Scottish Forestry - Managing storm damaged trees

Windblow advice to owners of small woodlands

This page provides advice and information on what needs to be considered when assessing, harvesting and replacing woodland that has been damaged by storms. It's aimed at owners of small woodlands and those who may have limited experience with dealing with windblown trees.

A professional forester or woodland management company can help you to:

ensure you've the required licenses and permission
secure a market, harvesting contractors and haulage
consider whether certification is appropriate to help you access markets
plan how you'll restock the harvested area

The Institute of Chartered Foresters and Confor (The Confederation of Forest Industries) can help direct woodland owners to professionals who offer consultancy, forest management and timber harvesting services.

How much timber has been windthrown and where is it?

The UK Forest Research agency will continue to monitor and map major windthrow via satellite observation but understanding the extent and distribution of windblow damage is critical to effective management. Windblown trees will require a Felling Permission unless covered by other exemptions. This data is collated as it is processed by the Conservancies, but you can help by providing better quality data – guidance is available on the Felling Permissions for windblow webpage.

Safety first

Landowners are responsible for taking reasonable steps to ensure the safety of those working in, walking across or otherwise visiting their land.

Landowners and farmers should engage experienced professionals with the relevant training to assess and clear windthrow whatever the severity or size of the area involved.

The Forest Industry Safety Accord (FISA): Managing Health and Safety in Forestry guidance explains the responsibilities of landowners and others involved in forestry operations.

Windthrown trees under tension and compression behave very differently to standing trees when cut and the resultant forces can be violent and rapid when released. Working with chainsaws amongst windblown trees requires a very high level of technical competency which is held by professionals with appropriate training, experience and the correct clothing and equipment. The Health and Safety Executive website provides forestry specific information on health and safety.

Chainsaw operations should be kept to a minimum. Mechanised harvesting is much safer though still requires competent machine operators and it may not be economically viable in the smallest woodlands.

Assess the affected areas from a safe vantage point or consider using a drone to provide a greater level of accuracy on the scale and location of the impact.

Deal first with those trees that present the greatest hazard. A priority will be creating safe access for those clearing trees and repairing and/or securing fences for stock.

Reopening public access for amenity and recreation may be a pressure point, but this cannot be at the expense of safety.

Regulations

In Scotland, felling permission is needed for clearing windthrown trees, unless the situation meets exemption criteria (Felling Permissions for windblow), do not harvest trees until you've applied for and secured the relevant permissions and/or licenses.

Please note, in England it's often easier to apply for the area as a whole. Markets for timber will also need evidence of legal harvesting.

Permission is needed from the local authority (council) for traffic management to permit the safe felling of roadside trees, to create new access points onto the public road network and for the construction of internal forest roads. You can read the 'Timber transport' section below for more information.

Licenses are needed for work than may disturb:

Markets for timber

As well as securing a felling license or permission, you should also have identified a market for specific products (species, sizes) and organised the transport resources before you harvest. There may be scope to liaise with other local landowners to collaborate on timber harvesting and marketing.

Sawmills and other wood processors are keen to recover the timber arising from the storms and the aim should be to maximise the value. Windblown trees still attached to their root plates will not degrade immediately but some species will lose value more quickly than others.

A significant proportion of the windthrown timber is Scots Pine which rapidly develops a fungal blue stain in warm weather. Blue-stained pine is unsuitable for most sawn timber markets so, where possible, harvesting and marketing pine (rather than spruce) should be the priority. Wood-based panels, wood pellets, woody biomass (woodchips/woodfibre) and firewood markets are less exacting and are able to utilise the full range of products arising from the windblow over an extended period.

There may be opportunities to sell smaller amounts of hardwoods, and conifers such as larch and Douglas fir, into more specialist markets. The Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers and the Scottish Furniture Makers Association both have membership lists which can identify potential local buyers. In the Sotuh of Scotland, Cumbria Woodlands can provide information on local small scale processors.

Woodland certification and quality assured timber

Like in farming, many markets for wood require assurance that the timber has come from sustainable forest management. In the UK this woodland certification is provided through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Many wood processors must ensure a large proportion of their roundwood intake is certificated against either one of these two schemes. Capacity to take uncertified wood will be limited. Certification must be gained prior to any felling and marketing of the timber and does involve cost and take time.

Not all markets need certified timber. Some local mills and biomass and firewood markets will take all legally harvested timber that have the correct felling permissions/licenses in place. Take advice on whether certification is likely to help secure access to higher value markets. If you are selling fuelwood directly to consumers, Woodsure can provide information on woodfuel assurance requirements.

Timber transport

In Scotland and northern England, regional timber transport groups work closely with local authorities to manage timber traffic on public roads. The Timber Transport Forum’s agreed routes maps show the routes where liaison with the local authority is needed. Visit the Timber Transport Forum website or contact us for more information.

Loading timber onto lorries directly from the public road is not advised and should only be undertaken as a last resort. If necessary, it requires permissions from the local authority. New or improved accesses onto the public road to reach windthrown stands will require relevant permissions and/or planning consent. Visit Timber Transport Forum website for more information.

Restocking

The Scottish Forestry 'Felling permission for wind blow' web page will normally include a condition to replant the woodland area. The application for permission or license should be accompanied by mapped information on:

the location of the area being harvested or cleared
the type of restocking
the species of tree to be used for restocking
the restocking density or the number of trees to be replanted in the felling area

The UK Forest Standard (chapter 5) sets out the issues to consider when restocking harvested areas. There's grant support for areas restocked under a Forest Management Plan. The Farm Advisory Service provides some advice on restocking but you may want to take professional advice in preparing a Forest Management Plan.

Pests and diseases

It’s not wise to leave large areas of wind-snapped or windblown trees in a forest for too long as this invites a pest and disease problem which could spread to nearby healthy woodlands and forests.

Managing storm damaged trees