Wood Fuel Market.

 Wood Fuel Market.

I own and manage a small wood, so I am sometimes asked if I sell fire wood. The simple answer is No. I could do as a result of the general management potential fire wood is generated. Producing fuel for my two log stoves is viable. There is a lot more than I can sensibly fell, as the woods develop this will increase. 
Without specialist equipment splitting and cutting logs is a long hard slow process. The specialist equipment is too  expensive for a small producer. That is before the costs of delivering to potential customers is considered.
The final disincentive  is The Air Quality (Domestic Solid Fuels Standards) (England) Regulations 2020. This is to ensure a minimum amount of particulates is produced on burning, by ensuring that wood fuel has a moisture content no more than 20%. To sell into the retail market, an amount less than 2 cubic meters, the seller needs to be audited and registered. This costs £507.60 the first year and £385.20 inc. vat in subsequent years. This removes any financial incentive there might have been for managing a small wood. Registering to supply biomass to people on the Renewable Heat Initiative (RHI) is a more modest £144 but says nothing about the quality of the fuel. Most RHI receivers use chip or pelleted wood. Like much modern timber technology there does not appear to be a sufficient supply to justify a large production plant. I can't find a commercial pellet producer in England. It is undeniable that burning damp wood is bad for air quality and should be discouraged. Is taking locally grown fuel out of the economy, to be replaced by imports of wood or gas any better for the environment?
I shall continue to manage my woods to a high standard. This is a luxury  I can afford in terms of time, being retired. Stacks of rotting wood does seem a shame. Selling to a large wholesaler would be a possibility, but they would have the costs of collection on top of all the costs I would have. They are used to Forestry Commission thinnings or imported containers, and not interested in an odd lorry load.  Then having to store dry and deliver, hardly an attractive proposition. It remains to be seen whether the rise in gas prices transfers into the wood fuel market. If it does will that increase domestic production or imports?

Not Every Good Idea is that Good.

Not Every Good Idea is that Good.

In the post Potting on Part II, I described having to improvise some containers for potting on into. I had not planted out the trees in the containers I had intended using due to the dry weather.

A few went into "compostable" disposable pint clear cups, some into muslin ones and 30 into Cardboard rolls.

   The card was just rolled up and the shape retained by plastic grids that were designed to hold small square plant pots. The idea, with all the compostable pots, was that the whole lot could be planted. The card once wetted very soon started to go mouldy. Grey and orange fungus spread all over the lower parts. 

 The muslin pots looked good, The potting on had been done during dry weather and the pots were in solid trays to reduce watering. These filled up when the rain came and the bottoms became saturated. While the pots looked o.k. as soon as they were moved the bottoms fell apart. The trees were still alive but had not grown as well as their contemporaries in solid pots.

Most of these trees in disintegrating pots were prioritised for planted before the New Year.     

The idea that planting the whole pot would be possible and that  it would rot in the soil proved feasible.  They did rot but before planting was attempted. If the tree in the muslin pot, in the picture on the is was lifted the bottom half of the pot and its soil  stays in the tray. The cardboard tubes collapsed side ways when they were moved so had to be planted before there was the thought of photographing them.

The trees in commercial compostable "plastic " pint pots will be planted later. previous experience suggests that they can be left a long time. 

Pit wood felling reading for planting

 Pit Wood Felling  and Readying for Planting.

Aspen, the straighter and lighter trunks, and Alder trees before area was cleared. 
 

It is New Years day (2022). In Pit Wood rectangular compartment the Aspen and Alder have been felled. The small area is to be replanted with Douglas Fir and Oak.  The logs have been piled at the end of rows adjacent to the ride. The brash has been piled in row gaps at ride side to prevent deer access. This has become more critical as 6 deer were seen in the next field. Usually it is only one or two.

Part of the area after clearing. The conifers are replacements for trees that died.
 The larger ones are Douglas Fir and Japanese Red Cedar.
 

A felled area.

Some of the brash was chipped so there were clear areas to fell into. Once a few rows had been felled it was possible to fell onto those rows. The aspen has grown very straight and it is comparatively easy to persuade them to fall in a particular direction. The Alder grew less quickly and had to chase the light more. Most did lean in the same direction and determined the direction and order the trees were felled.

The Dead Hedge.

Much of the first brash was woven into a "dead hedge" along a side with the rest of the wood. The stumps of the felled trees were used as posts. The felled trees had been planted at 3 x 1.5 metre spacing. The 3m gap edges were too wide to weave effectively. Brash particularly tops were piled up to prevent deer coming in. Logs filled in some of the gaps, adjacent to to the perimeter ride to stop the deer, and allow their removal. The deer would have no difficulty jumping the height of the logs but they would not try because of the width. Round logs would also act like a cattle grid. (I hope).

Logs and brash piled up to keep the deer out.

I tend to always fell at waist or chest level. If a tree doesn't fall where it is expected then I would rather be standing up.  Also if a tree is not straight then it may give you a better chance of allowing the tree to fall naturally in a pre determined direction. I had always intended leaving the stumps around the perimeter to make a deer fence, but am going to leave them all. I hope they will provide some shelter to the growing trees and should produce coppice growth providing extra shelter and increasing the humidity for the new trees. They will be small enough to be removed in the next few years without difficulty. When I think they are interfering with the new trees they can go. I also don't have to find something to do with them in the mean time!

Starting to Replant at Cairn Wood.

Starting to Replant at Cairn Wood. Nov 2021

There has been enough rain to start planting. As November has started there should be no risk of the soil drying out. A certain amount of work had gone into digging holes to take the trees about a month before. (Blog post Oct 9th 21) This made extending the depth of the holes much easier and the clay that came out broke up much more readily. There is only a small area being replanted where Ash are dead or dying. The few healthy Downey Birch and Hornbeam are being left, while the Italian alder and Aspen are being pollarded. This gives the new trees some shelter while they can have plenty of light. Ash that are not dead are being left. They will probably be dead in a couple of years with Ash Die Back, any that survive  deserve to have their genes in the next generation.

The area being planted. The stumps are Alder most of the other trees
 that can be seen are dead and dying Ash.

The area had been planted in the winter of 2009/10. It was shallowly subsoiled in 2008 but is the lowest part of the wood next to the stream, and appears to be the least productive area. Eucalyptus rodwayi and London Plane are going in. They are from seeds sown the previous winter, and transplanted into plastic containers with a capacity just under a litre. The hope is that they can get some root growth before the soil gets too cold.

The E. rodwayi have been grown in cones that thread had been wound round. They make a deep and narrow root space. The planting holes are made an inch or so deeper than the "pot" then a trowel's worth of real soil added, and worked in with the trowel. The soil is also worked into slits in the sides of the hole to give the roots a way into the clay. 

The London Planes have lost their leaves, but may put on a
 bit more root growth. They have been grown on in cut down fizzy drink bottles. There is a difficult balancing act, between firming in and compacting the soil making it so compact that the roots can't penetrate into it to make them wind firm and collect water and minerals.

In the picture there is a little bit of grey clay in the pile on the left of the "pot". This is a lime rich small lens in the red clay. Below the red clay it forms  a slatey limestone the Blue Lias. I think how well the clay drains depends on depth to the Blue Lias as moles and earthworms cannot make holes in it. Encouragingly I feel that planting here is easier now than when I first planted here 12 years ago. There is more dark soil at the surface formed from the leaves of the trees and weeds that have grown in the mean time. There are the roots of the original trees which will help with the drainage.  It will be interesting to see how the new trees cope.