Home-grown sawn timber sector bucks recessionary trend

Despite rain and recession, Duchy Timber Limited has seen a really great start to 2013. It’s great to hear that we’re not the only ones!

A log delivery at the Duchy Timber sawmill in Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

The following article comes courtesy of the Timber Trades Journal (TTJ): http://www.ttjonline.com/“The UK softwood sawmilling market is one of few industry sectors to register solid growth in the last few years.” This is according to the Confederation of Forest Industries (Confor). The comment was made by Confor chairman George Webb at the organisation's industry dinner, attended by people including Paul Wheelhouse MSP, Scotland's Minister for Environment and Climate Change.

“Against a background of the current economic climate and outlook, to be increasing wood production and wood conversion, to see continued significant capital investment and see increased exports of value added products, from our sector is very promising,” he said.

Mr Webb told the audience that the UK’s home-grown sawn softwood sector had seen its market share of the overall UK sawn timber sector increase from 20% to 40% during the last five years. But he admitted there remained a “massive challenge” as to how the industry would maintain and increase its output from the resources available.“The lack of commercial conifer planting over the last two decades is very apparent and will reflect significantly on future wood availability.” He said Confor was working on an action plan to tackle this challenge.

Horse Meat Scandal Raises Questions for Timber Industry

The CEO of the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) recently drew inspiration from the food industry to send a warning to TTF members.

If you have been in Europe for the past month or so, you will have almost certainly seen a huge amount of coverage afforded to the discovery of horsemeat masquerading as processed beef. John White, Chief Executive of the TTF took a recent opportunity at the Western Timber Association annual dinner to make the link between the now beleaguered European food industry and the continent’s timber industry.

On Sunday 3^rd March 2013, the most important piece of legislation seen within the timber industry for many years came into effect. The EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) is the European Commission’s attempt to combat illegal logging activities around the globe. By closing off the lucrative European Union to illegal loggers, it is thought that this action alone will begin an unstoppable decline to their activities and better protection of the world’s forests.

Mr White explained: “At its heart, the EUTR is about traceability and knowing that what we are buying is what it is supposed to be,” he said. “And to be frank, we have not always been clear about what's gone into the millions of cubic metres of wood products we import each year. Take plywood - a term that covers many species of timber. Where do they come from? Have we always known? Well the EUTR means we have to.”

The consequences of not taking the EUTR seriously, he said, were clearly laid out in the horsemeat scandal.

“It has meant reputational and financial damage to brands, damage to the processed food industry and ultimately to the food sector as a whole. And for ‘food’, under the EUTR you can just as easily read ‘wood’.”

Mr. White had a very clear message to members of the timber industry who thought that the EUTR would pass them by and that they would ‘get away with it’: “And we have to say to anyone who does not meet the highest standards in terms of traceability and supply chain transparency, membership of the TTF is not for you,” he said. “There is too much at stake for all of us to take any other view.”

At Duchy Timber we are taking the EUTR very seriously and have been taking extra care whilst we prepare for our Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) accreditations during the first quarter of 2013.

David Adam, Managing Director and owner of Duchy Timber said: “The vast majority of the home-grown timber that we process and use in our manufactured products comes from within the Southwest of the UK. In a lot of cases we know the location of the standing timber; we know the land owner and we know the harvesting contractors personally.” Mr. Adam continued: “Also, the imported timber that we buy in our merchanting operation is almost exclusively Scandinavian and is either FSC or PEFC accredited as being from sustainable sources.”

Karl Avery, Duchy Timber’s Commercial Manager is the one responsible for the majority of the company’s large product purchases for wholesale. He said: “We carefully balance the necessity of providing a range of high quality product to our customers, for a competitive price without cutting corners and buying sheets from unsustainable sources. We work closely with our suppliers and in most cases the manufacturer directly so that we can be as confident as we can be that we are compliant with the EUTR.”

To find out more about Duchy Timber go to our website at: www.duchytimber.co.uk

To find out more about the EU Timber Regulation, follow the link to the European Commission’s page on the subject here: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/timber_regulation.htm

Do You Know Where Your Garden Furniture Comes From?

Duchy Timber's log park contains sustainably sourced timber from Cornwall, Devon & Somerset.

