I’ve been working on a plan, recently, to get some more trees in the ground. Nothing new there to anyone who has visited this blog before, but I thought it was time for an update.

 

I chair the Northwest Forestry Framework (soon to change it’s name to something more in keeping with the political zeitgeist, but more on that another time) and have been working with a whole host of people, both in the Northwest but also in the national offices of the Forestry Commission, to put forward several areas in the Northwest as possible pilot areas for a major national push on woodland creation.

 

As an area of England with a level of woodland cover well below the national average, there is scope and opportunity for large scale tree planting and development right across Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside. When you look at the statistics, we are poorly served in these areas when it comes to woodlands.

 

The good news is that each of these areas has also developed clever and canny new models for woodland creation that deliver multiple benefits and move beyond traditional public sector investment models towards partnerships with business and the voluntary sector.

 

It’s all very, ‘Big Society’.

 

Now these areas are signing up to a ‘forestry manifesto’ that I’ve been touting around the region since the start of the year. This manifesto seeks, over 40 years, to deliver a doubling in woodland cover, to have an immediate and significant impact on carbon stores, timber production, environmental resilience, green jobs, local image and happiness and wellbeing; this is a vision of an intensely productive, as well as beautiful, landscape.

 

Show me the money

 

It all sounds very motherhood and apple pie, but who is going to pay? There are a number of existing or planned investment models across the Northwest which warrant further development and replication elsewhere. These include:

 

• Woodland planting as a key aspect of PFI (Public Finance Initiative) contracts and, specifically, waste management strategies;

 

• Working with large-scale developers to create an attractive setting for investment and adding value to land-based asset portfolios;

 

• Practical business partnerships providing improved local area ‘image’, biomass resources or climate change adaptation;

 

• Woodland or green infrastructure bonds, where investors can support woodland creation by investing in a bond that provides non-fiscal benefits in lieu of interest payments as part of a CSR or sustainability strategy;

 

• Developing a suite of woodland creation opportunities alongside community interest levies/section 106 arrangements where developers support environmental works as a condition of their planning consents; and

 

• Integrated land use planning to maintain and improve water quality.

 

• Landscape-scale, economically-linked programmes to aid recovery and local economic resilience.

 

Some of the above options sound a little jargon laden, but they have the potential to help us get some trees in the ground, and that’s what I care about. Each of these investment models is either already in play across one of our counties or city regions, or is ready to be developed by one or more partners.

 

Breaking down barriers

 

From the discussions we’ve been having so far, these partners are ready to start delivering woodland creation, on the ground, if certain barriers to progress can be removed. These barriers include:

 

• The ‘Hope value’ attached to under-utilised land and the misplaced notion that new woodlands permanently remove large areas from possible future development;

 

• More flexible, short to medium term land use deals and frameworks that will allow the notion of ‘temporary’ woodland to be pursued;

 

• Clear signals on the future of carbon pricing and accounting in relation to woodland creation;

 

• The lack of a mechanism for business to report on the carbon benefits of woodland creation programmes as part of their net greenhouse gas emissions; and

 

• The consideration of effective tax regimes to encourage investment in new planting in areas of need as a way for business to play a part in ‘big society’ programmes.

 

Making it happen

 

So the exciting thing is that if we bash down a few barriers, win over some hearts and minds, and pull our fingers out, the partners in the Northwest Forestry Forum are ready to begin work piloting a new wave of woodland creation using innovative funding and delivery models such as these.

 

More trees, in the ground, delivering a huge range of benefits.

 

And the track record for delivery across the region is solid and impressive, with the Community Forests (e.g. Mersey Forest and Red Rose Forest) having already planted 12 million trees and millions more having been planted through the Forestry Commission’s Capital Modernisation Fund and Newlands programme.

 

Here are some more tangible examples of where can start planting.

 

Real life example - Mersey Belt

 

There is an immediate opportunity for an ‘Adapting the Landscape’ pilot across what has been coined the ‘Atlantic Gateway’, connecting the twin city regions of Greater Manchester and Merseyside with the Northern areas of Cheshire.

 

Such a pilot would be focused on woodland creation in and around key physical development sites and along transport corridors; on productive forestry including biomass; on leisure, recreation and the ‘visitor economy’.

 

Funding can be drawn from business through receipts from soils deposition, community interest levies, Section 106 agreements, through an easing of planning constraints if the creation of greenspace is assured and possible short-term amnesties against business tax.

