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Bloody incomers with their bloody mountain bikes and bloody woodburners! 👿
It's ok, they'll just import more from the EUuooh bugger.
Not just me and monbiot that thinks wales is a barren sheepland then...
Good fence posts too. Trouble is they rely on softwood plantations, the type no one likes, and that are being replaced by hardwood ones where possible.
The incentives and guidance are all wrong.
You cannot get a felling licence without agreement to replant. Most private sector will replant with softwood, it's a low maintenance crop with quick turnaround. However, the grants will (poorly) support hardwood, some choose this and NRW try to lead by example, but they and their predecessors have hardly been known as quality producers, just quantity.
There is still a fair bit out there, we have a 20 year fell to market plan, but the volume won't be there nationally as they aren't supporting softwood equally. We are already swaying our planting plans back to softwood and our woodlands are not managed for pure commercial but as a balance of all aspects including diversity and access.
There is also the matter of biomass, that sets the market price as it has the lowest grading requirements, mills need to offer enough more to justify the higher level of preparation required. Doesn't help that biomass is incentivised.
Does some of this not come down to not planting enough trees for the last 40/30/20/10 years?
Like most everything. It is a pretty basic balancing act.
More trees or more people
More wildlife or more people
More wilderness or more people
So long as the answer is always "more people" then everything else will decline. Yes, we can re-purpose agricultural land in the margins of the UK. But that land was producing food that will have to come from somewhere else, more than likely from new ranches in the Amazon basin.
The whole of GB imports about 80% (figures vary depending on exchange rates)of its timber requirements. this isn't big news. A lot of "English" timber goes to Welsh panel and sawmills and a bit of Welsh timber goes to English Mills.
It's not like the Severn Bridges are going and Offa's Dyke's being bricked up. The bigger issue is the sheep one and the availability of land for trees in England. Planting a wood hits the value of your land somewhat despite the benefits and grant aid.
Does some of this not come down to not planting enough trees for the last 40/30/20/10 years?
It could be, but we all planted some trees in '73, then went on to plant some more in '74.
FACT!
We actually planted a tree each in our class at school. Tailgate forest in Creepy Crawley. Plus or minus 1974 🙂
It could be, but we all planted some trees in '73, then went on to plant some more in '74.
FACT!
Good memory!