This piece is an extract from our Latest from the Woods newsletter (previously Forestry Latest News), which is emailed out at 4PM every Friday with a round-up of the week's top stories.
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WHERE were you when you first heard about the UK's latest woodland-creation figures?
FJ, well, FJ was briskly walking past Westtech's rather impressive KWF Tagung stand when it was stopped in its tracks (angering a rather large group of German machine operators in the process, something it wouldn't recommend).
"Does ... does that really say 21,000 hectares," FJ asked no one in particular. "We can't be reading that right, surely?"
But sure as can be, FJ wasn't mistaken.
The UK did in fact create a smidgeon over 21,000 ha of new woodland in the 12 months prior to the end of March 2024, setting a modern-day record and defying just about every industry prediction going.
That is a testament to all of the hard work of so many people in forestry, from the government agency office staff, to the planters and the nurseries. Even if it is still short of the Climate Change Committee's recommendation, it is something to celebrate.
However, dig a little deeper into the statistics and a few worrying trends emerge.
Namely, Scotland aside, broadleaved planting vastly overshadowed coniferous species, with the latter accounting for barely 10 per cent of all new woodland in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
In Wales, just 10 ha of softwood was planted last year, which FJ reckons it could do in an afternoon if it really tried hard enough. Northern Ireland didn't fair much better at just 40 ha.
There is nothing wrong with broadleaved species. In fact, let's have more UK-grown hardwood going through our sawmills, please. However, FJ finds it hard to imagine that we have overcome all of the issues associated with growing it in the UK. Have our deer suddenly decided they have a taste for something else? Did red squirrels win the war against greys and no one informed us?
All of this new planting is great, and long may it continue. But what will it actually mean for productive forestry and timber supply in 20/30/40 years' time? The jury remains very much still out.
You can watch FJ's discussion of the latest planting figures in June's edition of the Forestry Briefing.
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