Steve Bullman

Confor has welcomed the latest confirmation that the UK Government is committed to planting 30,000 hectares of new woodland annually by 2025. A £92 million funding pot, part of the £640m Nature for Climate Fund, was announced for 2021-22 by Chancellor Rishi Sunak. The funding announcement said the money would "keep us on track to restore more peatlands and plant 30,000 hectares of trees a year by the end of this Parliament." Stuart Goodall, CEO of Confor, said: "This is good news, in that it reaffirms the commitment to the ambitious 30,000 hectare planting target. "However, we won’t hit the target without planting larger areas of woodland, which will only happen in rural areas, and that doesn’t just need funding, but also a change in culture and slicker delivery. "We need to recognise tree planting as a huge positive - to help meet our climate change obligations and to support a green recovery in our rural areas. "In terms of delivery, Confor wants the current costly, complex and cumbersome procedures for planting to be streamlined, to reduce cost and time and to give people confidence to plant." Mr Goodall added: "We also need the constituent parts of the UK to work together and agree targets." Confor has called for co-ordination of UK-wide targets in its response to the EFRA committee inquiry into tree planting. Currently, there is no specific target for England. Confor's response also calls for a review of UK planting procedures, similar to the Mackinnon review, credited with driving up planting in Scotland. More than 80% of UK trees are currently planted in Scotland. Jim Mackinnon, who led the Scottish review, will speak at the next meeting of the All Party parliamentary Group on Forestry and Tree Planting on December 10th. The online event is called One year on from the general election, is the Government on course to meet its tree planting targets? More details and how to sign up here.

Offering fleet managers more visibility and control over the usage of connected tools, STIHL has announced a new Connected app. With a new streamlined design, fleet managers can easily find the data they need from the STIHL Connected homepage, which provides an overview of the fleet of tools as well as model and ownership information. From the homepage, users can also quickly and easily access information on machine running time and maintenance schedules. To help improve efficiency and minimise downtime, the maintenance page is where fleet managers can easily see which tools are due for servicing. It is also where they can access the maintenance history, making it easier to effectively plan based on the tool availability, as well as minimise downtime by ordering spare parts ahead of time. One of the new features available to users is the “nearby” function, which shows users the tools that are in their immediate vicinity, as well as allowing them to view the last known locations of the devices on a map. STIHL Connected comprises four central system components; STIHL Smart Connector, which is attached to the tool, STIHL app which connects to the STIHL cloud and STIHL connected portal. When used in conjunction, STIHL Connected enables professional users to easily analyse key machinery performance data that can be used to not only improve daily work processes, but also help achieve optimal task scheduling for an even more efficient team. STIHL Smart Connector is easy to install and transmits the working time data via Bluetooth to a smartphone or tablet and then the cloud, giving users universal transparency about where power tools are being used and their current status. The smart technology has been introduced by STIHL so professional users can ensure that their power tools are reliably ready for operation, leading to time and cost savings. The new STIHL Connected app is currently available to download free for Android and iOS on the app store. For more information on STIHL Connected or STIHL’s extensive range of power tools, please visit www.stihl.co.uk.

Confor has welcomed the Prime Minister’s renewed tree planting commitment - but stressed that new figures show how difficult delivering this will be. After Boris Johnson included the target of planting 30,000 hectares of trees every year in his Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, Confor Chief Executive Stuart Goodall said: “The forestry and wood industry welcomes the Prime Minister’s personal commitment to increase UK tree planting rates to 30,000 hectares each year. This is a huge challenge for the whole of the country and, while some progress has been made, particularly in Scotland, current statistics show just how much needs to change if the UK is going to get to this level by the middle of the decade." “The Prime Minister’s plan coincides with the publication of statistics showing that in April-September 2020, only 763 hectares of land were newly planted with trees in England." “Confor has calculated England needs to plant at least 7,500 hectares of new woodland each year if the UK is to meet its overall target. This is roughly 10 times the figure reported by the Forestry Commission today, so the scale of the challenge is apparent for anyone to see.” The House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee is currently looking at forestry and woodland management to see what lessons can be learnt from the failure to meet previous tree planting ambitions in England. Confor’s evidence to the EFRA inquiry calls for greater coordination between the different parts of the UK on how they will contribute to the 30,000 hectare target and highlights the need for big improvements to the process for approving planting applications in England. Mr Goodall added: “Now that the Prime Minister has put his personal authority behind the latest drive as part of his Green Industrial Revolution, it's more important than ever to get the bureaucracy sorted and ensure all parts of the UK can deliver new planting to benefit the environment, business and the wider community.” * Confor is the trade body for the forestry and wood-using industry and represents around 1500 businesses across the UK. www.confor.org.uk

