Woodknowledge Wales

Woodknowledge Wales

Inspiring innovation through collaboration

Forestry

Making Wood Work for Wales

by

Wales Climate Week zoom session, 11:15-12:15, 6 December

REGISTER NOW

A thriving timber industry offers economic, environmental and social benefits to Wales. Opportunities exist all along the supply chain, from nurseries through forest management, harvesting, restocking, sawmilling, right through to the end-use of timber, for example in construction or furniture.

Join session chair, Huwel Manley, operations manager for Natural Resources Wales (NRW) as he hosts a remote panel discussion focused around how to make wood work for Wales. Panel members will include Woodknowledge Wales’ CEO, Gary Newman, Elaine Harrison, National Manager Wales at Confor: Confederation of Forest Industries (UK) and Steve Cranston, Project Lead for Welsh Government’s Delivering Net Zero.

This Wales Climate Week session will open by showcasing companies in Wales who use timber and who have chosen to put fairness at the heart of their operating models. The panel members will then discuss the actions needed to promote a healthy, growing timber industry in Wales.

  • How can the use of timber accelerate decarbonisation of the natural and built environments?
  • How can we deliver low-carbon housing in Wales through the use of Welsh grown timber? 
  • How can we encourage inclusive recruitment and retention in an industry with a huge range of jobs, skills and careers on offer?

Want to know more about the Welsh timber industry, carbon sequestration within timber products, timber training and careers?

This session will be of interest to anyone who:

  • would like to know more about the environmental, economic and social benefits offered by the Welsh timber industry.
  • are interested in reducing embodied carbon in construction, in taking a whole life-cycle approach which recognises carbon sequestration within timber products. 
  • are keen to learn about the breadth of different training, jobs and career paths across Wales and to explore inclusive approaches to employment.

Speakers

  • Elaine Harrison. National Manager for Wales. Confor (Confederation of Forest Industries).
  • Gary Newman. Chief Executive. Woodknowledge Wales.
  • Steve Cranston. Project Lead – Delivering Net Zero.
  • Huwel Manley. Head of Operations South West Wales. Natural Resources Wales.

Full speakers bios can be found at the Wales Climate Week Virtual Conference Programme

Format of the session

11:15-11:20Introduction
11:20-11:30Watch newly filmed case study videos from:
– timber contractors: Williams Homes,
– timber frame manufacturers: SO Modular, and
– award winning social enterprise: Down to Earth
11:30 – 11:55Q&A open panel discussion
12:10-12:15Sum up and close

Register now at Wales Climate Week (gov.wales) where you can also view the rest of the virtual conference agenda and other available resources.

REGISTER NOW

Experts identify actions needed to mitigate potentially catastrophic threats to UK Forests

by

New paper published highlighting key issues that must be addressed if our woodlands are to continue to deliver the range of benefits on which we depend.

A chilly pathway through the forest

Woodknowledge Wales’ Specialist Advisor Wood Science, Dainis Dauksta, and new board member Professor John Healey from Bangor University, joined a team of 42 European experts to carry out a horizon-scanning exercise and identify previously overlooked opportunities and threats faced by UK forests over the next 50 years.

Results were published in, ‘A horizon scan of issues affecting UK forest management within 50 years‘ by Tew et al., whichwas published in Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research in November 2023 [1]

Dr Eleanor Tew, Head of Forest Planning at Forestry England and visiting researcher at Cambridge’s Department of Zoology emphasised that “The next 50 years will bring huge changes to UK forests: the threats they face, the way that we manage them, and the benefits they deliver to society” [2]

John Healey, Professor of Forest Sciences at Bangor University further explained that “There are many challenges to overcome to ensure that our woodlands not only provide crucial habitat for biodiversity conservation, and environments that are invaluable for human wellbeing, but also continue to produce wood as a vital renewable material that has a key role to play in achieving net zero emissions to meet the challenge of the climate crisis.” [3]

In the new paper, the authors focus on 15 emerging issues from a collated list of 180 that, while previously overlooked, are expected to have significant impact on UK forests over the next half century.