With modern global trade and the UK’s abandonment of manufacturing, your garden furniture could come from anywhere. Some places a lot less reputable than others.

Through global industry accreditations such as Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), there are ways for you as a consumer to make a more informed choice when it comes to purchasing your new wooden garden furniture.

Cornwall and Devon benefit from huge areas of woodland and luckily has a well-established forestry and timber industry that can not only sustainably manage these reserves to high standards that are globally-recognised, but can also process that harvested crop into high value products for construction and agriculture as well as your home & garden.

Obviously, timber from your local community, instead of timber that has been shipped thousands of miles around the world, has far better environmental credentials. But local timber is not just better for the environment, it also gives you piece of mind that it is benefiting ancient local industries and trades. Just like the minced beef for your family’s spaghetti Bolognese this Saturday or the milk on your corn flakes this morning; buying local is good for you, your community, the local economy and the environment.

In 1958, the Duchy of Cornwall set up a sawmill at Downend near Lostwithiel. Now owned by a forester with more than twenty years industry experience, the sawmill is now one of the largest in the south west and is the beating heart of Duchy Timber Limited. Duchy Timber garden furniture, gates and fencing products are made from wood that is sustainably felled within Cornwall, Devon and Somerset and are handmade by experienced craftsmen using traditional techniques.

Timber Plays a Role in Self-Building and Property Investments

Watching the most recent, or indeed any, series of Channel Four’s hugely successful Grand Designs, you will see a representation of the huge diversity of building plots available and put to use across the UK. However, there is another kind of investment opportunity available that serves an entirely different purpose.

Programmes like Grand Designs have had a large role to play in creating the insatiable thirst for self-build and establishing one’s future home somewhere that has previously been undeveloped. As a manufacturer and supplier to contractors large and small, Duchy Timber has seen a significant rise in exactly specified orders for our timber products. Coming from architects and their clients, these orders make great use of Duchy Timber’s unique ability to create products exactly to their clients’ specifications.

Earlier this month, Duchy Timber made its second delivery to a project designed and built by a company called Umbazi (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Umbazi/1667173667216 & http://www.twitter.com/Umbazi_Build). Paul and Chris of Umbazi have a unique project that is being built on the cliff-edge in Carbis Bay, near St Ives in Cornwall and they have asked Duchy Timber to supply some aesthetically-pleasing Douglas fir timbers for their client’s timber-framed design.

Glasney Parc, Tremough Campus, Cornwall - Courtesy Midas Group.

In 2007, Midas Construction (http://www.midasgroup.co.uk/) specified locally-grown Cedar cladding for its project on University College Falmouth’s Tremough Campus (also in Cornwall). The cladding covers the student accommodation buildings containing 530 study bedrooms and protects them from the wind and rain coming off Falmouth Bay frequently found in their exposed position.

Ben Law's Woodland Self-build house in West Sussex - Courtesy  http://www.ben-law.co.uk/

One of the greatest projects featured on Grand Designs wasn’t the flashiest, most high-tech or architecturally ground-breaking. In fact, it could be said that this particular project was a regression to simpler times; simpler and more sustainable living. A lot of people have now heard of Ben Law (http://www.ben-law.co.uk/), but it wasn’t always the case.

Ben is a charcoal burner and woodsman in West Sussex. He had lived and worked in a beautiful wood, in a not-so-beautiful leaky caravan and a collection of not-so-temporary Robinson Crusoe-style structures for over a decade. Through his enterprises, Ben managed to gather the necessary funds and a collection of passionate volunteers to put together his dream house in his place of work.

Ben’s grand design raised some very interesting points, not just about the earth-sensitive construction techniques that have permeated throughout the construction industry, but also about the planning and protection of productive woodlands in the UK. As a charcoal burner and coppicer, Ben’s planning application for his luxury abode hinged on his need to be present in the wood 24-hours a day to monitor charcoal production and protect his investment.

The ownership and management of woodland is a hot topic, not least on the property market. It is estimated that on average 100,000 acres of private woodland changes hands every year in the UK and with values rising by as much as 20% over the past two-years, there is increasing demand for woodland acreage.

