Shropshire Star

Planting trees can help us achieve emissions goals

Climate change has been given a high media profile in the last couple of months as well as trees and forests.

Published
Martin B. Jones is a Chartered Forester and Managing Director of the Woodland Stewardship Company, a UK-wide forest management consultancy based in Shrewsbury

Last month, The Committee on Climate Change recommended a new emissions target for the UK – net-zero greenhouse gases by 2050 and recently David Attenborough made the case for forests to capture carbon and tackle climate change in his powerful film “How to Restore Our Forests”.

The UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments have all set targets significantly higher than recent planting rates as afforestation and peatland restoration would result in more carbon dioxide being sequestered.

Over 100 years of sustainable management in a typical upland conifer forest in Eskdalemuir in Scotland, the carbon benefit from this 20,000 ha. forest is estimated at 14,612,880 tonnes – equivalent to 7.3 tonnes per hectare per year, which is approximately the amount of carbon emitted by the average person in a year.

Confor, the organisation for promoting sustainable forestry and wood-using businesses in the UK, is now proposing scaling up woodland creation in the UK to 40,000 hectares per year by 2030.

How we can achieve that rate of planting is very much dependent on massive reform of the approval process. But the contribution that forests make to carbon mitigation is not just limited to numbers of trees.

Recent research from the Norbury Park Estate suggests that high tree species diversity as well as density enhances growth and carbon uptake.

Yield class (a measure of timber productivity and carbon capture) for a whole range of broadleaved and conifer species all increased or remained the same, compared with yield class of the same species grown in monocultures, apart from lime.

Timber grown in UK forests also contributes to reducing emissions in several ways. For example, 1 tonne of UK softwood timber substituted in construction displaces 1.3 tonnes of CO2 if other materials, such as concrete, steel, and so on are used. Also, carbon is locked up for longer in timber products in buildings, so overall, wood has a much lower carbon footprint.

One much overlooked resource that would potentially help achieve the UK’s target are the thousands of hectares of existing unmanaged woodlands, despite the fact that prices of timber and woodfuel are currently at a 30-year high.

The benefits of woodland management, especially thinning, are well documented and provide so many other benefits such as timber, wildlife, biodiversity, and so on.

According to a Royal Forestry Society report, only 59 per cent of woods in England and 57 cent in Wales are in management. Unmanaged woodlands are less resilient to the future effects of climate change, such as outbreaks of diseases and pests.

The area of unmanaged woodland it would be feasible to bring back into sustainable management is estimated by the RFS to be up to 200,000 hectares in England and up to 53,000 hectares in Wales – a combined area that is larger than the Lake District National Park.

Most of this resource is broadleaved woodland and situated on farms.

Owners of well managed woodlands may be well placed to benefit from additional natural capital benefits proposed by the Agricultural Bill 2018. Something to ponder for if you are an owner of unmanaged woodland and concerned you may miss out.

Martin B. Jones is a Chartered Forester and Managing Director of the Woodland Stewardship Company, a UK-wide forest management consultancy based in Shrewsbury