Many woodlands and forests can deliver multiple benefits from the same site. However, in the push of the last 20-30 years to deliver all the non-timber benefits, many owners, notably

those in the public and charitable sectors have failed to pay attention to sound silviculture, getting lost in bureaucracy and the delivery of all the environmental good.

Q

How valuable is the current stakeholder consultation – does it add value to the planning process or is it simply a bureaucratic exercise? (Can you provide examples?)

Tim Liddon Having completed a number of EIAs for large new productive planting schemes I would argue that it can be either. Early positive engagement is the key but not always achievable due often to entrenched positions. I have been constantly amazed at the generally low levels of knowledge of our industry best practice that stakeholders have. This is an area that needs greater attention especially if the annual target of circa 6000ha of productive new planting is going to be achieved.

I would hope that as we move into the second rotation that the level of consultation re-

quired should reduce – if the industry follows recorded best practice why would there be the need for extensive consultation except where there are particular sensitivities?

Graham Taylor In most cases this is a ‘tick-box’ exercise. However frustrating it is though I think this is a good opportunity for forest managers to explain their decision making often to an uninformed audience. If we are to change the culture of our nation from one which is essentially ‘anti tree felling’ but knows that timber is an environmentally better building commodity than concrete / brick / steel or glass, then any consultation exercise must be viewed as an opportunity to explain why ‘Wood is good’, why ‘Local is Good’ and why local sustainable tree felling that provides continued habitat, employment & improved carbon sequestration is worth the temporary upset of someone’s local dog walking environment or view ! Foresters need to keep going with this message, at every opportunity, if we are to prevail as being the right people to manage woodlands.

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FOREST MANAGEMENT AFI Research stand No 67 and, right, target diameter Douglas fir, both at Stourhead (Western), Wiltshire

The case for CCF Continuous Cover Forestry is sometimes called Close to Nature Forestry.

Phil Morgan explains why Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) is the management of continuously productive, irregular stands in forests and woodlands that are created by the selection and harvesting of individual trees. CCF has a dynamic and evolving growing stock that is maintained through adaptive management providing the conditions for greater resilience and integrated economic, environmental and social benefits. CCF stands produce timber on a regular cycle without undergoing shelterwood phases of capital reduction.

Just as a Passivhaus makes use of the design of the building to provide cost-effective environmental benefits, so CCF makes use of the design of the stand to provide cost-effective economic and environmental benefits.

Just as the apparent baffling complexity of quantum physics can be reduced to universal principles, so the apparent baffling complexity of CCF can be reduced to simple underlying principles.

Complexity is a feature of the natural world

It is difficult to make the case for selection systems when economic analysis is limited to simple economics

and of ecosystems. It is found at different scales at the landscape level or at the level of the forest stand. Complexity is horizontal, across site types and biogeographical zones, and vertical, as in stand structure. The reason why CCF is sometimes called Close to Nature Forestry is because it manages the complexities within natural systems without attempting to mimic wilderness.

Improved stem quality is achieved through manipulating stand structure by regulating light, just as regeneration depends on canopy density and seed sources. The hand of man is very much present in all CCF systems leading some to question the term ‘Close to Nature’ and preferring ‘Continuous Cover’. This is demonstrated by the different approaches to CCF between Europe and North America with very different forestry histories, traditions and landscape scale. The Americans came to Europe to learn from the vast array of systems to regulate and control forests in order to ensure sustained yield. The great debate between European foresters was whether regulation was set by area or by volume. All area-based systems were easy to regulate and to systematise leading to many different systems. The management systems regulated by volume produced very carefully regulated systems and approaches that defied definition as systems that relied on intuition and monitoring. This was all in a brave new world where industrial development and imperialism were blindly carving up the world and con-

The Continuous Cover Forestry Group has a list of simple principles that manage this natural complexity and provide the adaptation and responsiveness to extreme and changing conditions.

• Adapt the forest to the site • Adopt an holistic approach to forest management • Maintain forest conditions and avoid clearfelling • Control and monitor the growing stock suming resources on an unprecedented scale.

Now we have inherited a legacy of dwindling and increasingly threatened natural resources and climate change on a scale that might put our planet into reverse.

Nowadays, forests have to sequestrate carbon dioxide, store carbon, retain and regulate water, provide reservoirs for biodiversity, buffer the effects of intensive agriculture, as well as producing timber. One of the debates between foresters in the previous two centuries was that irregular forests could maintain the same productivity as uniform systems but at the same time protect the naturalness of the whole forest environment, including soil and water. This is now one of our main present day preoccupations so, if we recognise that irregular systems provide the same quantities of timber as a well as the environmental protection from permanent cover, we have a system for the 21st century and a serious tool for meeting the challenges of climate change. Engines for timber production only do one thing, forests have many more roles to play.

The case for CCF can be made in different ways. One is to attempt to model silvicultural scenarios to provide an idea of how irregular Continued on p20 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 19

FOREST MANAGEMENT Continued from p19 stands function. There are some extremely complex models that will accommodate a wide range of input variables but these are difficult to use and serve the purposes of academics rather than the needs of practical foresters. The other aspect of modelling is economic, which is used to justify the choice of different systems.

Because of the huge injections of cash in the clearfell scenarios it is difficult to make the case for selection systems when economic analysis is limited to simple economics unless interest rates and longevity are manipulated. More complex models that integrate ecosystem services and risk management will provide different answers and provide a measure of the cost of high risk intensive options.

Assessing success: modelling and monitoring

Owen Davies and Gary Kerr produced a useful paper in 2011 where they make an economic assessment of four different scenarios generating NPV/ha (3.5%) from cash flows over 20 years, 100 years and in perpetuity, (Costs and Revenues of CCF, Owen Davies & Gary Kerr, March 2011). The model is constructed using simple assumptions contrasting clearfell and replant with transformation to a complex structure and two intermediate types of shelterwood. The accompanying spreadsheet allows the forest manager to vary the inputs to test the sensitivity of different factors. It is a simple model that is constrained by its limited scope, (tables have a maximum dbh of 50 cm and the irregular stand structure model is not realistic).

It is however a useful tool because it establishes the idea that there is a wider choice of options presented to forest managers. The model shows that the NPV for the irregular options tend to improve over longer timescales providing managers with the confidence to develop long term visions for transformation.

An alternative to modelling is detailed monitoring of actual examples of CCF. This has the advantage of demonstrating within a very short space of time how a system works and how it performs both biologically and economically. Monitoring can also easily incorporate environmental factors, biodiversity, carbon sequestration and other characteristics of interest on the site, either as part of the monitoring process or by combining data gathered separately. Rather than speculating on possible outcomes or testing the effects of different theoretical systems, monitoring provides a record of evidence from practical experience. This has been achieved in the south of England and in Ireland where the best examples of CCF on different properties have been measured using the AFI (Association Futaie Irrégulière) protocol. This has provided baseline data from all the sites with the first set of measurements but, of far greater interest, details of increment and change from repeat measurements on two of the research stands so far. Increment is a measure of performance and is of greatest interest to the forest manager and to the owner of the woodland since it measures productivity. Since the AFI 20 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015

monitors both biological and economic performance the increment is defined in terms of timber production and of economic production. This can be correlated with additional characteristics such as ecosystem services, carbon sequestration and storage that can be quantified and related to the stand structure. Because the protocol is setup on a series of permanent sample plots and requires re-measurement on a five year cycle any increase or decrease in any of the characteristics that are recorded can be detected. The proportion of regeneration passing from the seedling to the pole stage may be an indicator that the stand is overstocked or that the increase in the proportion of a shade bearing species may be threatening the viability of a light demander. The data is of immediate interest to the manager in charge of the stand however the data accumulated by the AFI over the past 20 years provides the largest database of CCF parameters available for research.

