Week of forestry in West Wales

Last week was working with my friend a retreat centre trying to sort out some messy landscape,

messy in the sense of it being the potentially two worse types of trees to have at present in the UK,
Ash and Larch.

Not only was this another short sighted monoculture planting approach

but also was a replanted on top of one or two clear fells
which resulted in very little top soil or organic matter for the roots to grow on over winter
they had a shirt sharp north wind storm which wiped out 40 metre plus high larch by the road side over the road
the council then ordered the owners to have the rest clear felled on the steep slope.

So here we have the usual washed out slopes with trees bent & hanging on,
all the trees were then chipped for bio greenwash fuel.

The VAT bill on the chip was £10k so that gives you idea of the clear volume.

Also consider the massive machinery that goes onto all this processing to a wood chop and to them move it .

At near on £50 to £100 per ton for wood chip no wonder most people are chipping everything but how actual wasteful is this?

Written by Scott Baine