The planting tax breaks of the 1970s have secured timber volumes for the next 25 years, but the Forestry Commission’s greater emphasis on planting broadleaves will affect the timber industry, forestry commissioner Hamish Macleod told the London Softwood Club lunch last week.
Mr Macleod, who is also head of public affairs at BSW Timber, said Welsh and Scottish politicians recognised the sustainable development of conifers but grant schemes were “skewed in favour of broadleaves” because the potential revenue was lower.
Softwoods sequestered more carbon than hardwoods and “that is the sort of argument we need to take to politicians,” he said.
When the Forestry Commission was establishing the national forest estate, Sitka spruce was favoured because of its resilience but now the softwood resource did not have to be “all spruce”.
“We’re now learning to make and process other species,” said Mr Macleod.
At the club’s AGM which followed the lunch, Peter Barnett of Taylor Maxwell was elected president. He succeeds Keith Ainslie of James Jones & Sons, who served for two years.