 

Delivery partners would include large development businesses in the area, as well as the key Local Enterprise Partnerships and the voluntary sector in the form of community forests and Groundwork.

 

Real life example - Lancashire

 

In Lancashire there is already an innovative model for woodland creation in the form of the county’s ‘Woodlands from Waste’ programme linked to a soon to be commissioned, 25 year, £2 billion Waste PFI.

 

A partnership of Lancashire County Council, 13 Local Authorities and their commercial contractor, Global Renewables, alongside the Forestry Commission, will be planting and managing 100,000 new trees per year for the next 25 years - creating woodland on brown and greenfield sites across the area. The cost is being met through savings on landfill taxes and, in addition, is utilising a growing medium by-product of the waste treatment process.

 

Real life example - Cumbria and Lancashire

 

Water company United Utilities has pioneered a programme called the Sustainable Catchment Management Programme (SCaMP), working with farmers and land managers, local authorities, Government and other conservation organisations to influence how water catchment areas are managed and properly funded. The objective is a double win of improved water quality (under the European Water Framework Directive) as well as conservation of the natural environment. UU’s partner in the programme has been the RSPB.

 

The project has leveraged in public funding to help deliver an increase in clough woodland, with 450 hectares of upland oak woodland to be planted, some 300,000 trees being planted and 200km of fencing to allow for moorland restoration and woodland planting. It has carried out the work in two of its four estate areas: Bowland in Lancashire, and the Southern estate including Longdendale, the Goyt and parts of the Peak District.

 

Meeting Defra’s priorities

 

It may sound a bit arcane, but in the absence of any major eco bills or statements, there are still some clear signals as to what the new government’s priorities are, not least in the departmental ‘Structural Reform Plans’ which have beenpublished. How does the above outlined activity ‘fit’ with the three key priorities outlined in Defra’s structural reform plan?

 

The woodland creation opportunities highlighted can directly contribute to and foreshorten the delivery of each priority and relevant actions and milestones. Specifically:

 

Support and develop British farming and encourage sustainable food production

 

Defra’s objective is to enhance the competitiveness and resilience of the whole food chain, including farms and the fish industry, to ensure a secure, environmentally sustainable and healthy supply of food with improved standards of animal welfare.

 

Woodland creation can contribute to this objective in a number of ways. It will provide affordable measures of support for hill farmers via diversifying farm incomes e.g. through timber sales and reduced energy cost savings through woodfuel.

 

It will also help with animal husbandry, particularly in the uplands, primarily through the provision of shelter. Woodland creation will also lead to more sustainable, integrated land use where for example, higher value agricultural land holdings can be protected through woodland creation ‘upstream’ stablising soils and alleviating flooding.

 

Biodiversity and landscape

 

Defra’s objective is to enhance and protect the natural environment, including biodiversity and the marine environment, by reducing pollution and preventing habitat loss and degradation.

 

A pilot of new woodland creation in the Mersey Belt, Cumbria or Lancashire will contribute to this in a number of ways.

 

It will deliver more green spaces for local communities, new native habitats and wildlife corridors needed to help wildlife adapt to expected climate change impacts. It will help stabilise soils, improve water quality and reclaim damaged, brownfield land. In addition there will be increased tree planting by private sector and civic societies.

 

Support a strong and sustainable green economy, resilient to climate change

 

Defra’s objective is to encourage businesses, people and communities to manage and use natural resources in a sustainable manner and to reduce waste; and work to ensure that the UK economy is resilient to climate change.

 

A woodland creation pilot will directly address this objective, as the approaches above show, it can directly provide a source of carbon storage and can be deployed in partnership with the private sector.

 

Next steps

 

As you might imagine, I’m dead keen to play these arguments out to national players - especially Defra - but also to the emerging Local Economic Partnerships which have been causing such a stir in local politics over the last few weeks.

 

In addition, this proposal will be the centrepiece of our next meeting of the Forestry Forum on November 8 of this year; if you want to come along, just let me know. We need every bit of help we can get to achieve that goal we’ve set for ourselves - a doubling of woodland cover.

 

To view the Manifesto presentation online, please click here  (You can also download the presentation from this link too.)