Andy Poore, supported by Woodland Heritage and the FC, has demonstrated in a number of studies the importance of recording increment and its relation to the growing stock.

(Continuous Cover Silviculture & Mensuration in Mixed Conifers at the Stourhead (Western) Estate, Wiltshire, UK. Poore A., 2007). He has since shown how effective the AFI protocol is for the efficient gathering and recording of data and his work with Richard Deffee in developing an abbreviated protocol for independent use outside of the formal Network, (Continual Inventory for Irregular Forest Stands, Deffee, R., 2014).

A more irregular complex structure

Continuous cover management operates by applying the principles of Continuous Cover Forestry and is not restricted to clearly defined sylvicultural systems. Many forests in transformation from even-aged management to irregular forest management will succumb to phases when the growing stock is liquidated due to the overwhelming impact of outside factors but the application of CCF principles will have initiated a more irregular complex structure that will enhance the next phase of transformation. Even though the forests will undergo an unproductive period in order to rebuild capital and therefore be undergoing a transition as shelterwoods they will continue on to develop irregular structures and produce the benefits of single tree selection. All irregular stands are exposed to the risk in one form or another but the more developed the irregular structure the faster the impoverished stand can re-establish an irregular structure.

The benefits of continuous cover are economic but, in a more subtle way, they protect the environment and enhance biodiversity, all at once, and across the entire forest.

Philippe Morgan is the president of Pro Silva and vice-president of the Association Futaie Irrégulière (AFI). He is a forest manager and a forestry consultant with Sustainable Forest Management and SelectFor – specialists in continuous cover. http://ccfg.org.uk/conferences/conference2014/conference2014_home.html

Balancing am in Mull’s com Ian A. Hepburn on the unusual management challenges of the North-west Mull Community Woodlands The 699ha that make up North-west Mull Community Woodlands are unusual in many ways – perhaps the most significant is that they were the first to be sold to a community body under the National Forest Land Scheme in 2006 by Forestry Commission Scotland. Also of major significance is the distinctive view taken of the use and management of the woodlands. Although primarily conifer plantations with little amenity or production infrastructure when purchased, the community company’s objectives were to develop the amenity value whilst maximising the commercial return and diversifying the land use. In the future, the overall open space and broad leaf planting will be doubled.

Improving transport infrastructure

In order to achieve the foregoing, the business plan was designed so that each element was free standing with priority given to creating links to the A road network for what were isolated woodlands. Working with the local authority, FES, SSTTS and harvesting partners UPM Tilhill, more than 16km of haul route has been constructed and 3km of public road reinforced – which will allow more than 600,000 tonnes of landlocked timber to be brought to market from various forest owners in North West Mull over the next 17 years. The road project alone will absorb the proceeds of harvesting the first rotation of some 200ha.

Historically, virtually all of Mull’s timber has been exported via Caledonian MacBrayne ferries, but the company decided that, to enhance the value of the product and to save a significant number of road miles (168,000 to date), all product would be exported via either a floating pier or the new FES fixed pier when it was completed; this was some two years after production commenced.

Adding value locally

Significant areas of woodland were planted with Lodgepole pine including some 80ha of blanket bog.To add value to the product from these areas and to maximise the value of small round wood and other fuel wood the company recently purchased the business of the island’s only wood chip producer, which complements the existing cut and split log operation. Future planting and harvesting policy is being reviewed in the light of both the potential margin benefits and carbon savings which can be realised by retaining biomass on the island and processing as an alterna-

menity and commercial concerns mmunity woodlands

tive to shipping inferior timber for slim or almost nil margins. A processing facility for the woodchip operation to replace the unit currently leased from the previous owner of the business is to be built within the woodlands, again utilising a nonplanted area alongside the haul route. Value is also being added to the community’s timber by the use of a Woodmizer that was purchased in

The community company’s objectives were to develop the amenity value whilst maximising the commercial return and diversifying the land use

partnership with four other land owners and is managed by NWMCWC. Management of 32ha of clearfell woodland has been undertaken by creating nine forest crofts all of which have the potential to provide bases and affordable house sites for families who wish to develop their own small businesses.

Overall responsibility for compliance with the long-term Forest Design Plan remains with the community company. To that end any use of the forest crofts will have to ensure that at least 80% of each croft is retained as woodland and that the management is compliant with UKWAS but many uses are proposed from tree nursery to orchards and market gardening to performance spaces and small scale pig breeding.

Integration and diversification

To fulfil the community’s other objectives detailed examination of existing open spaces and land adjacent to fence lines etc was undertaken.

This has resulted in the creation of a forest school area, an orchard and raised bed gardens for the local primary school.

Initial discussions with the local authority during the purchase process identified an area of 4.2ha (more than half of which is open space) which was included in the Local Plan and is scheduled for development of affordable housing which is urgently required in the area.

Continuing the process of diversification, the community company has identified a micro hydro generation site which is in the process of development and will underpin the overhead cost of running the enterprise as well as a site for woodland burials to meet a significant local demand.

A full Access and Amenity Feasibility study was undertaken in 2011 which forms the basis for the future development of additional walks, increased excavation and interpretation of known archaeological sites.

Since 2006, the board of directors, made up of members of the community, have balanced the environmental and commercial requirements of running two woodlands with maximising the benefit to the local community. The board will continue to do this as opportunities and challenges present themselves in the coming years.

Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 21

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Follow that: prospects post-2014 Guideline (£T delivered) softwood prices for Q1 2015

Timber Auctions market report by Oliver Combe

£70.00 SPRUCE SAWLOGS

£60.00 £50.00

2014 has been an outstanding year for timber sales with excellent demand and strong prices for almost all products. The final quarter of the year saw a softening of demand and weakening of prices for some products in some areas.

Despite the recent winter storms the markets for sawn timber remain steady and are not seeing the same levels of activity as last year.

There appear to be a number of factors at play in the market: • Stock levels in the supply chain seem to be higher this year than at the same time last year as processors and merchants look to avoid the problems experienced last year • The strong pound has made euro-priced imported timber very competitive in the UK market and put the domestic producers under pressure • Production levels are higher as new processing capacity comes on stream • Slightly lower levels of domestic demand • Slightly higher levels of imported timber being landed.

Most observers expect that as the weather improves, days get longer and we move towards the Easter holidays, the market will improve and we will experience a more normal year as opposed to the exceptional last year.

The outlook for 2015 for the grower, however, remains good and there is definitely strong demand for quality standing timber parcels and roadside logs especially when these are FSC certified spruce.

Processors and merchants are actively look-

High £62.00 Mid £56.00 Low £50.00

POSTS, STAKES, RAILS

MIXED CONIFER SAWLOGS

High £55.00 Mid £50.00 Low £45.00

PALLETWOOD

High £50.00 Mid £45.00 Low £40.00

£40.00

High £52.00 Mid £48.00 Low £45.00

MIXED CONIFER SRW

High £45.00 Mid £38.00 Low £30.00

£30.00

ing for parcels to buy for working in the spring and there appears in certain areas to be a shortage of material coming to the market.