Source: Figure 2 Tew et al, A horizon scan of issues affecting UK forest management within 50 years, Forestry

In their thematic analysis, the authors were able to map all fifteen issues across eleven themes of significance within three main categories: environmental shocks and perturbations, political and socio-economic drivers, and emerging interactions, as shown in Figure 2 above.

The top-ranking issue in the final list when scored individually by the expert panel was ‘Catastrophic forest ecosystem collapse’. A reference to the cascading consequences caused by the interconnected impact of a combination of hazards affecting forest environments, this level of damage to forest ecosystems has already been witnessed in North America and continental Europe. Other threats include competition with society for water, viral diseases, and extreme weather affecting forest management.

While delivering an unequivocal tale of caution and call to action, the final list of 15 issues summarised in the paper’s abstract includes a number of opportunities that are key to mitigating the adverse outcomes of climate change on both the natural world and human societies.

“It was notable that three of the selected 15 issues focused on predicted shifts in future wood product markets and the challenge of ensuring that commercial forest resources do match future value chains. It was important that the Woodknowledge Wales and Bangor University participants in the Expert Panel played a valuable role in advocating for the inclusion of these issues and developing their description in the resulting paper,” said Healey.

Summarising the significance of the expert review as a whole, Professor Bill Sutherland, Senior author and pioneer of horizon scanning at the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, noted “We are already seeing dramatic events in Europe’s forests whether fires, disease or bark beetles, whilst the importance of trees is increasingly recognised. Horizon scanning to identify future issues is key, especially as trees planted now will face very different circumstances as they mature in scores of years.”  [2]

This research was funded by Forestry England. The Forestry Commission is bringing the sector together in 2024 to look at next steps.

References

1: Tew et al, A horizon scan of issues affecting UK forest management within 50 years, Forestry DOI: 10.1093/forestry/cpad047

2: University of Cambridge Press release: 8 November 2023, www.cam.ac.uk/research/news, Accessed 13 November 2023

3. University of Bangor Press release, 8 November 2023, www.bangor.ac.uk/news/, Accessed 25 November 2023

Circular wood use for accelerated global decarbonisation

by

New research calls for cross-sectoral coordination to maximize net zero benefits of wood recycling

Perhaps not just a pile of old pallets or biomass?

Whilst less than 1% of waste wood goes to landfill in the UK, a new study published in Nature Communications proposes further efficiencies. A team of researchers from Bangor University, the University of Galway in Ireland and Woodknowledge Wales, analysed the whole life cycle of the current timber value chain. They believe collaboration and system change is needed to achieve even longer sequestration of the carbon locked within timber already in use within the supply chain.

The full paper, Circular wood use can accelerate global decarbonisation but requires cross-sectoral coordination [1], was written by Eilidh Forster, John Healey, Gary Newman and David Styles. It was published online by Nature Communications on 25 October 2023 and is open access. The original press release can be read via Bangor University’s news page. [2]

“The UK is currently able to produce only a fraction of the wood it requires yet recovered wood ‘waste’ is an under-valued resource. Improved transparency, reporting and management of recovered wood could create a multitude of circular business opportunities.” Eilidh Forster, lead author and PhD researcher, Bangor University

Enhancing the benefits of timber towards net zero

Wood harvested from sustainably managed forests is an important source of renewable biomaterial and global demand for wood is forecast to increase by up to 170% by 2050. In 2022, UK timber imports cost £11.5 billion.

Carbon captured during tree growth is retained in wood from harvested trees. The manufacture of timber products already tends to minimise greenhouse gas emissions relative to the manufacture of materials such as concrete and steel. Additionally, timber products are excellent carbon stores throughout the full life cycle of those products.

The benefits of timber towards net zero can be enhanced further by applying the principles of the circular economy. By identifying new ways to use, then reuse timber, before reusing that wood again – perhaps in the form of chipboard or wood fibre – there is huge potential to extend the service life of wood. By doing so, that captured atmospheric carbon is stored within that wood. Additionally, reusing wood in this ‘cascading’ manner (a concept introduced and explained in detail in Forster et al’s first paper [3]) brings down the demand for fresh supplies. As a result, there are also increased net carbon sequestration gains from reduced harvesting of virgin wood and reduced transport costs for timber imports.

