- £4m funding will allow progressive tasks to reinforce tree planting shares and woodland resilience to assist meet Authorities web zero by 2050 ambitions
- Funding will assist multi billion pound sector to create new markets for wooden merchandise, driving commerce and rising the financial system
Functions for the Forestry Fee delivered Woods into Administration Forestry Innovation Funds and the Tree Manufacturing Innovation Fund have at this time (13 March) reopened to additional assist enlargement and administration of our nation’s timber and forests and futureproof them in opposition to stresses like pests, illness and local weather change.
This yr, nearly £4 million will likely be allotted to profitable candidates throughout each funds, which collectively increase nature regeneration efforts, promote biodiversity, and assist progressive approaches to tree manufacturing, tree well being, and woodland resilience by way of elevated and improved lively administration of woodlands, amidst a altering local weather.
As tree planting throughout the nation will increase, the Tree Manufacturing Innovation Fund will assist the event and deployment of recent applied sciences and methods of working which can present a various provide of wholesome younger timber. This can assist Authorities ambitions to treble tree planting charges by the tip of this Parliament and plant 30,000 hectares of timber throughout the UK per yr by 2025.
The announcement comes forward of the brand new woodland episode of the BBC wildlife documentary Wild Isles, offered by Sir David Attenborough, that can discover how ecosystems and habitats assist wildlife across the UK, together with the significance of defending our woodlands.
Richard Stanford, Chief Govt, Forestry Fee, mentioned:
“Our timber and forests are beneath menace from local weather change, pests and ailments. Timber should be resilient for the very long run of their lives and we have to innovate to make sure the woods we have now, and people we should develop, thrive.”
“The tasks supported by way of these funds are important in supporting efforts to construct bigger, extra various and extra resilient treescapes throughout the nation and I strongly encourage all appropriate tasks to use at this time.”
The Woods into Administration Forestry Innovation Funds goals to carry an extra 20,000 hectares of current woodland into lively administration, which may help increase biodiversity and shield in opposition to pests and ailments. The fund may also assist tasks which can develop new applied sciences and dealing practices to assist homegrown timber manufacturing meet home and worldwide demand.
This can assist to bolster timber safety and develop the UK’s forestry and first wooden processing sectors, which assist 30,000 jobs and contribute over £2 billion to our financial system yearly.
The third spherical of the Woods into Administration Forestry Innovation Funds and the Tree Manufacturing Innovation Fund at the moment are open. The deadline for the Tree Manufacturing Innovation Fund is Tuesday ninth Might. The deadline for the Woods into Administration Forestry Innovation Funds is Monday fifteenth Might.
Forestry Fee are internet hosting webinars to assist with the applying course of. To enroll to a webinar, for additional details about the funds and to use go to:
Tree Manufacturing Innovation Fund – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Woods into Administration Forestry Innovation Funds – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Notes to Editors
Case research: Woods into Administration Forestry Innovation Funds
Reheat – Northwoods Innovation Programme
The Northwoods Innovation Programme is managed by Northumberland-based low carbon warmth and forestry consultancy, Reheat, who’re as soon as once more joined by Sylva Basis, RDI Associates, and Martin Glynn FICFor following the success of their Woodland Administration Focus Space Pilot (WMFAP), funded by the primary spherical of the Woods into Administration Forestry Innovation Fund.
Funding beneath the second spherical of the Woods into Administration Forestry Innovation Fund has bolstered the venture consortium to incorporate Timber Auctions and Inexperienced Enterprise Finance with the intention to develop a wider programme that helps, develops, and disseminates innovation to beat particular obstacles to woodland administration. The funding has additionally led to the relaunch of Northwoods, a woodland initiative, with the long run intention that Northwoods can as soon as once more ship a variety of tasks to assist the forestry sector with its numerous challenges.
Woodland Belief – Mapping rhododendron utilizing distant sensing.
If eradication of rhododendron is to be efficient at a panorama scale then removing must be co-ordinated, and sustained throughout a number of landholdings. In any other case management tends to be piecemeal and opportunistic fairly than strategic and it will possibly shortly re-establish. This venture will benefit from cutting-edge advances in distant sensing methods to make one of the best use of the sources and time that’s put into rhododendron management.
This venture continues the exploration of how distant sensing can be utilized to supply a complete, all-encompassing snapshot of rhododendron in key panorama areas. These maps, in collaboration with others, can then be was strategic about how rhododendron management is approached.