Guideline (delivered) softwood prices for Q1 2015

It is very difficult to use individual timber sales to provide market information as there are so many factors that influence the price achieved on each individual parcel. In response to requests for better market information I have outlined some general guideline delivered prices for the principal softwood product categories based on recent sales and market information.

Delivered prices give a reasonably consistent point at which to benchmark products and markets across the UK and are subject to much less external influences than standing timber prices.

The specific prices in local areas or regions may vary from this at any one point in time according to local market conditions.

Softwood market outlook

It is anticipated that the market will remain largely stable this spring with some localised reductions in price of non-certified mixed conifer sawlogs but a strong market for conifer small roundwood particularly in England and Wales driven by small-scale biomass heating systems.

FSC status is now becoming a key issue in

purchasing decisions for many processors and merchants and it is anticipated that we will see an increasing price differential between certified and non-certified timbers.

Historically, the differential was £2 per tonne but recently this has extended to a £3 to £5 per tonne premium for certified timber and it is possible in exceptional cases that this could reach £10 per tonne. In addition, purchasers may start to buy outside of their traditional areas to secure certified timber so they can remain above the 70% threshold.

In addition to the price differential certified timber is likely to be uplifted faster and have a wider choice of markets.

Growers need to seriously consider these likely developments in their woodland management decisions and ensure that parcels are correctly marketed.

Guideline (roadside) hardwood prices for Q1 2015

The hardwood market is much more fragmented than the softwood market and also on a much smaller scale. Reliable sales information is difficult to obtain as a significant amount of material is tendered locally or the sale is privately negotiated. For hardwood, roadside prices appear to offer the most reliable point in the sales chain for benchmarking. To try and

Guideline (£m3 roadside) hardwood prices for Q1 2015 £180.00 OAK PLANKING

£160.00 £140.00 £120.00

High £166.42 Mid £152.55 Low £138.68

OAK BEAM/FENCING

EXPORT SYCAMORE

High £138.68 Mid £124.81 Low £110.94

High £138.69 Mid £110.95 Low £83.21

£100.00

EXPORT ASH SAWLOGS

£80.00 2nd GRADE ASH/BEECH/ SYCAMORE SAWLOGS

£60.00 OAK CORDWOOD

£40.00 £20.00

22 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015

High £41.61 Mid £34.67 Low £27.74

High £62.41 Mid £55.48 Low £49.93

High £90.15 Mid £65.18 Low £49.93

ASH, BEECH, BIRCH, SYCAMORE FIREWOOD

High £61.02 Mid £48.54 Low £41.61

Understanding timber prices There are two principal points of sale for timber: a) Delivered in to the customers yard (delivered prices), b) Standing crops (standing prices).

To derive a standing timber price from the delivered prices the vendor would need to understand: • The cost of hauling the material from the site to the market • The cost of harvesting the material and placing it at roadside • The overheads involved in supervising, financing and managing a harvesting operation • The tree species, size and quality which will determine which assortments are generated and how much of each assortment.

The standing prices can vary enormously based on the factors outlined above but the two main influences are haulage and harvesting costs. provide reliable market information I have outlined some general guideline roadside prices for the principal hardwood product categories based on recent sales and market information.

Again, there can be significant regional variations depending on the quality and size of the parcels offered.

Sales of hardwood early on in the 2014/15 season have excellent prices for quality sawlog parcels and good firewood parcels. Poorer quality parcels with difficult access or a high element of the less desirable firewood species have been harder to sell this autumn, the firewood market in particular has been slow to take off this year.

It will be very interesting to see whether the steady decrease in heating oil prices to around the 40p per litre delivered level impacts on the firewood market, coupled with the relatively mild winter.

There have been some very high prices reported for hardwood cordwood over the last three winters but this year there seems to be a settling down to more realistic price levels of around £45 per tonne at roadside.

If you wish to discuss parcels of timber you would like to discuss or for further information please contact Oliver Combe on 07771 958975, oliver. combe@timberauctions.co.uk for free independent marketing advice.

2015: another year of opportunity and prosperity?

Timber market report by Peter Whitfield UPM Tilhill There is plenty to be cheerful about as we start 2015: oil prices at below $50 a barrel, housing starts forecast to be up 10% in England (RICS), a forecast of GDP growth in the UK for the year of 3.2%, the highest in Europe. On the down side, the Euro exchange rate is a threat as Sterling continues to remain strong and the subsequent threat of imports competing on more level-playing field with domestic sawn timber production is very real. This has been reinforced with the latest moves by the ECB with programme of quantitative easing and the outcome of the elections in Greece, both of which have seen the Euro slide to an 11-year low against the dollar at the end of January. I estimate the tipping point for imports of sawn timber to become very competitive against domestic production is around about €1.30 to the £.

The USA, now self-sufficient in oil is looking to a positive growth for 2015. The rest of the world also has its challenges, starting with Europe and very little evidence of growth forecast, although oil prices will undoubtedly help; Russia is in a sorry state with sanctions, political uncertainty and the falling oil price all having a dramatically negative impact on their economy. On the other hand, the Bank of China is forecasting a fall in the rate of growth to 7.1%!

Overall, the expectation is that the timber market should continue to be strong for 2015.

Whilst the import threat is always there and introduces some uncertainty into the equation that may well cause a slight softening of log prices, demand certainly appears to be there at the start of this year. Log prices have moved back slightly towards the end of 2014 and demand slowed off over the holiday period as processors managed their stock to levels they felt comfortable with, the indications are that order books are healthy and customers of the sawmills’ will be entering the new year with relatively low stocks

in their yards. Fencing traditionally sees a boost in the early part of the year and this is certainly reflected in the current demand for both round and sawn fencing.

Small roundwood demand continues to be strong across the range of markets from paper, through board to biomass; all continue to be buoyant. Overall price levels remain high and from a processor perspective too high, to a point where the competitiveness of some processors will be at risk.

There are fears that investment in biomass will be hit after the government removed guarantees to subsidise the conversion of conventional power plants to wood-burning biomass technology. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said the removal of guaranteed subsidies is a response to the development of a higher than expected amount of biomass generation. Withdrawing biomass guarantees allows funding for other forms of renewable energy, said the DECC. This will have little if any impact on domestic biomass sources as these are plants, such as Drax, which import pellets from the USA. An interesting fact and a demonstration of the growth in the use of wood for domestic heating is that burning wood accounts for up to 13% of urban air pollution, according to researchers at King’s College London. Much of the pollution accounted for by wood burning has been attributed to domestic stoves and fireplaces. Pollution caused by wood burning is comparable to that generated by diesel vehicles, according to research examining pollutants from the air in ten cities across the UK. It would be unfortunate if this got in the way of what is an increasingly important market for poor grade hardwood and softwood firewood.

So, 2015 will hopefully be another year of opportunity and continued prosperity for both forest owners and processors alike, as well as all those involved in the service supply side such as harvesting and haulage contractors. One hope for all involved on the timber supply chain is that 2015 is at last the year when the aspirations and targets set by the various governments for new planting, and particularly the new creation of commercial conifer forests, are met and the longer term production shortfall that is forecast is at least averted to some extent.

National Forest creates online timber marketplace The National Forest Company has launched a new online marketplace to help promote timber products and services within and around The National Forest. Anyone can post adverts relating to timber wanted or for sale (either wood fuel or entire trees), advertise services or equipment for hire or sale, completely free of charge.