Biogenic carbon material flow from wood harvest going to Hierarchical or ‘cascading’ use [2, Figure 3]

A circular or cascading wood flow as shown in the reproduced Figure above, delivers multiplied efficiencies in the journey to net zero. The report presents results that indicate a circular approach to recycling medium-density fibreboard (MDF) in the UK alone could deliver ‘75% more cumulative climate-change mitigation by 2050’ when compared with the current, ‘business-as-usual’ single-use approach. In combination with the complementary, if slower, long-term benefits of planting new forests for wood production, the cumulative effects of these two approaches alone could mitigate 258.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions. Which equals 61% of the total of net territorial emissions of the UK in the single year of 2021.

“Planting new production forests to meet future wood demand is a very important priority for achieving net zero, however it will take several decades for this benefit to be realised, and we can’t afford to wait that long to reduce the current rate of global warming. Therefore, we also need to act urgently to increase the efficiency with which we reuse current wood products to reduce the pressure that we are placing on global forests to meet our needs.” John Healey, study co-author and Professor of Forest Sciences, Bangor University

System change needed to maximise potential benefits of timber

The new research highlights that, while there are many potential benefits for net zero to be leveraged further, the current UK timber manufacturing system incorporates significant barriers that will first need to be overcome. The aims of the paper were to highlight these barriers and propose solutions that might enable maximum efficiency towards net zero across the timber value chain.

The researchers cite uncertainty of land-use subsidies, poor transparency of material flow through the value chain, and a lack of agreed circularity metrics among other barriers. They also note that low public awareness means the industry isn’t under social pressure and that this, in turn, has enabled conservatism towards change. To resolve these issues, the authors recommend industry collaboration towards cross-sector co-ordination, government intervention on matters such as compulsory deconstruction planning requirements for the built environment, and extended responsibility from manufacturers across the entire life cycle of their products.

“To substantially increase the efficiency of the whole system will require some significant changes in the wood using industries in UK, backed-up by better-targeted government policies, to substantially improve their co-ordination from afforestation to better wood recovery and reuse.” David Styles, study co-author and Associate Professor in Agri-sustainability, University of Galway.

Use, reuse, and reuse again before end-of-life biomass

Currently, a huge proportion of our out-of-service timber products are burnt as biomass to generate heat or electricity. The research team point out that there is opportunity to re-use or recycle these products several times prior to what should be perceived only as a final, end-of-life use as biomass.

Collect, recycle, reuse – striving for a zero-waste economy Source: Circular Economy, Kronospan

There are already several pioneering projects here in Wales that do employ circular thinking to timber reuse with great success. Particleboard manufacturers are increasing their use of recycled wood chips and innovative methods are being used to recover wood fibres from MDF board recovered from residential demolition. Recovered wood fibres can then be used as insulation, locking in the carbon for many more tens of years again within new build homes. If installed with recovery in mind, this same insulation might then be recoverable for further use in the next generation of new builds. This circular thinking can extend the use of the original harvested tree for hundreds more years.

“Moving to a circular economy is difficult but essential if we are to meet both our decarbonisation targets as well as our future resource needs. This paper shows the size of the win and makes practical suggestions for how we might get there. Woodknowledge Wales is an experiment in the kind of cross-sector coordination advocated by this research.” Gary Newman, study co-author and Chief Executive of Woodknowledge Wales.

