Farm and estate woodlands are often left to look after
themselves. Being typically small and isolated, they may be seen as
difficult and uneconomic to manage.
However, farm and estate woodland management can provide
significant benefits, such as a sustainable fuel supply and
valuable timber products. Managed well, woodlands have the
potential to provide a new business avenue for farmers and estate
owners and to contribute towards the environmental value of the
business. Producing woodfuel from your woodlands can make overall
woodland management economically feasible.
The Forestry Commission estimates that an additional 2 million
tonnes of wood could be harvested from currently under-managed
woodlands in the UK by 2020. Increased demand and prices for wood
fuel will offer a stimulus for landowners to better manage UK
woodland.
Please note that in many instances the best first use of timber
is not for wood fuel, high quality saw mill grade logs, for
example, should not ideally be used for wood fuel and it may be
that more money could be obtained from selling high grade timber to
timber merchants rather than processing it for your own woodfuel
supply. Instead, low grade wood, thinnings, small round wood
and wood processing by-products make a more suitable source of raw
woodfuel material. Ultimately, Woodfuel provides a valuable
opportunity to give a value to forest products which may,
previously, have had no value.