Wednesday 29th February 2012 at Uncllys Farm, Worcestershire

The growing demand for firewood provides economic opportunities to manage native woodlands for income and to bring previously under managed woodland into sustainable management.

This half day event will demonstrate multi purpose woodland management for woodfuel and biodiversity and show how woodfuel can have wider environmental benefits beyond just being a renewable heating fuel.   The event is aimed at woodland owners and managers and will be held at Uncllys Farm, Bewdley in the Wyre Forest . The event will be based in the woodland with a discussion session with lunch and refreshments back at Uncllys Farm.

The event will focus on the following aspects:

• Practical low impact machinery demonstration including tractor based forwarding, mini forwarder and tractor and winch options.
• Discussion on managing woodlands for Biodiversity and income
• Timber species and properties and markets
• Firewood Markets
• Access and Harvesting Considerations
• Heartwoods—Woodland Support Schemes Available

The event costs £5.00 which includes refreshments and is targeted at Woodland Owners and Managers.

For more information or to book your place please contact the Heartwoods office on 01952 435860

or alternatively email info@heartwoods.co.uk

For more information click here

Thursday 23rd February 2012 at the Carpenters Shop, Whitfield Estate, Wormbridge, Herefordshire

This half day event, held in conjunction with Pryor & Rickett will be a practical demonstration in Woodland Management at  the Whitfield Estate at Wormbridge, Herefordshire. The event  is designed to inform the woodland owner how woodlands can be managed economically for wood fuel.

It will focus on the following aspects:

• Harvesting and Marketing
• Practical Machinery Demonstration
• Woodland Access Issues
• Timber Species and Properties
• Markets for Wood Fuel
• Practical Estate Woodland Management
• Woodfuel and self supply
• Funding support available
• How Heartwoods can assist West Midlands Woodland Owners

Graham Taylor from Pryor and Rickett Silviculture will lead the day with opportunities to network with other woodland owners and organisations.

The event costs £7.00 which includes lunch and refreshments and is targeted at woodland owners and contractors based within the West Midlands.

For more information or to book your place please contact the Heartwoods office on 01952 435860

or alternatively email info@heartwoods.co.uk

Wednesday 15th February 2012 Wood Farm, Staffordshire

This half day event will demonstrate to woodland owners and managers the options available for small scale and low impact timber extraction methods along with considerations such as timber presentation for extraction.

The event provides an excellent opportunity to meet industry experts to discuss opportunities for your woodlands and network with other landowners and woodland managers along with practical demonstration of all the equipment in a woodland environment.

There will be demonstrations of the following equipment:

• Alstor 8×8 mini forwarder
• Compact tractor and skidding winch
• ATV and logging arch
• Horse logging
• Firewood processor
• Tractor mounted tree planter
• Advice on practical timber extraction
• Discuss access and harvesting considerations
• Provide information on available support schemes

The event costs £5.00 which includes refreshments and lunch and is targeted at woodland owners and managers within the West Midlands.

For more information or to book your place please contact the Heartwoods office on 01952 435860

or alternatively email info@heartwoods.co.uk

metnet the (Marches Environmental Technology Network) provided an event for Farmers and Landowners in Herefordshire on Wednesday 7 December at the Hereford Racecourse: 12 noon – 7.30pm.

This was an ideal opportunity for farmers and landowners to find out more about the range of alternative technologies available to them for energy production, subsequent cost savings and potential for income generation.

Sir Ben Gill CBE opened and chaired the event. Former president of the NFU, Sir Ben is actively involved on the Marches LEP Board, works with a range of FSTE 100 companies,  and in 2005 chaired the Government’s Biomass Task Force producing a comprehensive set of recommendations to improve the uptake of biomass as a renewable energy source.

Delivered in association with Heartwoods the event featured presentations covering hydro power, biomass, solar and wind power and anaerobic digestion.   The presentations can be viewed by clicking on the links below:

Hydropower – David Williams, British Hydropower

Planning Considerations – Debby Klein, Herefordshire Council (Presentation available upon request)

Biomass & Renewable Heat Incentive – Nick Maskery, Heartwoods

Anaerobic Digestion – John Davies, E & J Solutions

Community Cooperative Financing Projects – Jon Halle, Sharenergy

Renewable Heat Incentives & Tariff Tax Implications – Whittingham Riddell

Solar & Wind – Caplor Energy Ltd

This half day event, being held in conjunction with the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) will provide an opportunity for woodland owners to find out about the new Forestry Commission Woodfuel Woodland Improvement Grant.  It will provide detail on how the grant can be used to support woodland planning and infrastructure costs and advise woodland owners on the financial viability of the harvesting process.

For further information please click here.

To book a place please contact the Heartwoods office on 01952 435860 or email info@heartwoods.co.uk

The event is aimed at woodland owners based within the West Midlands.

Ten million more trees will be cut down each year in woodlands across England under a government plan to persuade thousands of homes and businesses to install wood-burning stoves and boilers.

Woodland owners across the country will be encouraged to fell more than a third of trees from dense forests to feed the growing market for wood fuel. The Forestry Commission has calculated that more than 2 million additional tonnes of wood could be stripped from England’s forests each year without undermining their long-term future. This would treble the amount of wood being burnt as fuel by 2020.

It says thinning dark woodlands by taking out smaller trees will bring light back to the forest floor, helping to revive bluebells and other flowers and enticing back endangered birds. The commission will publish a plan today to harvest enough additional wood to heat the equivalent of 250,000 homes or 3,000 schools. This would save 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by avoiding the burning of gas and oil.

