Big J

No.

That seems a little harsh for a comment that was obviously tongue in cheek. However, my wife is an architect so it's not outside the realms of possibility 😊

Depressing to take a nice tree out like that that obviously pre-dates the shit-box rabbit hutch houses by about 100 years. Fell the house. Keep the tree 😎

I bought myself a bass at the start of lockdown. I used to play quite a bit until about 12-14 years ago. I just sold it again today as it just wasn't that interesting to play. In the intervening time I've learned to play piano (to a reasonable standard) and it's so much more versatile. I started out playing a lot of classical, but I often just sit at the keys now and work out songs that are floating around my head. It's quite nice to be able to do that - a means of expression that I wouldn't otherwise have if I didin't play an instrument

The chip price is pretty poor at the moment so as much as possible will be going for higher grade applications (fencing and milling). Keilder is a useful resource. What the hell else would they be using the land for if not farming trees? Sheep? That's about all you can do. As regards tourism, I'd always much rather see a plantation than moorland.

One of the main reasons that sitka is so popular is our climate. And for numerous reasons. Firstly, sitka grows quickly here. We don't get much of a winter, so their dormant season is very short indeed. Secondly, harvesting any timber in the UK is tricky. Due to our sometimes wet summers and almost never frozen winters, we lack the kind of ground integrity that is desirable for harvesting. As such, machinery needs to run on a brash mat and there is no finer mat than a sitka spruce mat. This allows harvesting to take place year round, which is ideal from a supply lines point of view. The conditions are generally far better for harvesting in France. Hot dry summers and a much better chance of frozen ground in winter. The illustrate the issue, I'm doing a little ash clearfell at the moment fairly close to home. We've had quite a lot of rain - certainly more than the average but not as much as last year. The site is almost completely flat, but I'm going to have to put bandtracks on tomorrow. Even with the little Logbullet forwarder, I'm just spinning out on the clay. There is no structure to the ground, boundless moisture and no brash. I'd much, much rather be doing sitka. This is just grim.

Ok, land ownership issues aside, here are the issues with broadleaf production in this country: Grey squirrels. They completely decimate crops, require expensive and often unpopular control measures Much more expensive to establish. More waste (tubes and stakes) compared to conifer. Growth rates are extremely slow Mostly cannot be mechanically harvested, so expensive and dangerous to convert from standing trees to usable milling material Horrendously inconsistent quality. Shake, rot and staining is a far more prevalent issue in hardwood Extremely limited market. How much hardwood is actually used on a day to day basis? Broadleaf production is of a much higher quality on the continent, without the issues of squirrels or having to constantly intervene with pruning, respacing, thinning in order to have a chance at a good tree. Can usually be mechanically harvested at a younger age. I visited a hardwood sawmill near my uncle's in Germany 7-8 years ago and they were able to sell kiln dried beech of excellent quality for a lower price than I could produce fresh sawn here. The fuelwood has a limited market as mostly unsuitable for chip production. Log production contributes to what is a largely polluting form of home heating (considering the fact that most customers don't know how to use stoves correctly, or have open fires). On the flipside, consider the benefits of conifer (leaving eucalyptus aside for a moment): Grows consistently and quickly Grows on sites where broadleaf production would be impossible (thinking of moorland) Mechanically harvestable at all stages, reducing costs by 1/2 - 2/3 and improving safety Much broader application possibilities. Construction, fencing, cladding, pallets, paper, tetra packs, furniture, fuelwood etc Biodiversity in mature stands (especially douglas and larch) equal to or exceeding equivilent age broadleaf. On a personal note, a mature conifer stand is something I find to be far more pleasant than a broadleaf woodland. Give me 120ft douglas and an understory any day. I can go on if you want

This is a British problem. Why can the rest of Europe manage to access and enjoy the outdoors without trashing it? Littering and vandalism is a depressingly British phenomenon. I agree that a small minority of the public take the piss, but on the flip side, if landowners were more amenable to respectful access rights, there would be less of an 'us and them' mentality and a lot more respect would be shown by everyone. That said, I still maintain that the death penalty for littering wouldn't be excessive. Perhaps not for the first offence, but it's got to be considered as a reasonable punishment

I don't disagree with any of that. Your issue is with the unequal distribution of wealth in the UK, not commercial forestry. I completely agree that these are huge issues. Land is not held in public ownership, nor is it held for public benefit. At least in Scotland you do have the right to roam. Most European countries have the right to roam in forest, and for the most part, have more equittable woodland ownership. Anyway, you've not answered my question, as you'd focused on the issue of quickly grown, commercial crops earlier, and now you've switched to land ownership. 😊

I was promised a full explanation of what is wrong with commercial forestry. Still waiting! 🤣 😝

That would be nice. It would help if developers stopped building on floodplains though.

