Forestry & British Timber articles from July 2004

Forestry & British Timber archives from July 2004

WORKERS' QUESTION TIME.(Apprenticeship)
July 14, 2004... Isn't it heartening when someone values your opinion enough to seek it out? 'Have your say,' as Lantra, the sector skills council puts it, seeking your feedback in a new industry consultation on proposed apprenticeships in the area it...

UK leads EU sustainability sector.
July 14, 2004... This country leads in the EU for its work on timber sustainability policy*. Speaking at the UK Forest Products Association (UKFPA) agm and lunch at the House of Commons, Bob Andrew, the government's principal adviser in this specialist sector,...

Ospreys on show.(Scotland is planning for tourism centers)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2004... `Ospreys are magnificent birds and are an important natural asset of Scotland'. Forestry minister Allan Wilson was launching two viewing centres offering visitors to the Tweed Valley forest park a `virtual reality' show of the chick's...

New dawn for Scotland's native woods.
July 14, 2004... Over the past five years, more native woodland than non-native had been planted north of the border, said Forestry Commission Scotland director Bob McIntosh in welcoming the recent launch of the `Scottish biodiversity strategy'. He expected...

Fountains appt.(Fountains Support Services Ltd appoints Gavin Martin )
July 14, 2004... Gavin Martin has joined Fountains Support Services Ltd, as sales and marketing manager. Based at head office in Banbury, reporting to director Peter Neighbour, his role is to maximise business opportunities with new and existing utility and...

Working in the live zone.(forestry contract)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2004... A #3.6m contract, which involves clearing vegetation from the overhead distribution network in the north-west of England has been placed with Tilhill by United Utilities. The contract will involve 52 men clearing dangerous timber over a...

Bills joins 'sustainable' campaign.(David Bills )(Brief Article)
July 14, 2004... Following his eight-year stint as director general of the Forestry Commission, David Bills CBE has joined the wood. for good campaign as environmental consultant. David came to the FC from a post as general manager of an Australian company...

Bringing Skye's past back to life.(Skye school's landscape restoration)
July 14, 2004... 'The landscape of Skye has been transformed by human use over the centuries into what it is today. The Kinloch Hills restoration project will attempt to recreate the past landscape while making a significant contribution to the area through...

Grampian to Geneva.(United Nations appointed Douglas Clark)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2004... One of Forestry Commission Scotland conservator Douglas Clark's tasks during his new two-year secondment to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland will be to help eastern European nations to modernise their timber industries and develop...

Saving Britain's ravine havens.
July 14, 2004... The challenges facing two internationally important ravine woodland areas - one in the Peak District and the other in the Wye Valley - are the subject of a #1.3m conservation exercise launched in late May. The `Ravine WoodLIFE project...

Justin from the jungle!(Brief Article)
July 14, 2004... Justin Mumford, who joined Lockhart Garratt in 1998 as a graduate assistant on his return to England from an assignment with the great apes in the Congo, has just been promoted to associate director. Justin has spent the last five years...

What do you think of it?(Scotland's forest conservation)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2004... When people visit Forestry Commission Scotland properties in the next few years, they will not only be able to appreciate the beauty of the trees and landscape - and, perhaps, wildlife - but they could perhaps also spot a roving researcher with...

Battle of the sexes.(rare plants protection)
July 14, 2004... A `bit of fluff' - in the case of Britain's now-rare Black poplar population - could indeed be a feminine reason why this elegant species is disappearing. Of the 7000 such trees which now survive, a mere 600 are of the female sex. This is...

Firing up with wood heat.
July 14, 2004... With the environmental benefits of wood fuel in reducing greenhouse gases now widely recognised there is widespread and rising interest in biomass as a sustainable source of renewable energy. Available resources are extensive as the recent Wood...

From planting to turning.(Derrick English services)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2004... On his first day at work, 19-year-old Derrick English was set to work felling Christmas trees. The theme was continued throughout the 40 years he served with the Forestry Commission supplying them to prime city-centre sites and culminating,...

'Standing' fall.(timber prices)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2004... Latest figures for the Coniferous Standing Sales Price Index for Great Britain have been published by the Forestry Commission. The Index measures the average price received per cubic metre of standing sales timber from FC sales. Expressed in...

