GRANT SUPPORT FOR FARMERS TRIPLES
In Ireland, Minister for Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten confirmed that Cabinet had approved the increase in payments to grow forestry crops. This increase will result in the overall grant support received by farmers under the Forestry for Fibre scheme rising from €4,250/ha to €11,465/ha over the lifetime of the scheme. It is hoped that the trebling of payments will attract more farmers to take up the opportunity to increase production of renewable energy crops for local commercial heat use under the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat. Read more...
In Ireland, Minister for Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten confirmed that Cabinet had approved the increase in payments to grow forestry crops. This increase will result in the overall grant support received by farmers under the Forestry for Fibre scheme rising from €4,250/ha to €11,465/ha over the lifetime of the scheme. It is hoped that the trebling of payments will attract more farmers to take up the opportunity to increase production of renewable energy crops for local commercial heat use under the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat. Read more...
HIGHLIGHTING THE IMPORTANCE OF FORESTRY
Irish Minister of State with responsibility for Forestry Andrew Doyle recently toured Galway to highlight the importance of the forest industry chain to the local and regional economy in the county.
“With all the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, forestry has proved to be an extremely good choice for some farmers to pursue on the best-use-of-land basis.
The forestry schemes are providing alternative best-use options for farmers in Galway and farmers can choose to diversify their income stream with forestry, which can be financially rewarding as well as helping to mitigate the effects of climate change through natural carbon storage,” he said. Read more...
Irish Minister of State with responsibility for Forestry Andrew Doyle recently toured Galway to highlight the importance of the forest industry chain to the local and regional economy in the county.
“With all the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, forestry has proved to be an extremely good choice for some farmers to pursue on the best-use-of-land basis.
The forestry schemes are providing alternative best-use options for farmers in Galway and farmers can choose to diversify their income stream with forestry, which can be financially rewarding as well as helping to mitigate the effects of climate change through natural carbon storage,” he said. Read more...
IRELAND BEHIND ON TREE PLANTING
A Forestry Programme report says that the country’s tree-planting targets for have been missed. The government believes more tree-planting will go some way to help Ireland meet its 2030 emissions reduction target, which it is on course to miss.
The planting of conifers was increasing up to 2017, at which point planting fell 22% short of its overall target. Total afforestation figures for the years 2015 – 2017 show that overall planting is 7% lower than the target. The shortfall in planting for native woodlands, agroforestry, and forestry for fibre combined was much greater at 74%.
While more traditional forestry has a rotation of approximately 35 to 40 years, the species planted under the Forestry for Fibre scheme have a rotation of up to 15 years. A payment of €510 per hectare is available each year up to the time the plantation is felled.
There has been controversy over delays in payments from the state agency Coillte. The organisation said it would have to regain the trust of landowners who took part in the farm-forest partnership scheme and who went without payments for years.Under the plan, Coillte would plant land with trees and give farmers a cut of the proceeds when the forest was harvested.
The government continually underspent its budget for its afforestation scheme with an underspend of some €22 million during the first three years of the programme. This underspend is being put down to the lower than expected demand from landowners. The allocation for 2018 is €106 million. Read more...
A Forestry Programme report says that the country’s tree-planting targets for have been missed. The government believes more tree-planting will go some way to help Ireland meet its 2030 emissions reduction target, which it is on course to miss.
The planting of conifers was increasing up to 2017, at which point planting fell 22% short of its overall target. Total afforestation figures for the years 2015 – 2017 show that overall planting is 7% lower than the target. The shortfall in planting for native woodlands, agroforestry, and forestry for fibre combined was much greater at 74%.
While more traditional forestry has a rotation of approximately 35 to 40 years, the species planted under the Forestry for Fibre scheme have a rotation of up to 15 years. A payment of €510 per hectare is available each year up to the time the plantation is felled.
There has been controversy over delays in payments from the state agency Coillte. The organisation said it would have to regain the trust of landowners who took part in the farm-forest partnership scheme and who went without payments for years.Under the plan, Coillte would plant land with trees and give farmers a cut of the proceeds when the forest was harvested.
The government continually underspent its budget for its afforestation scheme with an underspend of some €22 million during the first three years of the programme. This underspend is being put down to the lower than expected demand from landowners. The allocation for 2018 is €106 million. Read more...
A BILLION TREE TARGET IN NZ
Applications have opened for the Afforestation Grants Scheme (AGS), which provides $1,300 of Government funding per hectare for new forests between five and 300 hectares.
Collaborative efforts towards the ambitious one billion trees target are under way in NZ. The commercial forestry sector is projected to plant half a billion trees in the next 10 years. Private landowners, government agencies, NGO’s, iwi, regional councils, nurseries and the private sector working hard to plant the other half.