The plan says that more than half of England’s 1.2 million hectares of woodland is “undermanaged”, meaning the owner is extracting few, if any, trees. In many cases woodlands have been left untouched for decades and have become choked by too many trees competing for space and light.

Woodland owners will be able to apply for a share of a £10 million fund to help them build access roads for cutting equipment. The plan acknowledges that owners will harvest trees only if there is a market for them, but the commission predicts that demand will leap after next months’s launch of the Renewable Heat Incentive.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change will encourage thousands of homeowners and businesses to burn wood by offering them guaranteed payments for every unit of heat generated. The number of homeowners installing wood-burning stoves has already doubled in the past five years to more than 160,000 a year.

Ian Tubby, the commission’s policy officer, said many more people would be willing to switch from burning fossil fuels to wood if they could count on a regular local supply.

“We will be demonstrating to woodland owners that there is a growing market for their wood that is presently just standing there unmanaged, with the canopy shading out other wildlife. Also, land owners will be encouraged to plant more woodlands if they see there is a healthy and sustainable market.”

He said most of the 10 million additional trees that would be felled each year under the plan would have trunks of less than 30cm (12in) in diameter. Bigger, older trees would usually be left standing.

Justin Mumford, a chartered forester who helps to manage the Arthingworth Estate in Northamptonshire, said that thinning dense woods resulted in rapid improvements in the diversity of wildlife.

His company removed a third of the trees last year in one neglected section of broadleaf woodland, where there was nothing growing on the forest floor and birdsong was rarely heard.

“This year it has come back to life with a carpet of bluebells and several bird species, including spotted flycatchers, willow tits and wood warblers.”

The commission’s plan is supported by a group of 13 conservation charities including the RSPB, Woodland Trust and Friends of the Earth.

They said in a joint statement: “Given properly regulated and certified forestry practices, there is no reason to believe that woodland conservation need be in conflict with attaining this ambitious target for an increase in wood fuel production.

“Indeed, the careful management of native woodland may bestow many conservation benefits for woodland birds, butterflies and plants and is very much in keeping with the history of much of our ancient woodland as places that provide fuel and raw materials for local use.”

Biomass heating: a guide to small log and wood pellet systems http://www.biomassenergycentre.org.uk/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/BEC_TECHNICAL/BEST%20PRACTICE/36491_FOR_BIOMASS_1.PDF

 Biomass heating: a guide to medium scale wood chip and wood pellet systems http://www.biomassenergycentre.org.uk/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/BEC_TECHNICAL/BEST%20PRACTICE/37821_FOR_BIOMASS_2_LR.PDF

 Biomass heating: a guide to feasibility studies http://www.biomassenergycentre.org.uk/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/BEC_TECHNICAL/BEST%20PRACTICE/38215_FOR_BIOMASS_3_LR.PDF

 The guides are technical and aimed at buildings managers, surveyors, developers and others who are in a position to help make decisions about how buildings are heated. The guides do not discuss grants, incentives or policy but instead aim to increase the technical knowledge of the reader and help them evaluate the suitability of their site for biomass heating before bringing in external consultants. We hope that the work will also help the reader evaluate the quality of work provided by consultants during any further feasibility/system design work that is under taken. The work builds on guides produced by the Carbon Trust. The work was funded by DECC and FC Scotland with technical input from Defra and Hetas. Most of the technical information was complied by David Palmer, an independent engineer with lots of experience with woodfuel systems, mainly in Scotland. David also works with the Carbon Trust so the approach adopted by the guides compliments rather then contradicts existing information. Early drafts of the guides were reviewed by industry via the REA.

Once again the event was captured by Reach 22.  And the individual presentations, along with the question and answer session can be viewed here.

Making Woodlands Pay Event - 23rd May

All of the events presentations were captured on camera by Reach 22, a Lantra funded project in the West Midlands.  You can watch the presentations at the following link http://heartwoods.reach22.com

If you would like further information on the RHI or would like to find out how Heartwoods can help you please contact the office on 01952 435860 or email info@heartwoods.co.uk

The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is planned for launch April 2011 to provide financial assistance to generators of renewable heat, and producers of renewable biogas and biomethane.

Renewable Heat Incentive on the DECC website

Details of the RHI released 10th March 2011

The scheme will be introduced in two phases.

In the first phase, long-term tariff support will be targeted in the non-domestic sectors, at the big heat users – the industrial, business and public sector – which contribute 38% of the UK’s carbon emissions. Under this phase there will also be support of around £15 million for households through the Renewable Heat Premium Payment.

The second phase of the RHI scheme will see households moved to the same form of long-term tariff support offered to the non-domestic sector in the first phase. This transition will be timed to align with the Green Deal which is intended to be introduced in October 2012.

Key aspects of the first (2011) phase of the RHI

• Only non-domestic installations will be supported
• The first phase of the RHI will not include deeming: payments will be based on metered heat
• Support for biomass will be broken down into size class: Small biomass (<200 kW_th) medium biomass (>200 kW_th – 1 MW_th) and large biomass (>1 MW_th).
• For small and medium scale biomass there will be a tariff breakpoint at 1314 peak load hours p.a. Below this small biomass will receive 7.6p/kWh, and medium biomass will receive 4.7p/kWh, while above this both will receive 1.9p/kWh. Large biomass receives a flat rate of 2.6p/kWh

BEC RHI Calculator
An Excel Spreadsheet based calculator from the Biomass Energy Centre to allow the RHI payments and savings from a (non-domestic) woodfuel boiler installation to be estimated. (478 kB)