One of the first events of week, which ran from October 13-17, was the award of a Grown in Britain Licence to the Crown Estate for 10,000 acres of woodland.
The licence scheme allows growers, specifiers, retailers and the public to identify and purchase wood products with the assurance they are grown in British woodland. The licence is underpinned by the UK Forestry Standard.
The Crown Estate was a major addition to the growing band of licensed forests and woodlands, said Dougal Driver, Grown in Britain chief executive officer.
“The Crown Estate is an award-winning manager of its estate and as its woods and forests have a Forestry Commission management plan, issuing the licence was very straightforward, even for 10,000ha,” said Mr Driver. “We hope it will encourage many others to follow suit.”
Torbay Borough Council has also applied for a Grown in Britian licence following the successful completion of its woodland management plan earlier this year. It will become the first Grown in Britain Local Authority.
“Local authorities across Britain are showing great interest in connecting to Grown in Britain,” said Mr Driver. “They all have varying amounts of trees and woodlands within their charge and Torbay sees theirs as a fantastic asset that enhances local economies, environments and lives.”
The second Grown in Britain week kicked off in grand style with Elizabeth Truss, secretary of state for the environment, visiting a major Willmott Dixon housing project using home-grown timber in the morning and two government ministers, Dan Rogerson and Lord de Mauley, speaking at the launch event at the House of Lords in the afternoon.
Dan Rogerson, Defra parliamentary under-secretary of state for natural environment and science, highlighted some of the campaign’s achievements over the last 12 months.
For example, it now had the support of 20 UK contractors, who have signed a “buy British” timber procurement statement,” said Mr Rogerson.
And, in another development, Travis Perkins piloted segregating British wood from imported wood in key stores, with the result that “sales of home-grown wood more than doubled”.
The amount of UK woodland in management has risen to 60% this year and, said Mr Rogerson, and Grown in Britain has been “making good progress in attracting more investment into forests and woodlands”.
He flagged up that Forest Carbon had announced details of its first Grown in Britain-branded woodland creation project at Cranborne Estates in Dorset; and the partnership with the Forestry Commission to develop a Woodland Management and Creation Sponsorship Scheme that will help facilitate private sector investment.
Also speaking at the Westminster launch, Ed Suttie, BRE director of timber and materials, and GiB executive said that “research is a key component for our success” and outlined some current projects.
The largest field trial of British softwoods was under way, with support from GiB and led by the Wood Protection Association, he said.
He also highlighted a project in which Tyler Hardwoods and Vastern Timber were looking at the thermal modification of British ash, and said that Accsys Technologies was looking to trial British timber as an Accoya substrate material.
