James Jones & Sons and Stewart Milne Timber Systems were visited by forestry minister Lewis Macdonald last week.

Mr Macdonald, who was on a timber industries fact-finding tour of north-east Scotland, went to James Jones’ sawmill near Aboyne, which saws 100,000 tonnes of Scottish-grown logs a year into construction timber, before moving on to Stewart Milne’s Westhill factory near Aberdeen, which specialises in the manufacture of components for timber frame buildings.

In the evening he hosted a dinner for the Forestry Commission‘s national committee for Scotland and representatives of local organisations with an interest in forestry and timber.

Mr Macdonald described the forestry and wood-using industries as “important players” in Scotland’s economy, turning over more than £800m a year and employing more than 10,000 people.

&#8220I was extremely interested to see modern, sophisticated factories making the most of wood to contribute to sustainable development in north-east Scotland”

Forestry minister Lewis Macdonald

He said: “Coupled with this is a growing realisation and appreciation of the wide range of sustainable, environmentally friendly benefits that our forests and wood can provide, ranging from construction materials such as I have seen in production today, to a carbon-neutral fuel for generating heat and power.

“Wood is a wonderful, renewable, non-toxic, low embedded energy material, and I was extremely interested today to see modern, sophisticated, wood-using factories making the most of it to contribute to sustainable development in north-east Scotland.”