The government is keen to boost the UK’s domestic timber production to reduce the dependence on imports, as global demand for timber is expected to surge over the next decade. When managed and sourced responsibly, timber is a sustainable material and forests can sequester carbon, helping to combat global warming and climate change.
Increasing the domestic supply of timber will allow members of the construction supply chain such as timber frame manufacturers to have a steady supply of raw materials from sustainable sources, without having to rely on imports.
The pressing need for domestic quality wood products
Currently, around 80 per cent of the timber used in the UK is imported. However, prices are expected to rise and availability may become more scarce as other countries seek to boost their use of timber in construction. Currently, about 25 per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions are from the built environment.
Timber can play a key role in helping to decarbonise the sector, because it has lower carbon emissions at every stage of its lifecycle than other widely used types of building material such as concrete or steel. Unlike these materials, timber is also a renewable resource when managed carefully, and it may even be possible to entirely offset the environmental impact.
However, the rate of tree planting projects in the UK needs to be significantly stepped up in order to give the necessary volume of timber yields to reduce the reliance on imports.
New tree breeding programme could bring a breakthrough
The government has announced that after decades of research, a new generation of Douglas fir seed sources have been developed that are specifically suited to British conditions, such as soil types, topography and climate.
Douglas fir has been used for over a century in British forestry, but it is native to North America and is not specifically adapted for our climate. Most of the seed is imported from France or the USA, despite many attempts to develop a domestic strain.
However, a breakthrough has been made as the Conifer Breeding Cooperative has now successfully overcome this obstacle. The seeds will be created through a process of grafting cuttings from superior specimens onto rootstocks, which will then go into seed orchards. The seeds will be available in several years time to supply forest nurseries.
Richard Whittet, Head of Tree Breeding at Forest Research and Chair of the Conifer Breeding Cooperative, said: “We have selected a new generation of Douglas fir trees for breeding, based on their adaptation to the British climate and timber properties which is an important step forward for the resilience of our nation’s trees.”
“This achievement is the result of decades of work by Forest Research and our domestic and international partners. Collaboration has enabled us to get things done on the ground and harness new technologies, such as the low-cost DNA marker array for quality assurance.”
In-built quality control
Furthermore, scientists from Oxford University will take a DNA fingerprint of each tree as a method of quality control, further enhancing the strain of genetically improved British fir trees.
Sir William Worsley, Chair of the Forestry Commission, said: “We are facing a changing climate and biodiversity decline, with trees playing a significant role in mitigating some of the worst impacts.”
“We rely too heavily on timber imports in the UK and if we are to strengthen our own domestic supply then this type of science will play a huge role in the future. Therefore, there has never been a more crucial time to invest in domestic tree-planting”.
Projects such as this will help the UK to increase its tree cover with high-quality and fast growing specimens that will provide excellent building materials. They will also help the UK to increase biodiversity, save on import costs, lower carbon emissions and reduce reliance on imports and non-renewable construction materials.
Eventually, the greater presence of wood in the built environment will help to lock in carbon, and ultimately we may be able to go beyond Net Zero targets and even aim towards carbon negative building design. This means that during the whole lifecycle of the building, more carbon is taken out of the environment than is released into the air.