Long service rewarded.(Royal Forestry Society, Welbeck and Thoresby Estates)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2004... During its recent outing to the Dukeries, in Nottinghamshire, the Royal Forestry Society presented its 'Long Service Awards' to eight woodmen from Welbeck and Thoresby Estates, all with at least 30 years' hands-on service there. Pictured on the...

Roundwood output up 2%.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2004... Despite the overall depression in UK forest industry activity, the latest Forestry Commission figures reveal that the 2003 timber harvest rose slightly to 7.6m m3 underbark; this was 3% more than in the previous year. The `first-release'...

On the road again.(Etesia UK Ltd.'s Road Show)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2004... The Etesia Harrow open day was hosted by Turner Groundscare whose staff were available to give help out and advise visitors. The Etesia 'Road Show' is touring the country with a series of open days being held in conjunction with its...

WoodWISE: The view from the sharp end.
July 14, 2004... In which our monthly contracting contributor Nick Hilton of Woodwise Forestry* gives the prototype chipper from Landforce the Jeremy Clarkson treatment. Funny old world isn't it. Chippers are obviously like number ten buses - you wait a...

Southern supremacy - conservation.
July 14, 2004... `The 2004 Woodlands and Plantations Competition was memorable for several encouraging trends which will become more important in wood management as the years go by'. The above was the conclusion of judges James Lang Brown and Graham Darrah...

Coupe de Grace.
July 14, 2004... Fulfilment of the 6th Earl of Bradford's great vision - the Bradford Hutt Forestry Plan - 'to create a mixed species, uneven-aged selection forestry system based on a geometric pattern' was celebrated in June. David Taylor joined guests to...

`Big-headed' response to big-tree challenge.
July 14, 2004... While there will always be a need for hand-cutters to handle rough edge trees, their scarcity on the labour market means contractors have looked increasingly at the mechanised option: the effectiveness of today's large and powerful harvesting...

OUTREACH takes on Epsilon.
July 14, 2004... As from July 1 2004, Falkirk-based Outreach plc will officially begin the active marketing and sales of the Epsilon range of timber-handling and recycling cranes, reports Mike Forbes. This follows the Scottish company's decision to take over...

SAWMILLING: Cracking on to Kyrgyzstan.
July 14, 2004... Ever wondered where beautiful, burr walnut comes from? And why your standard issue Purdey shotgun costs #20000? Loglogic's* Graham Mitchell knows. He has recently been involved in a rather unusual project delivering horse-drawn sawmills, to the...

No MISER when it comes to sales.(LT300 industrial band sawmill)
July 14, 2004... From Latvia, over the Atlantic to British Columbia and south across the Pacific to New Zealand, timber processors have been contributing to the success of the LT300 industrial band sawmill launched by Wood-Mizer* at the 2003 Ligna woodworking...

Benefits of that `personal' touch.
July 14, 2004... 'My wife and I have long been interested in forestry through our membership of the Royal Forestry Society. Although we were only amateur observers, we gradually developed the itch to have a go ourselves and, although our initial ambitions were...

Bamse mills and routers.(sawmills)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2004... 'Manufactured from both galvanised and stainless steel Bamse sawmills are probably the strongest and most accurate chainsaw-based sawmills on the market today'. So says Lee Lightburn of Cumbria-based UK supplier Lakes Lumber Equipment*. ...

Goulden opportunity.
July 14, 2004... A compact Lumbermate sawmill is helping boost productivity and lower costs for a hardwood timber producer in Hampshire. Goulden Hardwoods was founded nearly 20 years ago in Vernham Dean, by the late Tony Goulden, as a small specialist business...

Debarking in pole position.(automated barker)
July 14, 2004... David Bowe recently installed an automated Technorton-Cundey debarking system to improve the efficiency of fence post production at Rosebank Sawmill, Dalston, Cumbria. The modified Technorton-Cundey debarking machine at the heart of the system...

To suit all needs.(sawmills from Fuelwood(Warwick) Ltd.)
July 14, 2004... Fuelwood*, as the name implies, offers an extensive range of firewood processors, logsplitters and woodchippers which are complemented by sawmills for the small and large operator alike. At the entry stage the Logosol, using a chainsaw as its...

APF 2004 Diary.(Australian Philatelic Federation )(trade shows)
July 14, 2004... The penultimate diary from APF Exhibition Secretary Ian Millward* can only mean one thing. By the time you read this we will have had our final site meeting and we are on the downhill run to the Exhibition. So far everything is still...