 

 

 

 

The Regional Forestry Forum this year will take place on 15th October 2009, 2 – 4:30 pm

It will be held in Preston at The Gujarat Hindu Society Centre,South Meadow Lane,Preston,PR1 8JN

The Forum is of particular importance this year as we will refresh the current delivery plan and look to embed Forestry, in its widest sense, into the developing integrated regional strategy, RS2010. We will also assess progress on the current delivery plan and identify the key issues/opportunities for the sector.

The programme for the Forum meeting will follow but we hope that you will pencil this important meeting into your diaries and register your interest in attending the event through the link below.

We look forward to your involvement in continuing to develop the role of the Forestry sector in the North West.   Apologies for any cross-postings.

Location details:   http://www.ghsenterprise.co.uk/contact_ghs_centre.html

Click on the link to register:   http://www.doodle.com/8ezduam9s87a2bup

Recognition of the important role that woodlands and timber can play in tackling climate change is integral to action on climate change, ConFor outline in their new strategy.

ConFor’s new head of policy, Rupert Pigot, has been exploring ideas with the UK government and the opposition to ensure that the sector maximises opportunity to help the UK develop towards a low carbon future, securing rural jobs along the supply chain and ensuring the continue success of forest and wood-using businesses.

ConFor has been securing cross-party support through the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Forestry to tackle the lack of new planting throughout England and to consider the role of solid wood products as well as wood for renewable energy.

A more detailed strategy from ConFor will be submitted to the political parties in September.

Producing more than 700,000 cubic metres of sawn timber per year, BSW Timber has six outlets in the UK, including the Carlisle base and one in Latvia. The Carlisle sawmill is located north of the city and covers 15 hectares with an annual input of 305,000 cubic metres of roundwood.  The Northwest Regional Forestry Framework is organising a trip to the mill for anyone who work in or with the timber sector.  The intention of the trip is to further the debate raised at the form>wood conference about the lack of understanding of the regional timber sector amongst potential end users.

If you would like to visit the mill for yourself and see how the mill operates during its 75 hour week, please contact Paul at The Mersey Forest on 01925 816 217 to register your interest.

Update from Regional Forestry Framework Forum

 Feedback from the Forum was generally very positive with 88% responding that the event was good or excellent

  

QUESTION

POOR

ADEQUATE

GOOD

EXCELLENT

There were also positive responses about people wanting to be involved in the future refresh of the Framework and hearing more about it. There was a large response of “don’t know” to the question about whether the Framework has made a difference - something that has to be addressed in the refresh.

 

YES

NO

DON’T KNOW

 ”Take a Bough” has been organised to demonstrate how locally sourced wood can transformed into works of art. The exhibition forms part of the Regional Forestry Framework contribution to the Capital of Culture celebrations, through The Mersey Forest partnership. 

The Mersey Forest timber network has developed the project, assisted by Garry Olsen ( of “One Tree” project  fame).

The exhibition has been at Croxteth Hal and  is currently at Liverpool John Lennon Airport before going on a month long exhibtion at Castle Park gallery in Frodsham.

The attached link provides more information on the pieces in the exhibition, the artists and makers  and the exhibition itself.

 The project links well with the Regional Forestry Framework under both Action Area 1 and 2.

 Link to more information

 www.merseyforest.org.uk/takeabough.asp

The buildings we live and work in, through their construction and then through the energy we use to heat or light them, account for over a quarter of our region’s carbon emissions. For the residential sector alone, this represents 17 million tonnes of carbon, a figure which the Northwest has committed to reducing by at least 7 million tonnes by 2020.

Trees, woodland and the timber industry can play a pivotal role in helping us tackle climate change head on, whether it is reducing our energy use or helping us adapt to the changes in climate which, no matter what we do, cannot be avoided.

Imagine, for a moment, asking a team of talented engineers to invent a single device that could absorb and then lock up carbon, provide a carbon neutral building material or energy source, help stabilise vulnerable soils, provide a flood management system and offer a source of shade and cooling as the planet’s temperatures begin to rise.

And then imagine asking them to make it a beautiful and inspiring object too, one that created a wildlife habitat and pollution filter, to boot.

It’s a simple and powerful proposition. Trees and timber offer a sustainable and immediate solution to a host of climate-related challenges. Using wood as a building material, from timber frames or cladding through to entire constructions made from wood, has to be a priority for architects, engineers and developers who want to take climate change seriously.