Users of the marketplace will be able to track down logs for their wood burning stoves, hobby woodworkers can find timber for their craft and foresters or other timber workers can sell their goods and services. The new online marketplace is available at www.nationalforest.org/woodproductsandservices/marketplace/index.php Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 23

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Bidders cautious at hardwood auction

by John Jenkins The 27th Annual Hardwood Timber Auction, held at Cirencester, was attended by a large crowd of over 100. However, despite a busy atmosphere, bidding was much more cautious than in previous years, resulting in a fall off in trade. The sale comprised some 13,400m3 of standing and felled material entered from both Forestry Commission and private estates, a significant reduction on the 20,000 cubic metres offered in 2013.

Comparisons to previous years are difficult to make especially when looking at quality. It was generally felt that trade was back by at least 10% on the 2013 figures. Nevertheless, it was satisfying that at the end of the day only

8% of the volume/tonnage on offer failed to find buyers.

The predominant species were again oak and beech with some lots containing other mixed broadleaf species. The softwood section contained mature standing Douglas fir and Japanese larch.

Standing Sales

The top price was £47 per tonne for beech thinning (4211t) from West Wood, Wiltshire (1.2 mean tree size) purchased by Wessex Woodland (pictured, top left). This compared with £53 per tonne paid in 2013 for a nearby stand but this year with more possible felling constraints.

A selective thinning of a very noteworthy stand of 1336m3 of well-drawn oak (887m3 –

1.43 mean tree) and beech (449m3 – 39 mean tree) made £46.40 per m3 and sold to A A James & Son (pictured, bottom right). The same purchaser successfully bought the nearby thinning of a mixed broadleaf stand of 449 tonnes – 50% oak to 1.85 mean tree at £40 per tonne.

The convenient accessible lot of sycamore and oak thinning from Waverley Wood, Warwickshire totalling 514 tonnes (0.18 mean tree) made £30.50 per tonne purchased by Tillhill.

Logs

At 1640m3 the quantity of logs was only slightly down on 2013 with Salcey again providing the highlight when 182m3 of oak at roadside making £160 per cubic metre (107 logs) sold to Pontrilas. This was about 9% less than the 2013 figure for timber from the same thinning area.

The best New Forest oak logs from Parkhill Enclosure making £112 per m3 selling to Soffee a significant reduction over the 2013 price for Parkhill logs. £112 per m3 was also achieved for Forest of Dean oak logs presented from Nags Head and selling to Summerscale (pictured, top right).

Softwood

A stand of Japanese larch at Cannock sold for £6100 for 137m3 (2.9 mean size) purchased by John Hall.

226 metre of mature Wyre Douglas selective thinning reached £12,000 (5.79 mean trees) and purchased by Summerscale (pictured, bottom left). An almost identical p.c.m. figure for a thinning of the same Douglas fir in 2011.

Next year’s sale will be held on 26 November 2015. For further details contact John Jenkins at Newland Rennie, 87 Monnow Street, Monmouth, NP25 3EW. Tel: 01600 712916 or email: monmouth@newlandrennie.com 24 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015

Fountains Forestry provides a comprehensive range of forest and woodland management services throughout the UK, including acquisition services and woodland creation.

Whether you are an existing owner or looking to buy or establish a new woodland, Fountains Forestry can help you through the process from the identification and selection of a property through to purchase and on-going planning and management. Our dedicated team of professional foresters will help you maximise returns from your woodlands.

We have been managing UK woodlands for over 50 years and now manage over 80,000 acres of forests and woodland across the UK from our regional offices.

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Our services include: • Woodland planning and management • Estate woodland management • Establishing new woodlands • Woodland Investment services • Appraisals and valuations • Tree and safety surveys • Deer management and pest control

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Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 25

CLIMATE CHANGE

Extreme weather – a wake-up call for timber supply chain resilience?

by Lorraine Hutt The projected effects of a warming climate and the increasingly volatile weather in the future are already knocking at our door: 2014 was confirmed as UK’s warmest and fourth wettest year on record1 and 2015 globally is expected to be between 0.64°C warmer than average (1961-1990)2 The UK is particularly vulnerable to north and westerly low pressure weather systems, which bring windstorms, heavy rainfall and tidal storm surges and associated damages, dangers and disruption from flooding.

The effects of weather changes can be acutely demonstrated through extreme events such as the severe windstorm in October 2013 that caused significant forest damage. 30,800 hectares of stocked woodland in southern and eastern England were subject to crown damage, windsnap or windthrow affecting an estimated 35.5 million trees, around 2.7% and 9.2% of growing stock across the area surveyed3. Other recent extreme weather events that have affected the forestry sector include the wet winter of 2013/14 that presented real challenges for access to harvesting sites and the loss of woodland to wildfire in 2011, when nearly 9000 ha of forest was burned4.

Whole supply-chain approach for climate resilience

It is vital that the forest and wood-using industry start to prepare for an increase in events such as these. And it is not just impacts in the UK that we need to be concerned about. With UK businesses operating in a global environment and suppliers, manufacturers, markets and supply chains stretching worldwide, the impacts of changing climate abroad can be as relevant to a business as flooding at the door. Therefore, a whole supply-chain approach is essential.

The UK forestry and timber supply chain is no exception to this – in 2013, we imported 14.7 million m3 and exported 2 million m3 of wood panel and other solid wood products from other countries5 and biomass has become an increasingly important part of this trade. Confor’s report on the opportunities and challenges of climate change6, urges that the potential impacts and risks of severe weather are considered along the whole supply chain as well as managing the direct risks to forests to anticipated changes in growing conditions.

Some businesses may have systems in place to manage risks to their supply chains in general, but these mechanisms may not fully consider the risks that climate change and severe 26 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015

weather pose, leaving them vulnerable.

With a view to protecting the timber supply chain and industry as a whole, Confor advises individual companies, and the industry as a whole, to consider and prepare for the way climate change could affect the daily management practices, logistics and ultimately the endproducts and economics of the timber supply chain6.

Impact of flooding as an example of risk exposure

To better understand risk exposure it is worth focusing on a particular aspect of climate change vulnerability – the impact of river flooding and tidal surges coupled with sea level rise and how it effects some points in the supply chain.

Sawmills are a key part of the supply chain consuming 4.9 million green tonnes of softwood annually and producing nearly four million cubic metres of sawnwood in the UK2. Environment Agency flood risk mapping suggests that over half the 16 main sawmills in England are in areas that are already susceptible to flooding from rivers or the sea with the risk of significant damage and disruption both directly and indirectly. Climate change will exacerbate this situation.

UK ports are the primary hubs for import and export of wood products from the UK, especially those in the Humber area. The Port of Immingham is one of the two key nodes for biomass and forestry product transport in and out of the UK, which along with Hull, handles more than one million tonnes of forest products each year7.

The 2013 December North Sea tidal surge breached Immingham’s substantial defences and the port suffered, among others, damage to cargoes, energy and transport infrastructure as well as the port facilities. Direct damages to the Association of British Ports (ABP) from the event are estimated at £10-£15 million8, however, losses to the Port Businesses which include biomass providers and users will have significantly increased these damages. The Humber ports provide the route of import for around 25% of UK energy generation and energy producers only stockpile a few weeks supply of biomass feedstock.