“This will see us go from 55 million trees this year, to 70 million in 2019, to 90 million in 2020. From there we will be aiming for 110 million a year over the next seven years of the programme. said Minister for Forestry Hon.Shane Jones.
“This year, almost 7.3 million trees will be planted through various Ministry for Primary Industries schemes – about half of which will be indigenous species."
“Planting will include both exotics and natives. We want to enable planting of a mix of permanent and harvestable forestry, using both exotic and native tree species on private, public and Maori-owned land. Species include radiata pine, red wood, totara, eucalyptus, Douglas fir and mānuka.
“Forestry is a great choice. It will help landowners to diversify their income, invest in their family’s future and improve productivity – as well as help to play their part in economic development and meeting environmental goals, such as tackling erosion,” Mr Jones said. Read more...
Applications have opened for the Afforestation Grants Scheme (AGS), which provides $1,300 of Government funding per hectare for new forests between five and 300 hectares.
Collaborative efforts towards the ambitious one billion trees target are under way in NZ. The commercial forestry sector is projected to plant half a billion trees in the next 10 years. Private landowners, government agencies, NGO’s, iwi, regional councils, nurseries and the private sector working hard to plant the other half.
“This will see us go from 55 million trees this year, to 70 million in 2019, to 90 million in 2020. From there we will be aiming for 110 million a year over the next seven years of the programme. said Minister for Forestry Hon.Shane Jones.
“This year, almost 7.3 million trees will be planted through various Ministry for Primary Industries schemes – about half of which will be indigenous species."
“Planting will include both exotics and natives. We want to enable planting of a mix of permanent and harvestable forestry, using both exotic and native tree species on private, public and Maori-owned land. Species include radiata pine, red wood, totara, eucalyptus, Douglas fir and mānuka.
“Forestry is a great choice. It will help landowners to diversify their income, invest in their family’s future and improve productivity – as well as help to play their part in economic development and meeting environmental goals, such as tackling erosion,” Mr Jones said. Read more...
TURFED OUT FOR TREES - THE NEXT CLEARANCES IN SCOTLAND?
It was sheep last time... ALMOST 6000 people have signed a petition calling on the Scottish Government to stop giving forestry grants to landowners replacing tenanted farms with trees. The petition calls on Forestry Commission Scotland and Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing, to stop landowners “removing people from farms or demanding they buy or quit” to open the door to being able to claim vast sums of public funding to plant commercial forestry through the Forestry Grant Scheme.
The petition adds: “The Scottish Government is currently promoting the increase of forestry by awarding huge sums of money through the Forestry Grant Scheme. Every farm unit that closes means a loss of livelihood to the tenants, a loss of tenant farmers for Scotland, a loss of farming diversity in a country with the most concentrated pattern of land ownership in the developed world, and a loss of people, skills and trade for fragile rural economies.” Read more...
It was sheep last time... ALMOST 6000 people have signed a petition calling on the Scottish Government to stop giving forestry grants to landowners replacing tenanted farms with trees. The petition calls on Forestry Commission Scotland and Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing, to stop landowners “removing people from farms or demanding they buy or quit” to open the door to being able to claim vast sums of public funding to plant commercial forestry through the Forestry Grant Scheme.
The petition adds: “The Scottish Government is currently promoting the increase of forestry by awarding huge sums of money through the Forestry Grant Scheme. Every farm unit that closes means a loss of livelihood to the tenants, a loss of tenant farmers for Scotland, a loss of farming diversity in a country with the most concentrated pattern of land ownership in the developed world, and a loss of people, skills and trade for fragile rural economies.” Read more...
NOVA SCOTIA
"We know that whenever we do something extra to a log — involving more human effort, tools, and machines—we add value to it." Taylor is head of Taylor Lumber, a family-run business that started out in 1936 with three employees. Over five generations it has grown to employ between 90 and 110 people directly and indirectly through logging operations, a sawmill operation, a planing mill, a chipping plant, a pallet manufacturing plant, and a retail supply store.
“Rather than cutting more trees, we need to cut fewer trees but do more with them,” said Taylor. He said this approach will also employ more people. “Nova Scotia is a small province with a small wood supply. Our focus should be on producing lumber for our local market, building local industry, and keeping jobs here, not for us producing lumber for export.”