The low energy solution

How much could this save? A significant amount. Replacing a single cubic metre of concrete or red brick with the same volume of timber can save around one tonne of carbon dioxide. Concrete uses five times as much energy to produce as wood; steel uses six times as much. If you expand this out to an average two-storey dwelling, using a timber frame alone could save four tonnes of carbon dioxide, roughly equivalent to driving 14,000 miles by car. If the 26,000 additional households forecast for the Northwest by 2026 were all built in this way, we could save over 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, through timber frames alone.

The switch from materials with a high level of ‘embodied’ energy such as steel or concrete is just one way in which wood can help reduce the carbon footprint of our building stock, but wood is also a good insulator, too, whether used for frames, windows or cladding. Timber’s natural insulation properties mean that double-glazed or even triple-glazed windows for example can achieve the highest energy window ratings, beating alternatives such as PVC or aluminium.

Europe’s great carbon ‘sink’

Using wood as a construction material also increases the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by Europe’s standing forest, this is because more than 99 per cent of the timber used in the UK is softwood from European forests and as these forests are managed sustainably, we plant more new trees every time we extract timber destined for sawmills and processing plants right across the continent. In fact, European forest cover is increasing by over 9,000 square kilometres every single year.

Add to the product mix the other environmental benefits of wood: it is organic, enhances biodiversity, can be easily recycled and avoids the need for quarrying and the extraction of aggregates, and you have an unbeatable case for timber as a truly sustainable construction material.

A growing market

The market is starting to see the value in wood. Timber frame housing increased by 15 per cent in 2005, for example, while other types of construction actually saw their markets decline. Timber framed housing now represents 20 per cent of new build and the projections for 2008 are that one in every four homes built will be timber framed, but we could do much, much more. Globally around 70 per cent of homes are built, often entirely, from wood and as close to home as Scotland, the market share for timber framed housing is a much healthier 73 per cent. We have ample scope for improvement.

We can do more with timber today, too. Traditionally timber framed houses could reach two or three storeys at most but these levels are increasing to five, six or seven stories and with engineering performance increasing all the time, the industry research body TRADA expects these performance levels to increase still further. The construction times for a timber framed building are shorter, too and they offer a safer, more efficient construction site with a typical house being weather tight in less than five days.

The beauty of wood

The materials are available, the environmental credentials are strong and the research shows that wood can perform when compared to the heavier, less sustainable alternatives. The challenge now is to achieve a significant ‘step change’ in the commissioning, designing and building of homes and workplaces that are made all or in part, from wood. Wood is certainly getting some good press. Ted Cullinan, keynote speaker at the Northwest Forestry Framework’s ‘Form>Wood’ event and RIBA Gold Medal winner this year is known for his timber constructions, in particular the Downland Gridshell in West Sussex. Architects like Sheppard Robson are developing affordable new housing forms - such as the Lighthouse - out of wood and in the Northwest region have shown how spectacular wood can be through their proposed wood cladding of a car park in Penrith. Wooden buildings in the Northwest are also winning awards, with the Feilden Bradley Clegg-designed Formby Pool collecting a RIBA award in 2007.

What these great, innovative designs reveal is that building from wood offers a real opportunity from public buildings and cultural venues through to the new houses we know we will have to construct as our demand increases for new homes regionally and nationally. The beauty of wood - aside from its obvious aesthetic credentials - is that it offers a more sustainable future for developments both large and small.

The form really should be wood.

Sources: Northwest Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2007, Forestry Commission Forests and Climate Change, Northwest Housing Statement 2007, Wood for Good, UK Timber Frame Association

So here’s the breaking news: our Rural Development Plan for England which runs through to 2013 was given a final thumbs up from the European Union on 7 December (with a number of changes made to the Environmental Stewardship programme and to the support programme for energy crops). This means that we can start implementing this £3.9 million programme in the New Year, with ourselves at the NWDA, Natural England and the Forestry Commission responsible for one or more of the strands of support that it brings to the rural community: clearly it will be of pivotal importance to the businesses we’re keen to support from the woodland and forestry sector. One early challenge for the three agencies outlined above is how we can make sure that we intertwine our programmes across the region to get maximum value out of the new programme of funding and, naturally, I’m going to be keenly focused on how we can boost enterprise, innovation and business growth in the sector we’re focused on here on the blog: forestry.

Ours is not the biggest sector in the region but with almost 70,000 employees and turnover of almost half a billion, we do matter and we can do a great deal to contribute to a sustainable and prosperous regional future. Ranging from forestry services to timber processing and forestry products, our sector is distinctive in that it processes and adds value to timber resources often sourced from elsewhere: we’re not the biggest source of timber but we have significant strengths when it comes to using it and working with it.

