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