Analysis4 suggests that such surge events could recur potentially at worse scale, with existing flood defences and this will worsen significantly over the next 50 years as the climate warms.

Such vulnerabilities are not confined to sawmills and import and export as it is likely that a significant proportion of timber suppliers and

retailers are located in waterside and flood risk locations, as a result of the industries historic reliance on water-based transportation and more recently because these sites tend to have good road transport links.

Lorraine Hutt works for the Climate Ready Support Service, as theme lead for Agriculture and Forestry. The Service, led by the Environment Agency in England, provides advice and support to the public, private and voluntary sectors to enable them to adapt to the changing climate. We provide a general helpdesk service and tailored support to seven key sectors including agriculture and forestry.

Further information is available at www.gov.uk/government/policies/ adapting-to-climate-change

References 1 Met Office Provisional full year figures for 2014 http://www. metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2015/Record-UKtemps-2014 2 Met Office annual global temperature forecast http://www. metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2014/2015-global-tempforecast 3 Survey of the impact of the 2013 St. Jude’s day storm on woodland in Southern England, National Forest Inventory / Forestry Commission, December 2014 4 Forestry Statistics 2014. Forestry Commision, September 2014. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/ForestryStatistics2014.pdf/$FILE/ ForestryStatistics2014.pdf 5 UK overseas trade statistics (HM Revenue & Customs), industry associations and conversion factors 2014 6 Climate Change: opportunities and challenges for the forest and wood-using industry, Prepared for the Confederation of Forest Industries (UK) Ltd, Catriona Prebble, July 2008 7 ABP website http://www.abports.co.uk/Trades_Sectors/Forest_Products 8 Flood Defences Cost Money, No Flood Defences Cost More: An economic case for the Humber and United Kingdom Prepared on behalf of the Humber Parliamentarians, Local Authorities and the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership, 2014

PLANT HEALTH

A chance to pull the chestnuts from the fire

by Dr Terry Mabbett

Storm damage at Wokefield Common, Berks in January 2014 (picture: Helen Townsend)

Make your business more resilient to extreme weather

Lack of proactive response to exotic tree diseases is a fair criticism of the UK plant health authorities, but there may be chance for redemption if the worst ever happens to sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) at the hands of Cryphonectria parasitica, the fungal pathogen causing chestnut blight.

C parasitica was first identified in a Warwickshire orchard in 2011 on two batches of sweet chestnut trees imported at different times from the same French nursery. The first batch was planted in 2007. Other consignments from the same imported stock were subsequently sold to customers throughout the UK. This triggered a trace back exercise by Forestry Commission (FC) and Fera which identified some infected sites where the trees were destroyed. However, a number of planted sites remain unidentified due to a lack of documentation which means the jury must remain out on whether C para-

sitica is in the wider UK environment.

Over 95 per cent of the 18,000+ ha of sweet chestnut in UK (coppice, coppice with standards or high forest) is located in England. Two thirds of this is in south-east England with virtually all 6000 ha of sweet chestnut coppice in Kent and East Sussex.

David Gwillam owner of Prees Heath Forest Nurseries (a member of the Confor Nursery Producers Group) who already grows a substantial amount of sweet chestnut says: “Indications are that C castanea will become a main tree of choice to replace common ash. However, we need a coherent Woodland Grant Scheme and a secure source of UK seed (following the government ban on sweet chestnut from traditional European supplier countries like France and Italy where the disease is endemic) before this can truly happen.”

US resurrects its native chestnut tree

C parasitica arrived in the US on Japanese chestnut trees (Castanea crenata) in the late 1800’s and went on to virtually destroy Castanea dentata (North American chestnut), once the most common native tree of North American forests.

Over a century later, US scientists have genetically modified (GM) the North American chestnut tree for resistance to blight, a milestone development which could save our domiciled sweet chestnut, or provide a replacement, if the worst happens here.

A team led by Dr William Powell (a molecular biologist) and Dr Chuck Maynard (a tree improvement specialist) at State University of Continued on p28

There are many examples of how more extreme weather events can make timber businesses and their supply chain immediately susceptible - to damage and loss of resource and to periods of inactivity that strategically affect productivity and reputation. There are simple things your business can do to increase your resilience to changing weather patterns: • Check if your property or business is at risk from flooding http://maps.environmentagency.gov.uk/wiyby/ and consider signing up for free flood warnings and think ahead by developing a flood plan • Check how resilient you are via free online Business Resilience Healthcheck: www.businessresiliencehealthcheck.co.uk/ • Assess and manage the climate change risks in supply chains: http://climateuk.net/ resource/supply-chains-adaptation-guidance • Prepare a climate change action plan: paper and pulp sector guidance: www. paper.org.uk/documents/EA/Climate%20 Ready%20Adaptation%20Guidance%20 paper%20and%20pulp%20final%20 181113.pdf

Sweet chestnut growing in 1-year seed beds (1+0) at Prees Heath Forest Nurseries, Whitchurch in Shropshire. Owner David Gwillam said: “The seed was supplied by ‘Forestart and its origin is Forest of Dean. The seed was collected in the autumn and stored for us until we were ready to sow in May.” Pictured here in late September 2014 the trees had already achieved a height of 30-45 cm.

Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 27

PLANT HEALTH Continued from p27 New York (SUNY) have genetically engineered North American chestnut trees with blight resistance equal to the natural resistance shown

by Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima) using a gene sourced from wheat.

C parasitica synthesises a chemical toxin called oxalic acid which destroys the host plant’s defences as part of a systemic infection.

Dr Powell knew that many symptoms of chestnut blight were caused by oxalic acid and that wheat possessed an enzyme called oxalate oxidase which detoxifies oxalic acid.

He identified the wheat gene which encodes production of oxalate oxidase and inserted the DNA into the North American chestnut genome.

GM trees produced the enzyme and were resistant to infection by C parasitica. Detoxification of oxalic acid radically alters the relationship between the chestnut tree host and the C parasitica pathogen. The latter is downgraded from fungal parasite to fungal saprophyte to live on the bark without causing significant harm.

Resistance to blight was recorded at all stages in the verification process including leaf assays, small stem assays and most significantly when trees inoculated with the fungal pathogen remained as healthy as the control trees inoculated with sterile water. GM disease resistance was passed on to the next generation.

GM North American chestnut trees have only two genes (the wheat gene and a common selectable marker gene) not in the natural North American chestnut genome with its 40,000 genes. A selectable marker gene is introduced to an organism to help researchers be sure that the resistance-enhancing gene is present.

Next step was submission of a detailed application to the US federal agencies which must approve the GM trees before they become available for general planting. In the meantime Powell and Maynard will produce as many GM North American chestnut trees as possible, perhaps 10,000, so they are ready for planting if and when the approval process is complete.

Dr William Powell says: “It’s possible to enhance disease resistance in plants using genetic engineering. This is a powerful tool that can be added to all the other tools available to improve

28 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015

An early lesion on a young sweet chestnut stem caused by the pathogen Cryphonectria parasitica.

(Picture: D. Rigling. Swiss Federal Institute of Forest, Snow and Landscape Research)

forest health. This technique can be used for many species of trees threatened by disease. It goes beyond the American chestnut.”

The beauty of genetic engineering over conventional plant breeding, apart from being a lot quicker, is that trees are identical to the natural species except for resistance to C parasitica.