Case research: Tree Manufacturing Innovation Fund
RBG, Kew; Elsoms Seeds; Elsoms Timber Ltd. – Seed Traits for Tree Manufacturing
This venture combines analysis and technical improvement to research traits in UK native tree seed; to grasp how these traits range; and optimise industrial seed high quality utilizing high-throughput screening methods.
Not like most cultivated vegetation bred for consistency and ease of cultivation, the morphology and germination behaviour of native tree seed is inherently variable. Understanding and predicting this variation will likely be key to designing environment friendly manufacturing processes to enhance germinability, scale back waste and make a wider vary of seed accessible. Moreover, because the local weather warms the germination necessities for some species and/or populations might now not be met, with profound penalties for regeneration of woodlands and the ecosystem companies they supply.
College of Warwick and J&A Growers – Good Tree Manufacturing System (STPS)
The Good Tree Manufacturing System (STPS) will present forest nurseries with a sensible, appropriately automated manufacturing system for the singulation, grading, counting, and packaging of bare-root tree seedlings able to enhancing course of productiveness and reaching at the very least a 50% discount within the want for seasonal labour.
The venture will improve effectivity and resilience to labour shortages, with improved high quality and information traceability. STPS will obtain higher outfitted nurseries, addressing the necessity for increased productiveness and elevated automation within the sector. The venture will automate the grading course of, together with an efficient integration of autonomous singulation know-how and its complementary processes.
WMG, College of Warwick, is partnering with a consortium of 4 of the main growers within the UK (accounting for greater than half of UK tree nursery manufacturing), led by J&A Growers, to ship the venture which began in September 2022 and runs till March 2025.
SAF Woodland Administration & A.W. Jenkinson Forest Merchandise – Woodland Develop: from seed to established woodland
This venture is growing a pure different to man-made fertiliser: Woodland Develop, an progressive peat-free woodland-based compost made out of an natural mixture of supplies that mimic woodland soils. It has been designed to extend tree manufacturing, plant well being, development charges and scale back our carbon footprint.
The venture group has developed a compost filled with a fastidiously balanced mix of helpful and native microbes, micro organism, and fungi to satisfy the dietary wants of timber. This new-generation compost is freed from peat and artificial fertilisers and is appropriate for each skilled growers and amateurs alike.
The Tree Manufacturing Innovation fund has facilitated this collaboration throughout the UK, bringing collectively industrial companions, specialists and forestry professionals to shut a significant hole within the UK forestry carbon cycle. The venture brings collectively SAF Woodland Administration and A.W. Jenkinson Forest Merchandise, with collaboration from Euroforest, Prior & Rickett, FERA Science and Soil Ecology Lab.
Additional info
Woods into Administration Forestry Innovation Funds
Roughly 40% of England’s woodlands aren’t actively managed, which will be detrimental to biodiversity and go away uncared for woodlands weak to pests and illness. Tasks which efficiently apply for funding by way of the third spherical of the Woods into Administration Forestry Innovation Funds will obtain a share of £1.7 million, because the Forestry Fee goals to carry an extra 20,000 hectares of current woodland in England into lively administration by 2024/25.
Beneath the umbrella of the Woods into Administration Forestry Innovation Funds, the Timber in Building Innovation Fund helps tasks which improve and facilitate using English timber from sustainably managed woods and forests in development. Different funds assist new enterprise fashions and provide chains for ash timber to assist restore woodlands broken by ash dieback, in addition to initiatives utilizing non permanent infrastructure to entry uncared for or degraded woodlands. Furthermore, a collection of regional funds will assist forward-thinking tasks that allow the lively administration of woodlands the place beforehand not doable. Candidates within the forestry and related sectors, in addition to native authorities, are invited to submit multi-year proposals spanning as much as two monetary years (ending March 2025), with particular person tasks valued at as much as £100,000 per yr.
Tree Manufacturing Innovation Fund
Additionally reopening at this time, the Tree Manufacturing Innovation Fund will make over £2 million accessible to tasks striving to reinforce the amount, high quality, and variety of tree planting inventory accessible for planting in England. The Fund helps the event and deployment of recent applied sciences and methods of working which can present a various provide of wholesome younger timber within the portions required to understand formidable tree planting plans throughout the nation. Candidates are invited to submit multi-year proposals spanning as much as two monetary years (ending March 2025), with tasks valued at as much as £200,000 per yr.
