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Nick Martin, Harvesting Manager at Forest Direct Ltd, explores the impact the industry still feels one year on from our most devastating storm.

Last weekend marked one year since Storm Arwen’s 100mph gusts hit the UK, causing unparalleled damage to buildings and woodlands. It was estimated that the damage equated to almost 9,000ha, somewhere in the region of 16 million trees and although the forestry sector rose to the challenge it may not come as a surprise to hear that the clean-up operation is estimated to only be in the region of 10% completed.

A drive around rural Scotland will quickly demonstrate the point, with the clear-up operation likely to last well into 2023, 2024 and beyond. This is certainly no reflection on the hard work of our colleagues across the sector – while many were sheltering from the wilds, our peers were rolling up their sleeves to ensure that any immediate risk to life was mitigated. However, the reality is that there is not the available manpower to be able to clear up that level of destruction whilst still getting on with the day job.

The Market Response

Although the timber markets in the early part of the year were able to cope with the increase in volume, towards the end of summer, most of this slowed. In particular mixed conifer logs (anything other than spruce) and uncertified logs.

The biomass and chip wood markets are holding up well, partly due to the lower production of sawmill residues. Most of this drop in market demand is due to the economic climate and not entirely oversupply from Storm Arwen.

Much of the windblown crops had not reached maturity, which resulted in a reduction of sawlogs and lower timber prices than in 2021.

Farms that would usually fell about 500 tonnes every five years are now facing 2000 tonnes having to be cleared within one year. This is causing a problem with the oversupply of uncertified timber. To help address this Forest Direct is setting up a scheme which allows woodland owners to sell certified timber and commit to just three years of membership. This allows us to supply the sawmills with what they want, move loads each week and increase the return to the woodland owner – you can find out more information about our certification scheme here.

Replanting

The cost of replanting is higher due to stock fence replacement, a larger proportion of brash on the forest floor due to snapped trees and UKWAS requirement for diverse species, including broadleaves which need to be individually protected. The sad reality is that the timber income may not come close to covering the cost of the replanting and increased maintenance.

However some good news – with such widespread damage, many woodland owners have been able to restructure their existing woodlands, making them more resilient to the elements and climate change and hopefully avoiding a repeat of the damage we saw last year. We have learned a lot, and the way we design woodlands will have changed as a result.

What’s next?

We expect a busy year ahead when the timber market hopefully picks up, and the ground dries up after Easter. This will allow us to clear the backlog of windblow for our clients. We plan to sell more on a standing sale basis which will be certified. However the most challenging sites will be reserved for direct working using our in-house expertise and approved harvesting contractors. Take a look at our recent harvesting project at Woll House to learn more about how Forest Direct works

This in turn, will increase our restocking programme, so we will need to order our trees from the nursery in good time to avoid shortages of certain species.

To find out more about how we can help you recover from Storm Arwen, please get in touch.