The UK really needs to get to 30-35% forest cover and quickly in order to cover UK demand for timber. Almost all the other European countries manage to exceed that level. If I was in charge of these things (God help us all) then I'd consign 50% of all upland in England to commercial forestry. All the flat bits - everywhere that can be mechanically harvested. This would provide the UK with most of it's construction and higher grade commercial timber. Mix it up so that you have a spread of species for different applications - sitka, norway (which I agree, doesn't always grow well here), WRC, Japanese red cedar, douglas fir, western hemlock etc. Then consign the remaining 50% to biodiversity and rewilding. Whether that's natural moorland restoration, broadleaf forest restoration or what, it'd be an improvement on the shooting drives that are there now. The loss of income from the (largely unprofitable) shoots would be offset by timber income. And make the whole lot open access so people can enjoy it. And then look at farms at lower altitudes. So many of them exist only because of subsidies. They would be more profitable as eucalyptus, willow or poplar plantations. It'd give us a rapidly grown, sustainable biofuel that could be used in small scale district heating systems to heat houses, commercial properties and public spaces. Given that installation of gas boilers in new properties is illegal after 2025, biofuel district heating ought to be considered. It's unsustainable for the UK to continue importing 80% of it's timber. Reforestation is a complicated and multifaceted strategy that needs to take into account the complex nature of UK timber need. That being said, fast grown species will always form the backbone of it as the UK does not grow quality timber due to the climate. What we do do is grow timber very quickly.

That is not what I am suggesting. Unfortunately, with the nature of your work, you only see the broadleaf side of the sawmilling market. Please recognise that it's a tiny, tiny part of the UK timber industry. I supply Pontralis Sawmills pretty regularly with softwood. They use 1200 tonnes of softwood a day, and even with that level of production, the UK imports 80% of it's timber products. Commercial forestry in the UK is still nowhere near the level required to fulfill our domestic needs. We need much more of the useless and barren uplands planted with conifer to provide high quality timber for construction and we need to plant some of our arable lowlands with rapidly growing species such as eucalyptus to provide a source of woodfuel and cellulose. I am not proposing to reduce the amount of native broadleaf woodland. I would actually propose increasing it, but on commercially unviable ground. This can be grant funded as required, but without the expectation of obtaining a crop out of it. I've seen a lot of plantations since coming down here, planted 20 odd years ago , where the softwood element beautiful and already profitable for it's first thin but the broadleaf aspect is completely useless. It'll never make a crop of any description, having been ravaged by squirrels, ash dieback, poor seed provenance (ie, poor form) or deer damage. What exactly do you regard as being the problem with commercial UK forestry?

From the point of view of timber production, it's a total waste of time. Firstly, establishment of native broadleaf species in the UK is made extremely difficult with grey squirrels. Substanstial and sustained control measures, for a period of 40 years is required. Secondly, growth rates are glacial. A plantation of oak will do about 6 cubic metres per hectare per year in these parts, if that. Eucalyptus nitens will do over 50, and will achieve a standing density impossible for native broadleaves. Thirdly, it is all about the money. Growing timber as a crop is farming on an extended timescale. In order to do so, the financials need to make sense and there is no scenario in which planting NB is economically viable without extensive capital and ongoing grant funding. I'm restocking most of my clearfell sites with eucalyptus now because when I show the landowners (who are typically 50-65 years of age) the stand of nitens, they can see that not only will they have an established woodland back again in just 5 years, but that they'll see another income from it. Fourthly, planting broadleaves is very expensive. £1.60 for the tube, £0.45 for the stake, £0.45 for the tree, £0.85 for planting. That's £3.35 per tree. The nitens costs £0.90. So NB is £6700/ha (at 2000 stems/ha), eucalyptus is £1800. I can plant 4 hectares of euc for the price of 1 hectare of NB. Fifthly, whilst you may be involved (as I was) in the supply of high end timber for specialised uses, the vast bulk of the timber requirement in the UK is as fuel and low grade milling products. So wood chip, wood pellet, firewood, pallet timber, fencing, construction etc. Planting Oak plays no part in supplying these demands. Or do you prefer importing all your timber from Scandinavia and Germany? Or eucalyptus chip from New Zealand to power the Drax plant in Kent? Sixthly, if we're restocking a clearfell with eucalyptus, it's only replacing conifer. We wouldn't be allowed to clearfell broadleaves in anything other than exceptional circumstances (ash dieback as an example) and we'd be required to replant with broadleaves. In the case of new plantations, is a plantation of fast growing trees such as eucalyptus or spruce not better than an arable field? Seventhly, the demise of UK industry has got nothing to do with the demise of UK forestry. The low point of forest cover in the UK was 1919 (at 5% coverage) and since then cover has increased by 2.5 times nationally by planting short rotation crops. There is little to no commercial demand in the UK for timber products from NB products. It's important to have native woodlands, and I support their planting on difficult to access/work sites, but commercially viable woodland sites ought to be the preserve of commercially viable timber crops. Native broadleaves are rarely that.