John Clegg of John Clegg & Co chartered accountants (http://www.johnclegg.co.uk/) recently told the South West Farmer newspaper:

“...in the UK we are supplying just 40 per cent of our domestic requirement of sawn softwood, so at the top end of the market there are investors who see woodlands as a secure home for their money,”

Alistair Bartholomew of Woods4sale.co.uk (http://woods4sale.co.uk/) also told South West Farmer:

“As the market stands currently, most investors in amenity woodland could expect to see a good return over three to five years, this autumn has certainly been very vibrant and woodland is currently bucking the general property trend.”

In the south west of the UK, Duchy Timber can see the effect that increases in timber commodity prices are having on the management, planting, harvesting and quality of the timber being felled locally. The traditions of the company dictate that the standing timber that the company purchases for processing comes from local woodlands. Over the past few years, the company has been able to source all of its round wood needs from within Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. As a result of global price rises, increased availability and maintenance of quality standards can only mean good things for the future health of the entire industry; from standing tree to construction timber or manufactured furniture, landscaping or fencing product.

New Jersey Municipality Chooses Tropical Hardwood over Superior Domestic Product

In the aftermath of hurricane Sandy on the Belmar beach-front  the pilings are all that is left of the boardwalk. Borough Council has been criticized for proposing to use a tropical wood to replace it. / Bob Bielk/Staff photographer

October's Hurricane Sandy destroyed the beach board-walk in the borough of Belmar NJ and the time has come for its reconstruction to be put out to tender. The local government has had to grapple with a common question in public projects requiring a large amount of timber: ‘What species do we use?’

It has come to light that the authority has specified that Ipê (commonly misspelled "epay") be used. Ipê is native to Florida, but is commercially imported into the US from South America and is not a sustainable product. Jeff Tittel, the director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club said to Dan Radel of Asbury Park Press: “Using this wood impacts critically and environmentally important rainforest and adds greenhouse gases, increasing climate disruption,”

Tabebuia trees (the species that give us Ipê wood) typically grow in densities of only one or two trees per acre. Therefore, large areas of forest must be searched and cut down to create paths to harvest.

The use of Ipê for this kind of project in the United States began in the 1960's and continues to this day. In 2009, Wildwood NJ (about 100-miles south of Belmar) rebuilt a three-block section of their board-walk out of Ipê at a cost of $4 million (£2.46 million), part of a 10-year, $10 million (£6.15 million) total refurbishment. The Wildwood authorities highlighted the same reasons as Belmar for choosing Ipê over more sustainable timber or another material.

After receiving the originally specified Black Locust timber for the project in 2008, Mayor of Wildwood, Ernie Troiano, Jr. said to Lauren Suit of the Cape May County Herald: “What we got was horrible. Absolutely terrible and there was still bits of bark on it. There was no way we were comfortable using that wood to rebuild...Ipê was available and we had to move on it.” He was also not open to waiting for the Black Locust supplier to replace the poor quality timber: “We would never make the Easter opening,” he said. “I couldn’t do that to the piers and all the businesses up there.” As in Cornwall, tourism is a massive contributor to the economy of the New Jersey coastal resorts. One can understand his eagerness to complete the build before the peak season arrived, but surely there needs to be a longer term consideration for the environment and for the useful life of the finished structure.

An interesting comment was received on Lauren Suit’s article from 2008 from a local business owner: “I have a sawmill in the area, and suggested New Jersey’s own White Oak, local wood, local sawyers make money, less transit.” Now, obviously this person has a stake in their local forestry industry, but surely they have a point! We would certainly have the same view in Devon and Cornwall; not only is the delivery distance reduced to almost nothing (low log miles), but the timber is also acclimatised to local weather conditions.

Both these New Jersey projects also considered (and were recommended) the use of Robinia pseudoacacia, or ‘Black Locust’ timber. This hardwood is native to the south-eastern United States (minimising log miles), is one of the heaviest and hardest woods in North America, is naturally resistant to rot and can have a useful service life of 100 years in contact with the ground. The trees are also fast growing, making it ideal for forestry into the future and is a highly prized biomass fuel, as it burns slowly, with little visible flame or smoke, and has a higher heat content (comparable to anthracite) than any other species that grows as widely in the eastern United States.

Mr. Tittel of the Sierra Club also said of the Belmar project: “The municipality should also look at using salvaged wood, especially in the wake of Hurricane Sandy”.

