Ben@Forest wrote:reohn2 wrote:I don't know but I'm betting the UK increase in trees is mainly monoculture fast growing spruce for paper we no longer need.
Fast growing conifer is large part of it. Recently you'll have to blame Nicola and the SNP for that, forestry is a far more important part of the Scottish economy than forestry in England is to the English and the Scottish government has been investing in its growth (no pun intended). They've planted thousands of hectares.
https://www.confor.org.uk/news/latest-n ... d-by-2030/But you're wrong, the wood pulp for paper industry in this country is tiny. Poorer quality timber goes far more into chip products, flooring, worktops. Better quality goes into construction, roof trusses, framing and so on.
Of course they grew conifer originally because a huge amount of it went into pit props and other mining uses. There are still specifications for it in timber mensuration guides. So blame the miners.....
I take your point on wood pulp for paper an error on my part.
I'm not blaming anyone,just trying to show that the reforestation of the UK is low quality monoculture fast growing Spruce that's part of the short termism,which is the title of the thread.
BTW most timber for framing and roof trusses comes from Scandinavia which,due to colder higher latitude and shorter growing season is far better quality than UK stock I spent nearly 30 years working with it after I left mining management
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There may well still be specs for pit props but that's all there is as there's none being used in UK mines coz there aren't any left and in any case not many were used in modern automated longwall mining anyway.
That said it doesn't mean the UK stopped using poor quality poor coal though from as far away as Brazil,mined by children as young as 10 and also including orimulsion in our coal fired plants in the UK when the pits were shut back in the 80's and 90's,it was simply cheaper though far,far dirtier than quality deep mined UK coal.
All part of the grand neoliberal capitalist trickle down theory Mrs Thatcher so kindly introduced us to