Update fromJamie Farquhar National Manager for Scotland

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In a period of falling timber supply from the public estate, NRW have committed to an annual harvest of between 735,000 and 835,000m3 per annum. This represents about a 10% reduction from the previous five-years committed output.

There is no doubt that in a era where Welsh Government is seeking to utilise more Welsh Timber, reducing availability will challenge those plans. Confor is seeking to work with NRW to understand what capacity there is to develop management of the public estate and greater timber and fibre resources.

Woodland Creation

Welsh Government have announced their intention to open a new window as soon as possible to allow more applications for this funding and ensure the full budget is spent. This is expected in September 2021.

They will make changes to the way NRW approve plans to speed up delivery, including a new simple desk-based exercise for low risk woodland plans and refocussing NRW resource on up-front preapplication support for landowners.

Finally, moving beyond the Rural Development Programme, a new woodland creation funding offer is being developed. This will include separate funding for creating new woodland, to develop a regular stream of new projects and enable a more agile system in allocating funding to tree planting. A pilot will be launched this year, making support available for at least 500 hectares of future woodland plans.

National Forest

The Woodland Investment Grant (TWIG) has been announced. This scheme will provide financial support for people to: • create new woodlands, or • make improvements to existing woodlands

The grant can be coupled with other forms of funding and will seek to create high quality, multi-purpose woodlands. The window for application will open on 14 July and run until 27 August.

Forestry Grant Scheme

Scottish Forestry has published details of an additional submission round in 2021 for applications to the Forestry Grant Scheme Harvesting & Processing option for projects in England and Wales.

Forest tree nurseries and seed supply businesses in England and Wales can apply for support to increase GB forest nursery tree supply capacity. Applications are invited for submission between 12 July and 31 August 2021.

More information can be found on the Forestry Grant Scheme page on the Scottish Forestry webpage. www.forestry.gov.scot/ support-regulations/forestry-grants Contact anthony@confor.org.uk

Jamie Farquhar, National Manager for Scotland A year of ups and downs

What a year it’s been so far. The early months saw us continuing 4-weekly supply chain meetings and the weather was adding problems to plant supply and to planting. The nurseries coped well in the Covid-constricted working conditions, but grading was not always up to their highest standards. Then, almost the whole of Scotland was covered in snow for six weeks, restricting which planting sites were accessible, and also severely restricting access to roundwood, with some forest roads still unpassable in March.

Disappointments continued with the soil sterilant Basamid being withdrawn, and our arguments to have seasonal workers in the nurseries and establishment squads being added to the SAWS (Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme) being rejected by the Home Office.

Yet there were some positives out of all this, with a very successful round of the FGS Harvesting & Processing (funded by all GB administrations) producing some great investment opportunities especially for the nurseries, and reports from FLS that their seed in tape trials at Newton were progressing well. And we held the usual SFTT meetings (Scottish Forest & Timber Technologies) in March by webinar, attracting record audiences to hear some excellent presentations – still on the SFTT website if you missed them.

The sector drew praise from Scottish Government for achieving the creation of 10,660 hectares of new woodland in Scotland in such a very difficult season. There had been over 12,000 hectares approved for the claim year, and so many schemes and some restocks will roll over to next season.

Following the elections in May and a cabinet reshuffle, we said goodbye to Fergus Ewing who had held the forestry portfolio since 2017 – giving the industry sector tremendous support and encouragement during his tenure – and welcomed the new minister Mairi McAllan, who supports both the Net Zero cabinet secretary Michael Mathieson and the rural affairs cabinet secretary Mairi Gougeon. We held a very satisfactory meeting with Ms McAllan in June, when she showed genuine enthusiasm for the sector, and we look forward to working with her.

The STTS (Strategic Timber Transport Scheme) assessment panel met at the end of April to consider over 100 projects which had bid for support from the £7m scheme, and 72 projects were successful.

Looking forward, it seems the old Scot- >>