Back in 2003, a study about the value-added wood products industry was prepared for the Nova Scotia Community College and funded by Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC) and ACOA. It found that despite the higher revenues generated and job creation potential of the value-added sector, viability has been “threatened” by a number of factors including provincial policies around the use of crown land, the provincial focus on primary manufacturing (pulp), and unsustainable forest harvesting. The report stated that “more roundwood currently being harvested needs to make its way into the supply chain of the value-added wood products industry in Nova Scotia. Instead much of the roundwood is leaving the province to be processed elsewhere or is being converted to very low value-added products.”
Raymond Plourde is the Wilderness Coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre. He doesn’t mince any words when it comes to how he feels about CelluFuel and products like biomass and biofuel. He says we need another “high volume, low value commodity product made from trees…like we need another hole in the head.” He points to centuries of high-grading for lumber and “decades of rampant clear cutting to feed the insatiable pulp and paper industry” (Industry doesn't exist in isolation, there are customers who are driving this demand! CM) and the more recent “high-volume consumptive pressure of big biomass for domestic and foreign electricity generation,” as all leading to the decimation of habitat and the “ever-growing list of endangered forest-dependent wildlife species.” Read more...
"We know that whenever we do something extra to a log — involving more human effort, tools, and machines—we add value to it." Taylor is head of Taylor Lumber, a family-run business that started out in 1936 with three employees. Over five generations it has grown to employ between 90 and 110 people directly and indirectly through logging operations, a sawmill operation, a planing mill, a chipping plant, a pallet manufacturing plant, and a retail supply store.
“Rather than cutting more trees, we need to cut fewer trees but do more with them,” said Taylor. He said this approach will also employ more people. “Nova Scotia is a small province with a small wood supply. Our focus should be on producing lumber for our local market, building local industry, and keeping jobs here, not for us producing lumber for export.”
Back in 2003, a study about the value-added wood products industry was prepared for the Nova Scotia Community College and funded by Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC) and ACOA. It found that despite the higher revenues generated and job creation potential of the value-added sector, viability has been “threatened” by a number of factors including provincial policies around the use of crown land, the provincial focus on primary manufacturing (pulp), and unsustainable forest harvesting. The report stated that “more roundwood currently being harvested needs to make its way into the supply chain of the value-added wood products industry in Nova Scotia. Instead much of the roundwood is leaving the province to be processed elsewhere or is being converted to very low value-added products.”
Raymond Plourde is the Wilderness Coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre. He doesn’t mince any words when it comes to how he feels about CelluFuel and products like biomass and biofuel. He says we need another “high volume, low value commodity product made from trees…like we need another hole in the head.” He points to centuries of high-grading for lumber and “decades of rampant clear cutting to feed the insatiable pulp and paper industry” (Industry doesn't exist in isolation, there are customers who are driving this demand! CM) and the more recent “high-volume consumptive pressure of big biomass for domestic and foreign electricity generation,” as all leading to the decimation of habitat and the “ever-growing list of endangered forest-dependent wildlife species.” Read more...
OREGON FORESTERS FOLLOW RULES
Oregon’s forestland owners are overwhelmingly following regulations aimed at managing and harvesting timber. They had a compliance rate of 97 percent with 57 key rules related to logging, road building and water protection under the Oregon Forest Practices Act, according to a study by the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODFA)
"Minimizing the amount of waste slash in waters of the state had a compliance rate of 76 percent", Paul Clements, ODFA’s training and compliance coordinator said. "Areas of low compliance included leaving vegetation around small wetlands, which may not be readily apparent during the dry season, and a rule requiring landowners to use properly sized culverts on roads crossing streams was only properly followed about half the time", Clements said.
This problem was the subject of a 2013 Supreme Court decision that was favorable to the timber industry — as runoff from culverts wasn’t found to be industrial pollution — but only after years of litigation.
Oregon’s rules for forestry and logging are intended to minimize the effects of disturbances, Clements said. “You can’t go get logs without disturbing something.” Read more...
Oregon’s forestland owners are overwhelmingly following regulations aimed at managing and harvesting timber. They had a compliance rate of 97 percent with 57 key rules related to logging, road building and water protection under the Oregon Forest Practices Act, according to a study by the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODFA)
"Minimizing the amount of waste slash in waters of the state had a compliance rate of 76 percent", Paul Clements, ODFA’s training and compliance coordinator said. "Areas of low compliance included leaving vegetation around small wetlands, which may not be readily apparent during the dry season, and a rule requiring landowners to use properly sized culverts on roads crossing streams was only properly followed about half the time", Clements said.
This problem was the subject of a 2013 Supreme Court decision that was favorable to the timber industry — as runoff from culverts wasn’t found to be industrial pollution — but only after years of litigation.
Oregon’s rules for forestry and logging are intended to minimize the effects of disturbances, Clements said. “You can’t go get logs without disturbing something.” Read more...