References

1: Forster, E. J., Healey, J. R., Dymond, C. & Styles, D. , Circular wood use can accelerate global decarbonisation but requires cross-sectoral coordination. Nature Communications, 14:6766, (2023) DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-42499-6

2: Recycling used wood can make a big contribution to net zero but it needs much better coordination, Press Release, https://www.bangor.ac.uk/news/ [Accessed 26 October 2023]

3: Forster, E. J., Healey, J. R., Dymond, C. & Styles, D. Commercial afforestation can deliver effective climate change mitigation under multiple decarbonisation pathways. Nature Communications, 12:3831 (2021) DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-24084-x

Further reading

Trees and Timber | WoodBUILD Podcast with Tom Barnes and Andrew Bronwin

by

Trailer

Everyone has an agenda when it comes to trees and tree planting – in Wales this is one of the first areas of attention for the new administration. There’s broad agreement that we need to grow more trees, we have such a poor level of tree cover in the UK, but there’s less agreement on what we should plant and what we want our future woodlands to be for. The debate is often quite polarised. In this podcast Tom Barnes and Andrew Bronwin talk about the impact of the pandemic, climate change, productive woodlands, the role of government and policy, pests and disease, tree species and how we can add value to the timber our woodlands produce.

Guests

Tom Barnes
 Andrew Bronwin
Tom runs his family business Vastern Timber and recently featured in Wood For The Trees. You can find out more about his work at www.tombarnesblog.com and www.vastern.co.uk. Andrew is founder and director of Bronwin & Abbey, Chartered Foresters and Surveyors, located on the Wales / England border in Powys. https://bronwin.co.uk/

Full Podcast

 

Investing in Afforestation—Economic aspects of woodland creation for timber production | Briefing Papers

by

The decision to invest in an afforestation project with the primary aim of producing timber may involve many personal and environmental factors alongside financial considerations. Adoption of a forestry enterprise within a farming unit represents a change in land use and a long-term investment of land, labour and resources. Financial evaluation provides a structured and objective means to inform the decision and allows comparison of afforestation with other economic uses of land.
Afforestation projects can take a number of forms, from planting steep areas or wet corners of a farm to integrating timber trees with agricultural production or establishing plantation woodlands. Some afforestation projects such as commercial plantation woodlands have the potential to produce quality timber products alongside diversifying farm incomes and providing other environmental benefits such as carbon sequestration and flood risk mitigation.
This series of guidance notes provides practical information for farmers and other landowners interested in investing in forestry. It is designed to help develop a first understanding of economic evaluation of afforestation projects. The six guidance notes of the series introduce the basic steps involved in the assessment of such projects to allow some preliminary due diligence when considering an investment in forestry. This does not replace a full assessment and advice by a chartered forest manager.
BRIEFING PAPERS →

Top five alternative conifer tree species review

by


Forests and woodlands are as much part of the mix of solutions for the Biodiversity and Climate Emergency as they are themselves under threat from it.
The UK Climate Change Committee have set out strong recommendations for 30,000 hectares of new woodland per annum by 2050 (UKCCC, 2020), of which a significant portion will likely be commercial plantation woodlands. Expansion and sustainable management of this new woodland will act as a mechanism for meeting UN Sustainable Development Goal 15, combatting climate change, improving home-grown timber supply for the construction sector, and providing a wide range of valuable public goods.
Plantations, alongside other forms of woodland creation, have an important role in carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation, providing public amenity and recreational benefits and biodiversity conservation. The coniferous forest resource in Great Britain is increasingly expected to deliver a broad range of ecosystem services to society; this alongside the provision of timber and other forest products, through management for multiple objectives, often within a small geographical area.
Welsh Government commissioned Woodknowledge Wales to conduct a review to identify the top five alternative commercial tree species suitable to meet timber utilisation demands in light of increasing potential pest and disease pressures as a result of climate change.
Our approach to identifying the top five alternative tree species for GB has drawn on and collated the existing knowledge base through literature review and inputs from a broad range of stakeholders. It does not capture experience found on the ground which has not been published, yet. Results should be seen as a starting point for further investigation.
In this sense, we have set out on a journey of collaboration bringing together stakeholders to discuss potential ways forward. If you would like participate in our future stakeholder workshops, please get in touch.
Please note this an amended version of the report published on the 23rd June 2021 which now lists the top five ranked species in Table 3.6 in the correct order (Thuja plicata and Sequoiadendron giganteum were in the wrong order in previous versions).
English:
DOWNLOAD SUMMARY
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT
Cymraeg:
Dadlwythwch grynodeb
lawrlwytho’r adroddiad llawn

