{"id":634,"date":"2016-04-12T14:41:22","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T14:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/cwst\/?p=634"},"modified":"2020-04-01T09:14:35","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T09:14:35","slug":"grade-in-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/cwst\/grade-in-britain\/","title":{"rendered":"Grade in Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a more up-to-date post on properties see Grade in Britain revisited.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Introduction<\/h1>\n

We looked at British spruce<\/a> in a previous post. \u00a0It is, for the main part, Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis<\/em>) which is the UK’s main commercial species. \u00a0Indeed, a little over one quarter of the total forest area in Great Britain is Sitka.<\/p>\n

Concerns about the resilience of the forest to pests, diseases and climate change mean that we are increasingly looking at other species that we can grow in the UK, and what products they may be useful for. \u00a0One obvious question is: how do these species compare to Sitka spruce, in suitability for structural timber?<\/p>\n

This post forms the background for a presentation at The Institute of Chartered Foresters annual conference on 27-28 April<\/a>. \u00a0Dan Ridley-Ellis will be speaking in session 4 \u201cProcessing for value and profit\u201d with a talk entitled \u201cMaking the grade and maximising the opportunities\u201d\u00a0#ICFTimberCon<\/p>\n

Important: this information is for explanation only – it is not a substitute for reading the relevant codes, standards and other official documents.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Edit January 2019 – you can now read updated information about the grading of spruce, larch and Douglas-fir on the “Grade in Britain revisited<\/a>” blog post.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

What species do we have, and what species should we think more about?<\/h1>\n

Two recent publications from Forestry Commission are very useful for looking at what species we currently have in the GB forest, and what volumes of timber are likely to be available in the future.
\nNational Forest Inventory: 50-year forecast of softwood availability<\/a>
\n<\/span>National Forest Inventory: 50-year forecast of hardwood availability<\/a><\/p>\n

The information on volume is summarised below (see tables 1 and 2, at the bottom of this page, for more detail). \u00a0While there is a lot of standing volume of hardwood species, the available volume is very small compared to softwoods (although this can potentially\u00a0increase eight-fold by 2045). \u00a0The majority of the available\u00a0timber volume available falls into the EN14081-1 species combinations: British spruce (WPCS), British pine (WPNN) and Larch (WLAD) – and most of this is Sitka spruce.<\/p>\n

\"Stocked<\/a>
Figure 1: Stocked area (in Great Britain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Standing<\/a>
Figure 2: Standing volume – over bark volume of wood in the trees (in Great Britain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Available<\/a>
Figure 3: Available volume – the volume of home-grown wood available for use (in Great Britain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We have already worked on these softwood species (species codes as in EN13556:2003):<\/p>\n