Attempts to cross North American chestnut with naturally resistant but much smaller Chinese chestnuts ran into problems because the ‘smaller stature’ hybrid trees, now genetically divorced from the native North American chestnut, could not compete with other (native) tree species in North American forests.

Future options for UK chestnuts

Gene transference in North America could prove vital to UK forestry should sweet chestnut succumb to this disease. Foundations are now firmly laid for our molecular biologists to insert the same wheat gene that encodes oxalate oxidase into the C sativa genome. Or we could simply purchase GM North American chestnut trees and plant them here, simply swapping one nonnative chestnut tree for another which is similar in stature, a closely matching timber profile and also bearing edible nuts.

Given the contentious nature of genetic engineering with the UK press branding GM cereals, oilseeds and other food crops as ‘Franken Foods’, some may argue that it might be safer to go for a conventionally-bred sweet chestnut

resistant to infection by C parasitica.

Reassurance comes from the work carried out by Dr Timothy Tschaplinski at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee who does chemical analysis for the Powell/Maynard team to determine if the tissue of their transgenic trees differs from that of wild-type trees. He says: “The results of metabolite analyses indicate that nuts produced by transgenic plants aren’t appreciably different from those produced by wild-type plants and therefore should be safe for consumption.”

The fact that the gene used to create blight resistance is obtained from wheat should allay concerns about the genetic engineering that went into producing the new lines of trees says Dr Powell. “We eat it [the gene] all the time and if you had a bagel for breakfast you ate it today.

And this gene is gluten-free,” he said.

Ongoing research indicates that these transgenic chestnut trees do not affect the composition of leaf litter, the feeding habits of insects or the growth of ecologically important fungi.

Compared with conventional plant breeding, genetic modification is far quicker process and can design trees that are much closer genetically and phenotypically to wild-type trees. And it more closely matches current expertise within UK scientific research where conventional plant breeders and plant pathologists are now thin on the ground, while our universities are brimming with molecular biologists.

2015 Export Season for UK Ash Logs There is high demand for UK Ash Sawlogs from overseas markets and British Ash Exports are pleased to offer the UK forestry sector the opportunity to market their ash within the global market place. Since trading began, British Ash Exports have established a solid customer base, where consistent quality of UK exports have enabled us to compete at the level set by other European nations and offer a reliable market for our quality ash sawlogs.

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Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 29

PESTICIDES NOTEBOOK

Glyphosate: appropriate choice for the environment?

Pesticides notebook

by Colin Palmer A few months back these notes considered the issues embracing various glyphosate products and the implications for the spray operator. This topic provoked requests for a similar dissection of the product in the environmental context.

Glyphosate was one of the very first products to be assessed under the then new 1991 EC pesticide regulations - and as such it is one of the first to undergo the re-appraisal process. This will be completed later this year - no doubt making some of these notes redundant!

Secondly, it would be daft to claim that glyphosate is environmentally benign - it’s designed to kill vegetation for heaven’s sake. The more important question is actually, is it likely to be associated with greater unintended consequences than the alternatives of hand cutting, machine swiping, Shropshire sheep or plastic mulches? In this context, I believe that the product can be considered to be a realistically viable environmentally acceptable option for vegetation control. And here’s why...

As with the operator health issue, the discussion needs to be divided into two sections: (1) the characteristics of the glyphosate itself, and then (2) the implications of the various formulations of the products that we actually buy and use.

There are some 70 glyphosate formulations on the UK market, most of which have forestry

approvals. Typically, the formulation you buy will have 30 - 40% glyphosate, and anything between 4 - 20% formulants with the remainder made up with water.

University and the Canadian Carnation Creek Study confirmed that soils, groundwater, terrestrial and aquatic life was not affected by the use of glyphosate.

(1) Glyphosate - the molecule

(2) Glyphosate - the formulations

What is the effect on wildlife? Glyphosate does not bioaccumulate in the body. Any mammal, bird, fish or aquatic organism touching or eating glyphosate treated vegetation will rapidly eliminate the chemical leaving minimal, non-harmful tissue residues. If they are subsequently eaten, then there is no accumulation in the food chain.

Will it accumulate in the soil? No. Glyphosate is degraded by naturally occurring micro-organisms with a half-life of less than six weeks in the soil. Numerous studies have concluded that the products do not accumulate, even after repeated applications in the same year or over several years. Glyphosate binds tightly to the clays, silts and organic matter in the soils, and studies in the laboratory and the field have clearly demonstrated that it poses no threat by leaching into drains or groundwater, and is very unlikely to be taken up by nearby non-target vegetation.

What is the threat to aquatic life? The half-life of glyphosate is less than a week in water, and any surface run-off following heavy rain will be rapidly adsorbed onto suspended sediment. Initially it is degraded to amino-methyl-phosphonic acid prior to breaking into carbon dioxide and phosphate. The net result is a negligible risk to aquatic organisms - demonstrated by the product having a UK approval for spraying over water weeds.

Can we be sure that forest ecosystems will be unaffected? Ecosystem studies are notoriously difficult to evaluate due to the complexity of the wildlife diversity. Nevertheless, two major independent studies conducted by Oregon State

Not all formulations are the same, so the environmentally conscious forester does need to be rather choosy over choice of product. Formulations have additives to help to spread the herbicide over the weed surface, to aid penetration through cell wax, and to provide product stability. These additives can be as non-hazardous as the glyphosate itself, but some, such as the highly effective tallowamine, are not so pleasant.

The quickest way of making an environmentally sound choice is to look for a product label which does NOT carry the ‘dead fish and tree’ pictogram.

If this is absent, then the product is regarded as being of low hazard in the environment. A more in-depth appraisal is also available from the product safety data sheets (MSDS) as noted in some of the more popular glyphosate products below.

In conclusion, although there will inevitably be studies which appear to show ill effects from the use of glyphosate, the overwhelming quantity of peer reviewed independent and regulatory data demonstrating the benign environmental properties of glyphosate should allow its continued use without loss of conscience.

CONFOR | Chemical advice helpline Confor members may contact Colin Palmer for free advice and information on pesticides.

Call 01531 633500 or email to forestry@branchline.demon.co.uk

Product

Glyphosate Type

Formulants

Hazard Warning

Aquatic Hazard

Terrestial Hazard Soil Hazard

Roundup ProBiactive 360*

Isopropylamine

“Surfactants” 16%

None

None***

None

None

Gallup Biograde 360

Isopropylamine

Not specified

None

None***

None

None

Roundup ProBio

Potassium salt >5% + Nitroryl >1%

Alkyopolyglycoside

None

R53

None

None

Roundup Probiactive 450

Potassium salt etheralkylamine >10%

Ethoxylate

None

R52/R53

None

None

Roundup ProVantage

Potassium salt >20% + Nitroryl >3%

Alkyopolyglycoside

None

R53

None

None

Nufarm Credit**

Isopropylamine Ammonium salts

None

None

R53/H413

None

None

Clinic Ace

Isopropyl-ammonium alkyltallowamine <13%

Ethoxylated

YES

R51/R53/H411 None

None

Gallup 360

Isopropylamine alkyltallowamine <30%

Ethoxylated

YES

R51/53

None

None

Glyphos

Isopropylamine alkyltallowamine <10%

Ethoxylated

YES

R50/R53

None

None

* Roundup ProBiactive 360 has been discontinued. However, Roundup Biactive 360 is identical and available. It is legal to use this in forestry providing you also have a Roundup Probiactive label to hand. ** Credit has no additives, allowing the use of an environmentally friendly adjuvant such as the emulsified vegetable oil, Toil. *** This will probably be replaced by an R53 following the review, as part of the test for an R53 is the effect on algae - and glyphosate does kill algae.

