DEAR EDITOR,

I was glad to read your Letter from the Editor in the April 2024 issue. I agree that a lack of communication is the main roadblock in our industry (my personal perspective is as a director of a tree-planting company in Scotland), and the consequences of the problems this causes, as is so often the case, predominantly affect those at the bottom of the chain.

If we want to push forward as an industry, we have to look at how we treat and communicate with our contractors, whether that is as a client, land agent or forestry services company. The two main areas of concern for us as a business are HSE practices and current payment terms and conditions within the industry. Without fixing these issues, the root problem will never go away. 

The industry has been lagging behind in best practice compared to other sectors in the UK for some time. From personal experience of working in other roles and industries over the last 12 years, this is largely within HSE, which seems to be backed up by workplace accident data (www.forestryjournal.co.uk/news/23648533.forestry-among-highest-rate-deaths-work-related-accidents). 

As the last link in the chain of a woodland-creation scheme, we are dependent on every prior operation, and therefore any businesses involved in those. It is unreasonable to expect planting contractors to take on the financial burden this can cause, mainly through delays to planned start dates, yet we have experienced this frequently.

It is my experience that many forest managers are under a lot of pressure, unable to effectively cover the number of sites that are being managed. This can cause – amongst other things – delays, lack of due diligence and a lack of supervision.

The cumulative knock-on effect is an often archaic attitude towards HSE and contractors’ rights, with the most common phrase being, “it’s just what is expected in the forestry industry”. Too often have our workers cited situations where they were asked to go against HSE legislation, yet this is evidently what many contractor businesses are forced into to get/retain work or provide competitive prices.

Without fair treatment of contractors and the capacity available to reach tree-planting targets effectively, the reality is people’s health and safety and their financial stability are compromised. This is simply unacceptable. 

I feel it necessary to share this letter anonymously for fear of reprisal, which is a disappointing reality of everyday life as a tree-planting contractor – which can feel very powerless.

As you discussed in your Letter from the Editor in April this year, we need a collaborative and combined approach to the industry that we work in. If we can’t work together to better ourselves, what is the point?
Regards,
Name and address supplied

DEAR EDITOR,

Just £4 million invested in Alice Holt. If some of the unimaginable amount of money this country spent on the Large Hadron Collider had been diverted to research and prevention of pests and pathogens, then we would not be in the situation we face today.

Equally, if the politicians, civil servants and EU bureaucracy understood disease transmission and funded a proper plant inspectorate, the spread of disease could have been stopped or slowed enough to allow for preventative treatment and cure.
Dr Terry Mabbett has highlighted the problems and possible disappearance of sweet chestnut from this country. Last month, it was Dutch elm disease. We burnt that on site, stripped the bark and sprayed it, routed around controlled zones but never treated the stumps. I cannot understand why not. By preventing suckering, we could have halted the cycle of feeding the beetles fresh trees every 15 years. Hindsight is always 20/20.

When I coppice sweet chestnut I rake the site clear of all brash and burn it. I was taught to expose the stool to as much frost and sunlight as possible to prevent the spread of disease. It worked!

Now we are instructed to stack brash for habitat and dead hedge, leave it lying around, and we must not burn because of air pollution. So diseased timber is left to infect healthy growth.

When you try to explain why some old practices are best, you get told: “You cut for Noah and know nothing about conservation.” I was planting trees, creating wildlife corridors, habitat stacks and clearing scrub off downland for butterflies and wild flowers before that professional student, with six years’ tertiary education, was an amoeba.

I know that coppicing is only a microbe of the forestry industry, but if we don’t get control and eradication of disease then that microbe will disappear. Skilled craftspeople will also disappear; not just cutters but charcoal burners, trug makers, stick makers and turners. Above all, the ecology of coppice, bluebells and foxgloves will all vanish.

In addition, the huge volume of carbon sequestration in the form of stock and post-and-rail fencing will no longer be possible.
Regards,
Martin Charlton

DEAR EDITOR,

The government article in your May 2024 edition refers to (as I see it):
- another expensive meeting
- another photo shoot
- another free meal

So what about 30,000 ha per year of new forest planting?

I suggest that as a result of the rampant ash dieback disease, we have a new deficit of trees growing in the UK. We are going backwards.

With the elections coming up this year, beware of men/women selling ‘snake oil’.

We’ve all been conned before!
Regards
Andy Chalmers