Moisture content is higher in the sapwood. After year 7, heartwood is established and dry density is similar to oak. Drying times vary by species, but nitens should dry fairly quickly. It's not that easy to split once dried, so best processed green.

It's at just about 500t/hectare at the moment. Taking 20% out every 2 years will keep it at that standing volume.

Oooh, ya bastard. That has to be sore. I can empathise a bit as I'm recovering from double patella tendonitis. Not torn, but seriously inflamed at one point. It's debilitating. Hope you have a speedy recovery. How did you do it?

I'm looking to try to bring it to the firewood market. It's dense, poker straight and if processed green, rapidly turned into saleable logs. The crazy thing is that there are some sticks that are too large for most processors. You up for a bit of eucalyptus #arboriculturist ??

The plan for that block is agroforestry. I've proposed putting pigs in initially (it's fully fenced already) to clear the brambles ahead of thinning. A 20% thin this year, followed by 20% every two years until such time that the decision is taken to clearfell. The trees are likely to make 40m within 6-7 years, which is a consideration. 50m inside 15 years isn't impossible. The stand is markedly shorter on the western fringe (probably 5m shorter than on the east), but because it's a fairly big block, there is potential for the protected ones to get rather large. Nitens doesn't coppice well, and won't do it at all after 7 years of age. Not sure what the plan was when it was planted. I think the issue is that they'll very quickly get impractically large. I'd be looking to coup fell and replant within 5 years I think. Start with the eastern edge, where it's largest, fell a hectare and replant. Repeat every year until you're all the way through the stand at year 5. That way you're always taking advantage of the microclimate afforded by the remaining trees. Well at least until the final year when you do the western edge, but then they don't grow so fast there anyway so it doesn't really matter.

There are 4.5 hectares of the stuff too! Standing at almost 500/t per hectare at the moment. It's the density at which is grows too. Clumps of 10-20 trees where they are all over 1/2t each. There are loads and loads of 1t plus trees in there. Some of the twin stems nudging 2t. This is a stand that didn't establish well either as it was planted in May 2010 and got mullered by the 10/11 winter.

Out with the family today at a eucalyptus nitens plantation today (I take them to all the best places!). It's actually a good laugh with the kids as they love the peeling bark and the ground is dry too. Anyway, this is the largest of the trees in the block. It's 47.5cm dbh at 10 years, 7 months. Around 25m tall too. The rest of the block averages that height and about 26-27cm dbh, but that includes loads of subdominant trees. Once thinned out, all the main crop trees will be 30cm plus. At 10 years old!!

Probably around 45cm top diameter on a 4.9m. I still have access to larger machinery for bigger trees.

I won't have a harvester as a low impact harvester won't work here. The trees are too large at stump, too coarsely branched and there simply aren't enough stands of first thinnings to justify it. I'm working closely with a chap with a 14t Harvadig. That's as low impact as I can go and be commercially viable here. I'll be able to extract 4.9s comfortably.

The Logbullet never had any issues, with it being 5ft wide. The Komatsu isn't so happy though. Even 9ft is too wide for a lot of them....

You've got some epic potential for synchronised Logbullet extraction drone footage