The new timber sales and marketing plan: Small processors and access to timber on Welsh Government Woodland Estate

by


NRW’s Timber Sales & Marketing Plan (2021-2026) can offer opportunities for the small timber processing community in Wales. The purpose of this paper is to interpret the Plan and its implications for small sawmillers. This will create a solid foundation for exploring the means by which small processors may be able access timber grown on the Welsh Government Woodland Estate in the future as well as highlight opportunities for future activities and interventions.
DOWNLOAD BRIEFING

5 Essential Strategies for an Emerging Forest Nation

by

Wales is not a forest nation. Wales is a sheep, beef and dairy nation. Wales is a steel nation.
Like many nations, Wales is the economic country it is, not by political design but largely because of historical accident. And there has never been a better time or more reason to change. We have left the European Union and have also declared a Climate Emergency. A more purposeful approach is now required to achieve the net zero carbon goals set by Welsh Government
Therefore, we are proposing five integrated strategies for how Wales can achieve a just transition to become a new high-value forest nation. A transition that would create substantial employment and a transition for which Wales has many natural advantages.
Wales has suitable and available land for afforestation, fantastic climate for growing the kind of trees that industry needs, the land and workforce for new industries and proximity to almost limitless export markets for high-value timber products.
Wales must move towards more sustainable low-carbon industrial and land-use options that are geared to meeting the resource needs of the low-carbon society and that are economically viable.
Wales is starting from a long way back. This paper sets out how our slow start can be turned to our strategic advantage if Welsh Government decides to lead in the adoption of integrated economic policies outlined in this paper that are purposefully aligned across our construction, manufacturing and land-use sectors.
DOWNLOAD BRIEFING

The role of our own conifer forests for building a sustainable society in Wales

by

Despite wide recognition of their value, plantation forests are critically misunderstood and undervalued in Wales. Plantation forests comprise around 7% of the planet’s forest area whilst sustainably supplying over 50% of industrial roundwood. This report looks at myths and tropes around home-grown timber and considers research results from wood science and socio-economic aspects across planting, forest management, timber grading and processing.
Modern British sustainable forest management techniques were established 150 years ago and are still appropriate for efficiently growing construction grade softwoods. Exemplar stands of high grade Douglas fir in north Wales grow some of the largest conifer trees existing in Europe. Older conifer stands across Wales have great potential to produce high grade joinery softwood. Sitka spruce forests are routinely denigrated, nevertheless over 95% of Welsh spruce sawlogs can be graded to strength class from C16 to C27 because of Sitka spruce’s high strength to weight ratio. Yet, quality is regularly used as a weasel word in order to reinforce negative views about Welsh homegrown softwoods.
The FAO reported in 2013 that current trends in European forest management could result in an over-supply of wood from broadleaved species, as well as a shortfall of coniferous timber. Planted forests are exposed to socio-economic risks due to governance failures. These risks comprise a weak or inadequate forest policy framework including insecure investment conditions.
DOWNLOAD REPORT

More and Better Home-Grown Timber—The role for a consolidator

by

What might a business plan for the supply of home-grown timber to the Welsh housing sector look like, if it is to be closely integrated with the ownership and management of the timber resource in Wales?
Additional capacity in the sector has been identified in three key areas: secondary processing capacity; in undermanaged forestry and woodland; and a vast potential for greater tree planting in Wales, for a range of drivers.
This outline of a proposed business plan builds upon a previous analysis, which identified low integration between the supply and processing of Welsh timber, against the increasing demands of the construction sector.  In order to deliver a reliable supply of timber, consolidation is required at a point in the supply chain.  This could be achieved at two basic levels, either/or by stock of sawn timber collected from a number of small or medium mills, or consolidation of roundwood at a saw log level feeding predominantly one larger mill. The options for investment in both are discussed in this document. The authors seek not to decide at this stage which is better or worse, but to outline the conditions under which each would be viable.
DOWNLOAD REPORT