30 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015

Aquatic Hazard Numbers R50. Very toxic to aquatic organisms R51. Toxic to aquatic organisms R52. Harmful to aquatic organisms R53. May cause long-term adverse effects in the aquatic environment.

H411 Toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects H413 May cause long lasting harmful effects to aquatic life.

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PEOPLE

PUBLICATIONS

New faces at RFS

Strengthening and growing RFS services and education projects: from left: Zoe Knight (membership coordinator), Corinne Moss (Teaching Trees project coordinator) and Caroline Hukins (fundraising manager).

New chief executive at National Forest Company

John Everitt has arrived in post as the new chief executive of the National Forest Company (NFC).

He takes up the reins following the departure of Sophie Churchill at the end of last year. John joins the NFC from his previous role as chief executive at Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

Changes at Abbey Forestry

After 40 years with Abbey Forestry, Andrew Woods stepped down as senior partner and retired from the partnership in July 2014.

He still has close links with AF as he is retained as a consultant to the firm.

The Forest Communicators Network has produced a beautiful 2015 Calendar of Sustainable Forestry. The 12 photographs used have been selected by a great number of works submitted from all over the world.

January features Uath Lochan in the Scottish Highland, submitted by Colin Morton from FC Scotland. The calendar can be printed from a ready-to-print file which can be can sent on request from Stefanie.kaiser@confor.org.uk Confor has worked with Forest Research on a piece of work examining the particular benefits that productive forestry can provide for water management. We have secured the minister’s agreement to participate in an event where we will look at the need for new productive planting and launch the document.

John Everitt

Ben Anderson

Andy Shirley-Priest, a partner since 2000, has now taken on the role of senior partner.

Ben Anderson joined the partnership in August 2014 bringing back AF to a complement of four partners. Following a career in agriculture, he retrained and graduated with a forestry degree from Newton Rigg.

IN MEMORIAM It is with regret that we record the death of Stephen Searle RVM, MICFor, Windsor Estate forest manager.

John Hunt died last December after a brave fight against cancer.

EVENTS

See www.confor.org for more events and details.

South Scotland Forestry and Timber Regional Event – 04 March 2015, Barony College North-east Scotland Forestry and Timber Regional Event – 11 March 2015, Banchory Mid Scotland Forestry and Timber Regional Event – 18 March 2015, Stirling Management Centre

Confor’s 2015 conference - book now!

Delivering Green Growth – 24 March 2015, RICS, London Confor Woodland Show 2015 – 10-11 September 2015, Longleat Estate – Read more South-west AGM – 10 September 2015, at Confor Woodland Show

NEW MEMBERS

Church Commissioners for England Blackadders LLP, Dundee Premier Forest Group, Gwent Charles Ransford & Son Ltd, Shropshire A.J. Charltons & Sons Ltd, Somerset

Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 33

WOODLAND OWNER

Forest schooling

by Professor Julian Evans OBE Yesterday I visited a Church of England primary school to talk about trees in the Bible. One of the teachers had bought my book God’s Trees – trees, forests and wood in the Bible and got in touch with me via the publishers. The school’s theme for the year is trees and each class is named after a biblical tree. I had a ten minute slot in the mid-morning assembly and then two 20 minutes sessions with two of the year groups. It was brilliant: the Christian ethos was very evident as one would expect, but so was the interest and enthusiasm for trees; I even got asked that most basic of questions, ‘How many trees are there in the world?’ I’ll leave you to figure out how best to answer it!

I mention this and use the title ‘forest schooling’, not only from the privilege of visiting the school, but because while the school is not a fully-fledged forest school, two of the teachers are seriously into this side of things.

My visit was an add-on. The school does other outdoor initiatives including visits from a ‘farm experience’ team who bring their livestock into London for the children to learn about, touch and enjoy.

Many have lamented over the disconnect between urban life and what goes on in the countryside. The forest schools initiative is a remarkable achievement, but still quite restricted in reach and numbers of contacts. Should all of us who own bits of woodland perhaps try to do more? I know there are insurance and health and safety implications, but it seems to me that part and parcel of being good stewards of what we own or manage is, at least from time to time, sharing it with the community. And what better way can there be than a local school group.

These remarks betray a wider concern. Few students are coming forward into our profession whether forestry or arboriculture and, in part, this is due to lack of encouragement by careers advisers. The Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF) is seeking to address this and in late January was hosting a day-long event to

talk about careers to which every HEI (Higher Education Institute – college or university) that offer courses accredited by ICF for progression to chartered membership is invited. This event builds on a very successful one two years ago but this time includes input from employers in the forestry and arboriculture sector. This is just one step: all of us in Confor and woodland owners and managers at large can play a part in promoting what has been our passion and interest.

Back to the school I visited yesterday. As well as talking about trees the children are getting their hands dirty and creating a biblical garden in the school grounds. Around one-third of the trees named in the Bible are hardy enough for our climate such as cedar of Lebanon, evergreen cypress, olive and fig. I must go back one day to see how they are getting on.

LIVING THE FOREST

Trends we’ve seen in 2014 – here comes the ‘lumbersexual’ It seems like urban men have had a hard time positioning themselves in the male-to-femalecontinuum in the last decade or so. Society wanted them to discover their soft, feminine side: it become common to see ‘metrosexuals’ (including all subspecies) populating metropolitan areas.

Handbags, full-body waxing, jewellery and tan – hard-won rights for the modern man.

A few years later, probably led by the fashion scene (maybe a territorial behaviour of gay trendsetters) it all changed – manliness was hitting back. The obvious manifestation of this – the full-bearded hipsters drinking hot fairtrade chocolate in warm jumpers.

But since November 2014, an initiated movement of bringing real manliness back has been completed: the ‘lumbersexuals’, the urban woodsmen have arrived, celebrated by The Guardian and Co. “Like metrosexuals, just the opposite”. A bearded hipster, but more outdoorsy, he can evoke the image of the forester of old, with his checked flannel shirts, hiking boots, and who knows, maybe even an axe.

Interesting to see that the foresters themselves have probably moved quite far away from that image – is it time for them to rediscover the picturesque looks of their trade and tap into the media appeal of their urban impostors? www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/14/lumbersexual-beard-plaid-male-fashion

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SHOW 10th - 11th SEPTEMBER

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Closing Date for applications: 27x��February ��Te� �� �� � �x���Ts� �hh� ���x� T er��s���o�FD � �xT��s�m2015 dFv � Te� ��� �x���Ts��hh����x�T er��s���o�FDx��� �xT��s�mdFv �

The flagship event for all those interested in trees, woods and timber is back. Two days of entertainment and enlightenment, with exciting arena events, demonstrations of harvesting machines, horse-loggers and crafts, seminars, plus more than 80 diverse exhibitors.

LONGLEAT ESTATE

We are now taking stand bookings for this year’s show.