Starting from November the 1st, DEAL has launched a comprehensive promotional campaign on key selling machines in their expanded set up. Carry on reading to learn more about DEAL and these exclusive offers. Deal Wales in partnership with UK importer Spectrum Plant have committed to support two of their now “Key Franchises” is a mass territory expansion across the bridge into South West of England. David Evans Agricultural Limited – Trading as “DEAL Wales” was Founded by David Evans in 1993 and for almost 30 years has been well established as one of Wales’s best known and largest machinery dealers. Over the course of time the cultural shift towards from Agricultural machinery to Forestry and Arb equipment came initially in the form of Valtra and the twin track tractor. Naturally as their awareness and knowledge grew in this sector. As a business, new brands have to come to the forefront of the portfolio such as FSI and CAST. With a vast customer base in their armada, and also very experienced staff in the form of Richard Jenkins – Parts Manager for 13 years and STIHL product Champion, as well as Joe Flanagan – Area Sales Manager for under a year but former employee of STIHL GB. DEAL Wales were the logical choice for Spectrum Plant when it came to appointing a dealer in the South Wales territory. A central location in the metropolis of Cardiff just outside Cardiff airport, as well as large highly furnished workshop facility is a few of the tangible things that made the appointment that more attractive. Very quickly the volume of sales and commitment to both the FSI and CAST product became apparent and the level of proactive selling in the marketplace. The CAST SSQ15D Worky Quad saw a huge up take in both the Arb industry but also in Equine and Agriculture. A municipal mini skid loader with the versatility to increase productivity with its impressive loading and lifting capacity boasting and in-depth range of attachments for various functions. DEAL proactively sought to develop a range of their own attachments for these machines including a much needed Rotating Log Grab, 80cm Ground Flail, Side Arm Hedgecutter, Yard Scraper. The FSI B20 Petrol Pedestrian Stump Grinder has also seen huge volumes of sales by DEAL. In the words of Joe Flanagan from DEAL “We have worked hard to get the message across to our customers how affordable this sort or machinery can be. Our finance package of £25 per week on a new B20 has become very attractive. Tree work can become so competitive on pricing especially with the volume of rouge traders in this industry. Why not offer a more unique and complete services and get that ADDED VALUE from your customers offering the whole package including removing the stump in its entirety. We have historically sold machinery to dedicated stump removal service providers but are slowly bringing the rest of the Arb industry on board and getting the message to diversify and expand their services” In light of this and following several discussions with Spectrum Plant. The decision was mutually made by both parties for DEAL’s area of operation to be expanded covering Southern Parts of England historically untouched heading towards the Home Counties boundary. Their new area includes:- FSI South Glamorgan Mid Glamorgan West Glamorgan Gwent Dyfed Powys Bristol Gloucestershire Wiltshire Herefordshire Worcestershire CAST South Glamorgan Mid Glamorgan West Glamorgan Gwent Dyfed Powys Bristol Gloucestershire Wiltshire Somerset Herefordshire Worcestershire Dorset In light of this DEAL have committed to a very large stocking plan to support sales in the expanded area. DEAL are the first UK dealer to take on the long awaited FSI B38 remote control tracked machine. This machine is set to rival the predator P38 remote control with its narrow access capabilities and impressive cutting performance. As well as this DEAL will be the first dealer in the UK to stock the entire portfolio of FSI pedestrian and tracked machinery as well as all models of the CAST Worky Quad. DEAL can be contacted directly using the details below. David Evans Agri Ltd Old Middle Hill, Walterston, Llancarfan, Vale of Glamorgan CF62 3AD Tel: 07927 658300 (Joe Flanagan) Depot Telephone: 01446 781711 Email: [email protected]