Could we learn from the europeans

[twistedhicap]

It has always fascinated me on my travels the europeans use and atitude to wood fuel its processing and handling etc :dontknow:

 

take this idea i know it would takealot for people to thnik about such systems and this would be more for your up market yuppie type wood user but these systems are in place on the continent like cutting and splitting m3 buddles and strapping to dry then sawing them in frames to even logs ?

 

i would love to beable to make a fuel wood enterprise run and work on there principles hey ho just my sunday night observations !

[MattyF]

We could start by looking after and managing are woodlands better to much on estates IMO has gone to waste or poorly managed

[twistedhicap]

You have a good point there i have seen several woodlands and plantations recently that have been left in awfull states but also some that are really well maintained !

 

its our environment and we should look after it for us and our future selves !

[allan coates]

i am looking to buy a wood on the purpose for exstaction .has anybody got any information please.

[AngusMF250]

In Germany, Sweden, Norway and Finland they dont really have estates, most of the forests (all of these countries are predominately forested) are owned by the local community councils.

If people want to cut firewood, they have to apply for a liscense and are assigned areas, they have to have proof of chainsaw certification and a training course in managing their areas of use.

 

Seems like a good system to me.

[twistedhicap]

i loved walking out in the woods in germany ! loads of stacked cord and not much theft ! italy was great the amount of comunity wood procesing is cool ! but i guess we have it easy hear some of the places i was traveling through are cut of for upwards of 2 months a year due to snow in the alps etc ! so its like there cattle fodder its an essentail supply !

[Xerxses]

In Germany, Sweden, Norway and Finland they dont really have estates, most of the forests (all of these countries are predominately forested) are owned by the local community councils.

If people want to cut firewood, they have to apply for a liscense and are assigned areas, they have to have proof of chainsaw certification and a training course in managing their areas of use.

 

Seems like a good system to me.

 

Thats not quite the picture in Sweden. We have 300 000 private owners here most of the are small owners where 200 000 own 5-49 hectares rest of them own up to 400 hectares, average is 55 hectares. All in all they own about 10 575 000 hectares. The goverment owns a lot of the forrest and a few major forrestcompanys the rest, probably Stora Enzo beeing the biggest one. They also own several papermills and are producing all the paper for all IKEA catalogues distributed all over the world.... The felling licence isnt a common thing, but do exist. Its not the way the forrests are maintained. Usually they buy a few trees "on root" and deal with felling and extraction themselves, hardly a lucrative thing....just to get some "cheap" firewood (cheap cause they are not counting their own labour) The way we do it is hiring in a harvester and let the profit go into the maintenence side of parks etc... Local councils do own some forrests but not any substantial really...

[TRADITIONAL LOGGERS]

Thats not quite the picture in Sweden. We have 300 000 private owners here most of the are small owners where 200 000 own 5-49 hectares rest of them own up to 400 hectares, average is 55 hectares. All in all they own about 10 575 000 hectares. The goverment owns a lot of the forrest and a few major forrestcompanys the rest, probably Stora Enzo beeing the biggest one. They also own several papermills and are producing all the paper for all IKEA catalogues distributed all over the world.... The felling licence isnt a common thing, but do exist. Its not the way the forrests are maintained. Usually they buy a few trees "on root" and deal with felling and extraction themselves, hardly a lucrative thing....just to get some "cheap" firewood (cheap cause they are not counting their own labour) ... Local councils do own some forrests but not any substantial really...

 

Yes good correct points. It is often the same in Norway regarding ownership of woodland and we could learn from this here. I asked regarding public insurance and told if working in your own woodland if someone is too foolish to walk into a work site that is their problem.

[dave fox]

i think that one of the biggest hurdles in the buiseness is that alot of the estates that are conected to farming in my exsperience is that they are bound with alot of enviromental regulations

[Arran Woodfuels]

Norway and Finland they dont really have estates, most of the forests (all of these countries are predominately forested) are owned by the local community councils.

 

Here in Norway it is actually the farmers who suppliment their income by producing firewood from their own private woods. Most farmers make hay in the summer and logs in the winter!

 

There is a big threat to them from imported firewood imported from Latvia (as discussed on another thread).