66 MAY 20 18 FORESTRYJOURNAL.CO.UK
NEWS ROUNDUP
ALL THE LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS
A mixed group of second-year students from
the Forestry and Woodland Ecology and
Conservation degree courses and students
from the Forestry Foundation degree,
both from the National School of Forestry,
University of Cumbria, reached the halfway
point on their ‘southern’ tour of the forestry
industry at Whitney Sawmills in April.
The week-long tour started by visiting
Maelor Nursery near Wrexham to talk
about nursery practice and tree breeding
for productivity and resilience, before
moving on to the Forest of Dean to look
at the establishment and silviculture of
quality hardwoods as well as the approach
to marketing, where the effects of grey
squirrels on an otherwise well-established
crop was a major talking point.
The group then visited Woodland
Heritage’s Whitney Sawmills, where
manager, Dermot Doyne, introduced them to
some of the issues surrounding utilisation.
“The visit was a great opportunity for
the students to complete the loop in terms
of the life cycle of trees used for timber.
It’s really important they get a feel for the
benefits and process of growing timber; it is
covered in little detail as part of the course,
so I was very keen to help to address this,”
said lecturer, Chris Watson. “The Woodland
to Workshop course held at Whitney each
year is something that I’ve always wantedMill visit a
turning point
PARTNERSHIP
WORKING
RESEARCHERS at Inverness College UHI
are working with partners in Finland, Sweden
and Ireland to help forestry service providers
upskill their staff and expand their business
opportunities.
Funded by the Northern Periphery and
Arctic Programme, the three-year pan-
European project, called Forest Business
Innovation and Advancement (FOBIA), will
see Euan Bowditch and Elspeth McDonald,
part of the university’s Forestry Research department, work
with forestry contractors, harvesters, and tree planters from the
private sector in Scotland to identify knowledge gaps and new
opportunities.
The partnership, which involves the University of the Highlands
and Islands, the Natural Resources Institute (LUKE) in Finland,
Swedish Agricultural University (SLU) in Sweden, and the
Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland, met at Inverness
College UHI recently.
Skills assessments will take place in all four countries
culminating in the creation of a digital education platform, whichwill include new training opportunities, examples of best practice,
partnership working models and planning tools.
Researcher Euan Bowditch said: “This is a really exciting
project as it will culminate in a tool which will enable forestry
service providers to upskill their staff, become more productive,
expand their business opportunities and diversify. We are
working closely with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and
Norbord as well as other forestry service providers – from one-
person operation to large companies all over the Highlands and
Islands, as well as Dumfries and Galloway.”
Partners will meet again in Umeå, Sweden in June.
https://www.luke.fi/fobia/en/to experience, and having been there now
I’m even more keen to attend in the future,
which I hope many of our students will do
too.”
Dermot Doyne said: “Part of the reason
why Woodland Heritage bought Whitney
Sawmills was to increase the number of
aspiring foresters who could experience
and learn about the role of a hardwood
sawmill. This spring alone, we’ll have
had visits from young people thinking
about forestry as a career path, as well as
undergraduates from the National School
of Forestry, and some MSc students from
Harper Adams University, many of whom
are practising foresters already. This variety
of groups is something I’m keen to see
more of and would love to hear from group
organisers wanting to understand how a
hardwood mill works.”
Leaving Whitney, the National School
of Forestry group went to nearby Moccas
Park to see the many ancient oaks on site,
before travelling the next day to the Wyre
Forest to look at ancient semi-natural
woodland and the many conservation
benefits of broadleaved woodland and
coppice restoration. The final day was spent
in the Mersey Forest to look at community
woodlands and forestry, as well as
woodland creation.
For more information on forestry degree
and other courses at the National School
of Forestry, search for forestry courses
at http://www.cumbria.ac.uk; and to discuss
possible visits to Whitney Sawmills, contact
Dermot Doyne on 01497 8 3165 6.Dermot Doyne
illustrating how
to look for shake
in a log.