COURTESY Tom Lozinski: Aerial kite shot of Belmar.

Dan Radel of Asbury Park Press got Mayor of Belmar Matthew Doherty on record saying that he is aware of the environmental impact, but contends that the borough is doing its due diligence on the product: “We’d only purchase it if we could find it from a sustainable or renewable source”.

With a really viable natural domestic alternative available, not to mention all the man-made possibilities that are near to having closed-loop lifecycles and have inordinately long service lives... Surely, tropical hardwood really can't be the way to go!

What do you think? Are you a local member of the New Jersey forestry industry? Do you work for a local sawmill in New Jersey? Are you a local resident affected by Hurricane Sandy? Do you work for one of the contractors?

Continue the conversation! You can read and comment on Dan Radel’s article: “Belmar faces criticism over tropical hardwood in boardwalk reconstruction” here: http://www.app.com/article/20121218/NJNEWS/312180096?nclick_check=1

Dan is also on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DanielRadelAPP

The New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club is also on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NJSierraClub

You can also read and comment on the 2008 article from the Cape May County Herald here: http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/article/38282-wildwood-opts-ipe-wood-over-black-locust-boardwalk-construction

Down at the Sawmill

We had a really busy day at the Duchy Timber sawmill at Lostwithiel yesterday! We had a visit from the Tweet Bus and their very cute puppy Ticket!

We took them on a tour of the sawmill and thought that this was the ideal opportunity to knock something together and show you part of the processing that we do on our site in Cornwall. It's your chance to take a look at a piece of wood just at the beginning of its journey from the plantation to a piece of decking, cladding or even an item of garden furniture!

Go on, take a look and let us know what you think!
View the Video here

Duchy Timber Develop a New Home Grown Garden Furniture Range for 2013 (Part One)

Duchy Timber is an established timber manufacturing and merchanting business and we have an equally established range of products for our various markets and customers.

We have been producing quality garden furniture made from timber felled in the south west of the UK for years. It’s a concentrated range that includes picnic tables, benches, seats and a large dining table. We felt that we could expand the range by complimenting the existing items and designing new ones and, as a result, increase the demand for locally grown timber and the value added in the south west region.

It was with much interest that we noted the contents of a recent timber industry report commissioned by the Forestry Commission entitled “Opportunities to Add Value to South West Home Grown Timber – Analysing the BusinessCase”. In it, the consultants identified that:

“The best opportunities for processing more of the potentially available roundwood in the SW is to encourage and support the existing sawmills to increase production by expanding their existing markets and improving or developing new product lines.” (Forestry Commission England & South West Woodland Renaissance Partnership, 2011).[i]

This conclusion is in harmony with Duchy Timber’s strategy of adding value to home grown timber and with this call to action ringing in our ears, we got to work in 2012 concentrating on developing our value-added products, specifically our garden furniture range.

Duchy Timber Companion Seat.

In October 2012 we brought in joiner and 3D Design graduate Ian Reveley to the carpentry shop and briefed him to create a range of new pieces based on existing construction methods and the materials already available in the yard. Over the next couple of months Ian set to and created almost 30 pieces for consideration, testing and development. 

As Ian built up this large range of pieces, management and marketing were on hand to give their opinions and to make suggestions for further developments. We also sought the advice of one of our distributors; Sustainable Furniture. Some of the early pieces went through several generations of production until all involved were happy to release them onto a wider audience. Through the several generations it was clear that we were going to end up with three distinct lines within our product range. Some of the new pieces augmented our current range, the majority of them were entirely new, but fell into two very distinctive styles.

At the end of November 2012 we devised a score sheet for colleagues across the company and asked as many of them as possible to mark each item on five simple scoring points.

Guys from the yard marking the furniture prototypes.

Once we had received a good number of responses from across the company, we decided not to pursue the least popular products and by doing so ended up with a solid 13 items. These remaining pieces will go on into the next stage of our process: materials & labour cost analysis.

Stay tuned to Duchy Timber’s Blog to find out what happens next! Alternatively, go to our website to find out more about the company and its current products.

[i] Forestry Commission England & South West Woodland Renaissance Partnership (2011) Opportunities to Add Value to South West Home Grown Timber – Analysing the Business Case. Bristol: Forestry Commission.