And that’s a clear theme for the future. We want to work in 2008 to continue to ’sex up’ wood as a sustainable and stylish resource for the future. Whether it’s as an architectural material, a key ingredient of landscaping or as a power source, we want to work hard in the forthcoming year to position wood as the material of choice across a whole series of supply chains. Our signature activity on this front will be a conference and campaign we’re calling ‘Form>Wood’, which we hope will raise the bar for using wood, particularly in construction and the built environment.

We kicked off work on Form>Wood this year but that’s not been the sole focus of this action area. We also have started a dialogue with members of the forestry industry in the region about better pulling them together as a sector to share information, promote themselves and achieve greater levels of shared efficiency, and I’d like to thank all of those who came to our planning meeting on this topic at the Red Rose Hub at the end of November. We’ve also seen a users and producers group established in the Mersey Forest area this year and another boost for the sector was the awarding of ‘Centre of Vocational Excellence’ status to the National School of Forestry at Myerscough College.

So good work completed but much, much more to come in the New Year, and if I had a particular wish it would be for us to establish a greater prominence here in the Northwest for the organisations that represent the sector - such as EFIP or Confor - to help us build a bigger profile for an area of industry that really can be a cornerstone of a sustainable, economically sound future for the region.

A couple of years ago I added up all of the figures for tree planting across England’s Northwest. The statistics were drawn from the preceding five years and were made up of contributions from our Community Forests, local authorities, Forestry Commission, Northwest Regional Development Agency and Groundwork, to name just a few of the key players.

The bottom line, once the sums had been totted up, was a new tree being planted every ten seconds in this great region of ours. An impressive figure. A ‘killer stat’ to be proud of.

What I didn’t factor in, of course, was whether de facto levels of tree cover were going up or down, whether our ancient trees were being adequately protected or whether our support for new woodland areas was resulting in an increase or decrease in rates of tree planting.

These are some of the trickier issues that our Delivery Group has started to grapple with on behalf of the wider Northwest Forestry Framework community and in 2008 we’d like to report back to you on the progress we’re making, particularly on measuring levels of urban tree cover across the region. We believe that our urban spaces should be greener than ever, with all the climatic, civic and marketing advantages that green space delivers, and we’d like to get a handle on how we’re doing.

As my colleagues have set out elsewhere on this Blog, we’ve been making progress on working with industry, supporting the land reclamation sector, boosting the prospects for biomass and developing new, pioneering partnerships such as those with the health service or prison sectors.

Across the region, those working for woodlands and forestry have ensured in 2007 that we are successfully delivering against all of the major actions in our action plan or have instigated work to make sure that they’re tackled in 2008. Of the 47 actions in our plan, 43 are underway.

So I’m pleased to say that from my perspective we’ve hit a good number of our targets and are more than aware of those we need to focus on in the year ahead. We’re not resting on our laurels and we know there’s a lot to be done, but during our first full year of operation, the Northwest Forestry Framework has made real progress against our ‘Agenda for Growth’. What out for more of the same in 2008.

County Hall, Preston

1 October 2007

Here’s what happened - you came to the event, helped debate our forestry future, shared great ideas and great feedback, used a pretty handsome number of Post-It notes and, I hope, left feeling that you’d gained an overview of how we’re progressing and helped to refine our programme for the future. I’m really grateful to the 70-odd people who took the time to be with us last Monday, your time is much appreciated.

We’ve had a chance to analyse the feedback forms you gave us and I’m very pleased to report that when it came to the usefulness of the event for you, 67% of you felt that it was a ‘good’ event, 17% told us it was ‘excellent’ (thanks for that!) and another 17% told us it was ‘adequate’. Nobody rated the event as ‘poor’ but if you would like to tell us what we can do to improve things next time, let me know or (in truly transparent fashion) why not paste yout comments up here?

As for the progress we’re making more generally across the Forestry Framework, 18% of you thought progress was ‘adequate’, 73% thought we were making good progress and 9% thought that progress was ‘excellent’.

Thanks for your feedback and as I said at the Forum meeting, we plan to work a lot harder now to engage, communicate and listen to you, our key stakeholders in the future. We’ve had a year getting our house in order, finding out about who is working on what and generating a few ideas on projects and priorities, but now we need to re-engage with you, the people that make things happen on the ground.

Steve