Planting in the United Kingdom

[Tim Gallagher]

Deary, deary me.

Doubledouble, seeing how you are so keen to 'inform' people about planting in the UK, how about you inform us all further and give us all your real name. See some of my posts for an example of how this is done.
Oh, and try and get the spelling correct whilst you are at it: Hughs' surname is Gilmour, not Gilmore.

Tim

[bush]

planting in scotland always sounded stupid.

[Tim Gallagher]

!

[bluejay]

I'd say the biggest takeaway from this review is lack of pay.

What were the working conditions like? How was the foreman and supervising? Was it a camp of under 15 people? Was there site safety? Any communication with the client? What were the quality specs?

[Mike]

Nick Hollingworth
https://www.facebook.com/tomorrowsforests
nickhollingworth@tomorrowsforests.com

A Canadian Planter Attempting to run a Scotland show this fall/winter.

[Mike]

I put together an imgur of some photos of planting in Scotland.

http://imgur.com/a/vyUiK

[retrovertigo]

Not sure if this was worthy of a new thread, but here's a very well-written longform article about tree farming in Scotland

http://granta.com/the-tree-farm/

[rwforestry]

RW Forestry is taking applications for the 2016/17 Tree planting season Based in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland we plant from Nov-June If you would like to apply send me an email if interested to: rwforestryandfencing@gmail.com

[Mike]

Thanks for coming and doing this. I hope this helped you find some people.

[Scooter]

An article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... e-planting

Every year Brazil, Congo and other developing countries are lambasted by environmentalists and western politicians for deforestation at a time when trees are needed to counter climate change and prevent flooding.

Now two prestigious organisations are warning that England may have tipped into deforestation, with more trees being cut down than planted for the first time in possibly 40 years.

“We are only planting 700 hectares (1,730 acres) a year, almost certainly less than we are felling,” said Austin Brady, the conservation director of the Woodland Trust charity which, with commercial forestry groups, wants government to pledge to meet its planting targets at a parliamentary debate on Wednesday.

“Seven hundred hectares is well below the government and Forestry Commission aim of [planting] 5,000 hectares a year. In comparison, 2,400 hectares was planted in 2014-2015, but planting in England has been consistently low, at under 5,000 hectares a year since 2006,” he said. England is already one of Europe’s least wooded countries.

“We think we are losing trees faster than we are planting them. It is difficult to say exactly because the government does not hold records of all trees felled. But technically, we may be in a state of deforestation.

“What is worrying is we have been planting mainly conifers and cutting down our native and ancient woodland. At a time when we are losing trees to tree diseases we are storing up ecological problems,” said Brady.

Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor, the trade association for the UK forestry industry, said planting was at its lowest level in England in more than 40 years. “Forests are being lost to development and infrastructure; we are cutting a lot and planting so few, so it may be that England is technically deforesting,” said Goodall.

The steep decline in tree planting means the government is almost certain to miss its manifesto commitment to plant 11m trees in the UK in the lifetime of this parliament, he said.

“Only 1.35 million trees were planted in England in the 18-month period from April 2015 to September 2016. At this rate the 11 million tree target will not be hit until summer 2027, more than seven years late.

“The 11 million target is neither ambitious nor linked to any policy objectives. It is simply a carry-forward from the number of trees planted by the 2010-2015 government. We should be planting many, many more than 11 million trees in the lifetime of this parliament,” said Goodall.

Tree cover in England stands at about 10%, lower than the UK average of 13% per cent and well below the EU average of 38%.

In response, the UK government said woodland cover was at its highest level in more than 600 years. “Woodland cover in England is at its highest level since the 14th century and, although planting rates vary from year to year, we are committed to planting another 11 million trees over the course of this Parliament,” a spokesperson said.

But the Woodland Trust questioned the government statistics. “The 14th-century figure is a complete red herring. In England we have lost half of our irreplaceable ancient woodland since 1930, and many more were planted with non-natives to ‘commercialise’ them,” said Brady.

“The big growth in woodland area more recently was the result of large-scale non-native plantations on marginal land in the first two thirds of the 20th century – whilst all the time our ancient woods are inexorably chipped away by development and infrastructure.”

The Woodland Trust, Confor and large commercial forestry groups will, through MPs debating forestry in parliament on Wednesday, call on the government to commit to planting 7,000 hectares of woodland every year until 2020 and then to increase planting to 10,000 hectares a year. This would mean planting around 15-20m trees per year.

The groups point out that while England is barely planting new trees, Scotland is planting 16m trees a year and aims to reach 22m a year from 2017.

Britain is only about 20% sufficient in wood, importing millions of tonnes a year from the US, Canada and Europe.

[Scooter]

Guide to Scotland's Bothies, for anyone interested in doing some outdoor tourism while planting in Scotland:

http://www.wildthingspublishing.com/pro ... thy-bible/

[_I3^RELATIVISM]

@mike any news on your following seasons in scotland, did you ended going back any, changes in the camp logistics? Cheers

[_I3^RELATIVISM]

Eric Boyd: http://www.boydforestry.co.uk/
eric@boydforestry.co.uk
Monika@boydforestry.co.uk
I worked for Eric. It was pretty decent, and almost exactly what I'd expect. A Brit who's worked for several forestry companies in the UK says that Eric is the best.

JAH forestry limited: http://www.jahforestry.com/
info@jahforestry.com

Hugh Gilmour: Hugh Gilmour formerly had a website, but is currently being reworked. It will be relaunched for summer 2013. http://www.flatcapforestry.com/
https://www.facebook.com/FlatCapForestryLtd
http://www.tree-planter.com/?navigation ... age_id=488
Hugh's replant.ca account: //memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=21000
I haven't worked with Hugh. A friend worked for Hugh, and said that the work was pretty meh. However, I have deep respect for Hugh because of the honest and informative nature of both his posts on replant.ca and his website.


Tim Gallagher: Replant.ca account: //memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=21013
Tim recently said to me via e-mail that he's no longer hiring Canadian's and no longer doing this sort of planting work.


Cawdor Forestry:
//memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=21376
steve@cawdorforestry.com
http://www.cawdorforestry.com/
mail@cawdorforestry.com


Lochness Trees: Richard Collis: lochnesstrees@hotmail.com.
Plants approximately 1.5 million trees per year, contact for more information.


William McCormick Forestry: info@wmcforestry.co.uk.
Planting 1 million trees with 4-8 people from January to April 2014. No vehicle rental costs, house rental approximately £85.00 per person per week (140$/per person per week), 30 minute drives, restock (fill plant) on mounds, Dumfries and Galloway, Newton Stewart area and St Johns of Dalry area.


Tomorrow's Forests: https://www.facebook.com/tomorrowsforests --- Ex Corsair planters. Did 650k and had a Canadian 6 pack in Fall 2014-Winter 2015.

[Mike]

@ _I3^RELATIVISM : I only planted one season in Scotland, and having been out of the industry for 5 years now, much of the information I posted may be out of date.

[_I3^RELATIVISM]

sounds godd @mike, your post was nontheless very helpfull, I ended up getting a smaller contract in the shires north of dandee. I will post more info once I wrap-up my season and head back to canada, Im a european citizen as well, so the headcost to me is not that big. Could you describe the specialty gear you need to use there though. Cheers.

[Mike]

4 baggers and a shovel, nothing to specialty. Though the entire crew switched to full rubber pretty fast in the weather; rubber boots, rubber pants, rubber rain jacket. The endless 1 degree rain in fall scotland was remarkable.