Are NRW removing all log piles from their woods?

[Squaredy]

Behind our sawmill this morning in the Forestry Commission (now NRW) forest I heard an awful noise so I investigated and found a walking floor articulated lorry and a very large chipper with loading crane munching through old stacks of milling size logs which have been abandoned and taken over by the wildlife.

 

Does anyone know, have NRW suddenly decided that an old pile of logs that the purchaser has not collected is a danger and must be removed?  The particular pile that I watched being devoured this morning was at least a full lorry load of Spruce that was past it when I first noticed it in 2011.  It would have been very rotten now and I struggle to see how it could be of much use even as biomass.  It is a bit upsetting as these logs must have become quite a valuable habitat to vast numbers of critters.

 

I am no expert in woodland management so I would be delighted to be informed of the logic of such an expensive and apparently destructive operation.

[Spruce Pirate]

Pretty standard practice I think.  Every now and then get a big chipper in, send a wagon and trailer round to hoover up all the odds and sods left in bings that haven't been collected plus any blow that's been cleared from the roads and left lying at the side and anything else that's worth chipping.  Chip it up, sell it on, put the cheque in the bank.  Happy days, tidies the place up too.

[aspenarb]

There have been  big increases in timber prices both here and in the states, those odd part stacks lying about are now looking viable

 

https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/statistics-by-topic/timber-statistics/timber-price-indices/

Edited June 7, 2018 by aspenarb
fat fingers

[sandspider]

Still some odd piles in the NRW woods round my way. (Or there were a week or so ago anyway). Some of them are pretty hard to get to with big kit, however.