Taking place just a few days before the UK hosted COP26, the issue of climate change and the role trees and forestry can play in mitigation of that was a running theme throughout the annual Forestry Conference.
Held on October 13, during Grown in Britain week and organised by the Country Landowners Association (CLA), the Forestry Commission (FC) and Grown in Britain, the conference was a hybrid event, taking place both online and at the Newbury Racecourse.
The climate change agenda was flagged up from the outset by the keynote speaker, John Gummer, Lord Deben. The former secretary of state for the environment (from 1993-1997) is chairman of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) and it’s on his watch that the 2050 net zero carbon emissions target has been set by the UK government.
Lord Deben, who is known for championing the link between environmental concerns and business sense, didn’t pull any punches in his opening address.
“If we’re to make up for lost time we have to know that climate change is going to get worse because it’s already in the system – especially for the British because we started the Industrial Revolution.
“Climate change will become more obvious whatever we do and it’s important to recognise that because as awareness increases, support increases. We have to give people the confidence that if we get on top of it now we can do things in a reasonable, sensible way.”
Lord Deben maintained that the UK’s 2050 target is possible and that it will cost less than 1% of GDP.
“We have to get to zero [emissions] but we also have to enhance the world’s ability to take carbon in – that’s the ‘net’ bit,” he said, adding that this could be achieved not just by planting trees, but also by making our soils more able to sequestrate carbon by changing the way we farm, and by using our coastal seas by planting seagrass and kelp and so on.
Turning to forestry, Lord Deben said we must avoid the “massive rows” over broadleaves versus conifers and learn from the past in terms of where to plant and how to maintain the forests afterwards. He also said that if trees were being planted for sequestration purposes, a rewards structure was necessary for the landowners making those decisions.
He added that we need an industry that uses wood and contains carbon, saying that the government “needs to think through the next stage – it’s difficult to build more with wood because it’s got caught up in the fire issue”.
The structure to enable more timber construction is missing, said Lord Deben. “The government could learn from its experience of creating the £6.7bn market for offshore wind, which has resulted in half of the UK’s energy now coming from renewables.
“The most important thing now is to create a market for the wood we produce and the government has to think that through much more than it does. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Defra have trouble seeing this as a total picture.”
Echoing the much publicised comments by members of the Royal family that there is too much talk and not enough action on climate change, Lord Deben complained that progress was “pathetically” slow and that the gap between discussing and establishing policies and putting them into practice is vast.
He encouraged the CLA and conference delegates to continue to call the government to account and to concentrate in particular on the lack of stock – “we can grow stock here but not without going to huge trouble and we’re not doing it”; on skills – “we’re very bad at skilling people and still have the British snootiness about how it’s better to be academic than practical and we have to have a different way of thinking”; and funding – “the support and tax opportunities that will make it work have to be given”.
“We still don’t have a method of getting the hurdles out of the way,” Lord Deben concluded. “It’s important that you [the delegates] make sure the government knows what is preventing the planting that should be taking place.”
This was a neat segue into the next presentation by Naomi Matthiessen and Bella Murfin, who are co-directors for Defra’s Nature for Climate Tree Programme and are responsible for the department’s Trees & Forestry team. Their remit at Defra is to boost the contribution of England’s treescape to the government’s net zero and nature recovery ambitions.
Ms Murfin said that the government has “enormous ambitions to plant” but that planting rates were still fairly static and that there still wasn’t enough woodland management. The Nature for Climate Fund (NCF), which was announced in the spring of 2020, was designed to kickstart change, she said.
Recapping on the NCF, Ms Murfin said that £640m has been committed to increase tree planting in England and peat restoration over this parliament. Some £500m of this fund is dedicated to the delivery of the England Trees Action Plan (ETAP), which was published in the spring of 2021 and is now in its implementation phase.
“The aim of the NCF is to support the creation and management of schemes specifically designed to recognise and pay for the public benefits that trees can provide,” said Ms Murfin. “This includes schemes like the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) where there was £15m available in 2021 alone.”
The NCF also aims to boost the use of private investment to pay for the public benefit of trees, she added.
The ETAP shows the government’s long-term vision for trees and woodland in England to 2050 and beyond, outlining how it will “at least treble” woodland creation rates in England by the end of this parliament as well as better protecting existing trees and woodland. It includes more than 90 action plans, including those critical to removing the obstacles to landowners realising the full benefits of tree planting and woodland management.
Ms Murfin said that 13 of the action plans had been fulfilled – including the launch of the EWCO in June 2021 – and that an annual progress review would be published.
Ms Matthiessen added that the Defra team was encouraging landowners to look at how they could access grants for establishing and managing woodlands and that it was keen to work with them to test new mechanisms.
Sam Pollock, the Forestry Commission’s head of future woodland incentives, has strategic oversight of a suite of grants aimed at increasing England’s tree cover, including the EWCO and the Woodland Creation Planning Grant.
Ms Pollock said there was support available at every stage: the Woodland Creation Planning Grant (WCPG) for planning and design; the EWCO for planting and establishment; and the Woodland Carbon Guarantee (WCaG) for long-term viability.
Flagging up the EWCO in particular she said that, just three months into its launch, uptake had been very pleasing and that by 2024 it would have made “a massive impact” on targets set by government.