For more details of available pitches contact Chloe Stockdale on 01502 725835 or email chloe@micropress.co.uk

www.conforwoodlandshow.org.uk 36 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015

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norbord.co.uk norbord.co.uk

Wood Fibre Manager

This is a varied and interesting role; the roles & responsibilities will include (but not exclusive to); As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of engineered wood‑based panel products, Norbord is as a world class leader in • Wood supply sourcing including recycle wood fibre today’s competitive market. A continual focus on expanding the • Contractor/Supplier management As one the world's leading manufacturers ofneed engineered wood-based panel products, Norbord is as a world business andofchanges within the team structure, has led to the • Wood control in today's competitive market. continual focus on quality expanding the business and changes within to class appointleader a first class wood fibre supply professional to beAbased • Logistical / supply chain management the team structure, has led to the need to appoint a first class wood fibre supply professional to be based at at our manufacturing facility and European Headquarters in Stirling. our manufacturing facilityManager, and European Headquarters in to the Wood Purchasing • Stirling.

Log Yard Reporting management Reporting to the Wood Purchasing the successful applicant Manager, the successful applicant will become an integral part of the group purchasing team focusing on the will become an integral part of the group purchasing team focusing • Inventory and financial reporting planning, procurement and supply of wood fibre to our UK and European operations.

The position attracts on the planning, procurement and supply of wood fibre to our UK both a competitive salary and excellent benefits. and European operations. The position attracts both a competitive

Wood Fibre Manager

salary and excellent benefits.

Application forms available on request, please contact:

Paul McManus, Norbord Europefibre Ltd, Station Road, Cowie, 7BQ The successful applicant should have operational experience in either a wood supply/ woodFK7recycling Or email paul.mcmanus@norbord.net and/or sawmill environment. A driving license is essential for this role.

The successful applicant…

Or apply online at norbord.co.uk/about‑us/careers should have experience in either a wood Norbord Europe Ltd aims to(but be an not equalexclusive opportunity employer This is a operational varied and interesting role;fibre thesupply/wood roles & responsibilities will include to); and recycling and/or sawmill environment. A driving license is essential for this role. is determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less Educated or HNDsupply level in Forestry or related discipline; the - to a Degree Wood sourcing including recycle woodfavourable fibre treatment on the grounds of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or race, or is disadvantaged by successful applicant should be highly motivated, enthusiastic, self‑disciplined conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable with excellent communication skills and strong commercial acumen.

-

Contractor/Supplier management

-

Logistical / supply chain management

-

Log Yard management

-

Inventory and financial reporting

In return, Norbord offer a competitive remuneration package related to experience, use of a company vehicle, company pension and access to profit share scheme.

Norbord also actively encourage personal development of Wood quality control employees and so the successful applicant can look forward to continual development and progression with the organisation.

Norbord is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of engineered wood‑based panel products. Trusted by professionals and renowned for their consistent quality, our ranges have been used in the construction, DIY and furniture industries for over 40 years. Products include SterlingOSB, the Caber range and Contiboard, all of which are FSC certied as part of our commitment to ethical sourcing.

Educated to a Degree or HND level in Forestry or related discipline; the successful applicant should be highly motivated, enthusiastic, self-disciplined with excellent communication skills and strong commercial acumen.

Forestry Commission

In return, Norbord offer a competitive remuneration package related to experience, use of a company vehicle, company pension and access to profit share scheme. Norbord also actively encourage personal development of employees and so the successful applicant can look forward to continual development and progression with the organisation.

2nd Cycle NFI Framework Contract

Application forms available on request, please contact: The Forestry Commission intends to release a Data

assessed

includes,

amongst

others,

Paul McManus, Manager, This Norbord Europe Ltd,mensuration Station Road, Cowie, 7BQ & NVC, social Framework tender European for ForestHR Surveying. work tree data, FK7 habitat will Or form part of the National Forest Inventory by e-mail to paul.mcmanus@norbord.net (NFI) and will cover the 2nd 5-year cycle of NFI

indicators and forestry operations. The 1st cycle of the NFI is nearing completion and during that

Norbord Europe Ltd aims to be an equal opportunity employer and is determined to ensure that no field data collection. The contract will run from time surveyors have assessed ≈500,000 trees applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, age, disability, March 2015 belief, to 2020 and the work will be broken 28,000 stands. religion, sexual orientation, marital status, orfrom race,almost or is disadvantaged by conditions or into requirements manageable which Lots distributed across to GB. cannot be shown be The justifiable tender will soon be available to download via the FC website (www.forestry.gov.uk). Interested

See www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-9M8F6P for the 1st cycle Survey Manual and full details

of the current assessments. In addition to Apply at norbord.co.uk/about-us/careers parties can online either watch the FC tender site for carrying out NFI data collection surveyors have the documentation or alternatively email Mark also collected ad hoc data for surveys including About (mark.lawrence@forestry.gsi.gov.uk) Us Lawrence St. Jude’s storm damage and Chalara fraxinea to request ofworld’s when the tender is listed Norbordnotification is one of the leading manufacturers of engineered wood-based panel products. Trusted spread. Details and interim results can be found on by theprofessionals website. Expressions once quality, our ranges have been used in the construction, and renownedofforInterest their consistent at www.forestry.gov.uk/inventory.

DIY andhave furniture industries over 40 years. include SterlingOSB, the Caber range and tenderers looked at theforwebsite must Products be

Contiboard, all of which are FSC certified as part of our commitment to ethical sourcing.

received by 19th February.

Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 37

MOTORING

Lively Volvo proves it can be frugal too

by Eamonn Wall

38 Forestry & Timber News, February 2015

Volvo sales are on the increase again and last year sold 465,866 vehicles worldwide, just beating Jaguar Land Rover which sold 462,678 vehicles. Volvo’s best seller is the XC60 followed by the V40 hatchback and V60 estate tested here.

An all new XC90 arrives this summer.

Volvo has been investing heavily over the past few years developing a new chassis architecture (debuting in the XC90) and a new range of four (and three) cylinder engines. In the past, Volvos were powered by a range of engines, including their own characterful five cylinder and six cylinder engines, Ford four cylinder engines and Audi five cylinders. Their new range of petrol and diesel Drive-E engines will power all their vehicles.

So it was very interesting to test drive this V60 equipped with their latest 2 litre 181bhp Drive-E diesel engine mated to a six speed manual gearbox. An eight-speed automatic gearbox is also available. The engine is both smooth and powerful, accelerating the car from 0-60 mph in a nippy 7.6 seconds. It’s also economical, returning 47mpg in my hands. The brakes are good and the gear change direct if a little notchy.

The car rides smoothly and handles well. Its boot is not huge but it’s a reasonable size. The interior design is very Volvo and the dashboard contains the most unusual rev counter I have seen in a while, it looks more like a vertical fuel gauge. I think the latest VW Passat is now probably ahead here with its lovely new horizontal dash design. The car is rated to tow a 1750kg braked trailer.

At the moment, only a top of the range petrol version is available with 4WD but as from June, a 4WD Cross Country version will be available with the new D4 diesel engine. The Cross Country will also have slightly raised suspension turning it into an alternative to a Skoda Octavia Scout or VW Passat Alltrack. Prices for the Cross Country have yet to be announced, though the V60 D4 with Sat Nav tested here is listed as £33,245 before options.

The Volvo V60 D4 is a lovely car and I look forward to sampling the Cross Country version which will no doubt be much more attractive to the rural dweller.

Eamonn Wall is a forestry consultant and director of Eamonn Wall and Co.

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Forestry & Timber News, February 2015 39