EWCO covers 100% of standard costs, contributes towards actual cost items and offers maintenance payments of up to £200/ ha per year for 10 years. Farmers are still eligible to claim the Basic Payment Scheme on eligible land planted under EWCO and this and other “stackable” EWCO additional contributions are valued from £400-£8,000/ ha. The grant is available for areas as small as one hectare and there is no maximum size.
The application process is designed for speed and should take between three to five months.
“You will be able to transfer penalty-free into an Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMs) once you’ve secured a place in it,” said Ms Pollock. “There’s no risk and the time is now.”
John Lockhart, chairman of Lockhart Garratt, one of England’s leading environmental and ecological planning and forestry consultancies, said it was good to see Defra working closely with the FC.
Picking out some of the market drivers for woodland creation, Mr Lockhart said that the environmental, social and governance (ESG) messages were “getting through to the boardrooms” and that landowners were looking for new ways to operate, particularly in a post-subsidy environment.
The opportunities and markets included timber; carbon; biodiversity offsetting; planning and development of green infrastructure; environmental net gain; and improvements to water quality and reducing flooding.
A prime example of managing forestry for a multitude of markets is the Cowdray Estate in West Sussex and Nina Williams, head forester, described how the 2,750ha of forested estate is managed for timber production, environmental objectives and societal access.
Tree cover is three times the national average (especially in the south-east of England) at 36% and comprises 55% conifer, 20% broadleaved high forest, 15% sweet chestnut coppice and 10% of open scrub.
The estate harvests 12,000-15,000 tonnes of timber per year, most of which is softwood, with a small amount of hardwood and firewood. Twenty hectares of sweet chestnut coppice are cut per year (sold as a standing sale) and 300-400m3 of fresh sawn timber, processed at the estate’s own small sawmill, is sold into local markets.
Key considerations, said Ms Williams, were continuity of supply and maintaining a sustainable yield. Put simply, “you need to know what you’ve got and how fast it is growing”.
Key tools were a 10-year woodland management plan (“FC management plans are typically 10 years but I suggest 50-100 years is more appropriate”), forest mensuration and five-year detailed timber production forecasts.
“We know what we’ve got, so the next stage is working out what it’s worth and for that you need a good working relationship with timber merchants and to keep timber buyers informed of your annual production plan,” said Ms Williams.
She added that it was also a good idea to put parcels out to tender in order to check market values and that it was important to keep abreast of market trends in order to adjust production accordingly. As an example, she said that the Covid-induced travel restrictions had reduced the airports’ requirements for wood chips for heating over the last 18 months, so the estate had taken this into consideration when planning its output.
Ms Williams added that the largest demand was for softwood but good hardwood and character timber also has a market. “We’re trying to guess what the markets will be in the future so we can plant accordingly. We don’t see it changing anytime soon and, if anything, conifers will increase.
“Good timber comes from good trees but they also have to be looked after – by weeding, pest prevention and pruning,” she said. “Presentation of timber is also very important. If the woodland looks good it helps to sell the timber. And businesses want to see your green credentials.”
Ms Williams said that having its own sawmill added value to Cowdray’s timber production, as did FSC certification and that she was “genuinely excited” by the carbon sequestration market.
“I think that could change the timber market quite considerably,” she said.
Richard Baker, managing director at Wessex Woodland Management, said that the UK softwood market had been “incredible” over the last 18 months, although it was now stabilising, and that the UK hardwood market is “currently in a fantastic place”.
After a slump in demand in early 2020 due to the first pandemic lockdown, there was a strong increase in demand for hardwood species in late 2020 and through 2021. This coincided with constraints on imported supply, which were caused by the pandemic and by the massive increases in shipping container rates.
“Demand for good quality oak is exceptional, so now is the time to market it,” he said, adding that roadside sawlog prices in September 2021 were from £416-554/m3 for oak planking; £277-£416/m3 for oak beams; and £166-221/m3 for oak fencing.
The average standing sales price of broadleaves was increasing very slowly (from approximately £18/m3obs in 2012/13 to approximately £29/m3obs to date), said Mr Baker.
The average roadside price for all species had risen from around £30/tonne in 2011/12 to around £70/tonne to date, while the average roadside price for all species of green logs had risen from around £40/tonne to around £110/tonne to date. Meanwhile, the average standing price for conifers had risen by 135% between 2012/13 and the year to date – from around £18/m3obs to around £43/m3obs.
Mr Baker added that the EWCO was “a once in a generation opportunity to get trees planted at scale” and that public awareness and support and government policy and funding were all in alignment.
“If we start this we’ve got to continue it,” said Mr Baker. “This is the best time we’ve ever had to plant trees.”
In other presentations on the day, Neil Harrison, commercial director at re:heat, a full service biomass engineering and consultancy company, talked about wood as a fuel, while Jo Harrison director of the environment, planning and innovation at United Utilities explained why tree planting and forestry is so important to the water industry.
Harry Greenfield, senior land use adviser in the CLA’s London office, talked about environmental net gain and local nature recovery strategies, while Richard Palmer, a director at Forest Holidays presented on the luxury cabins available for short-term rent on FC land, demonstrating how planting trees is sometimes an enabler to other businesses.
Bridget, Bill and Molly Biddell shared their experiences of owning and managing the Hampton Estate in Surrey. The estate is managed for commercial timber production but also for fuel, hop growing, venison and education.
Hilary Allison, environmental consultant and Forestry Commissioner rounded off the event with a look at the role of the UK’s forests in a global context.
